Just Another Day in Vietnam by Keith Nightingale;

Author:Keith Nightingale; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Vietnam War
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2019-10-18T21:00:00+00:00

26

The Ambush

Throughout the day, reports of the Ranger contact had filtered into the 11th Armored Cavalry Blackhorse base camp. The organization, captured by the intensity of its own operations in the area, paid scant attention to spot reports as it wrestled with the management of its own problems. Two squadrons were spread throughout the area of operations and required constant attention.

The cavalry operations were generated in the same haste as the Ranger insertion and for the same purpose—to take advantage of immediate information that indicated an opportunity to catch and crush a major communist unit before it was positioned to react. Two squadrons were dispatched to the west and north with great haste, sweeping the flank areas of War Zone D hoping to entrap support elements and add strength to the Ranger direct strike.

The squadron that normally operated in the Xuan Loc area was spread to the north and east of the Ranger area in locations long familiar to it. Troops, cross-attached into tank and ACAV packages, rolled into familiar working areas and began sweeping the open farmland and occupying villages along the lines of drift leading into War Zone D.

A second squadron, transiting from the southern portion of III Corps back to its home base had been halted at the juncture of Highway One and Highway 20. It rested in several laager positions among the dappled shade of Don Dien de Catachoucs, the largest single rubber plantation in Vietnam. Though unfamiliar with the operational area, the squadron commander had organized his forces to work north along the highway and to act as a pincher force should the Rangers establish significant contact.

The elements of this squadron were separated into four packages. One was conducting road sweep operations between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa. A second was still moving through Bien Hoa to join the main force to the east. The third and fourth elements were spread across the road junction between Highway One and Highway 20 seeking shade from the increasingly tortuous sun. One of these shaded units, K Troop, occupied the northwest quadrant of the road junction and was closest to the Rangers.

For most of the morning, K Troop had established itself in the cool dappled cover of the towering rubber trees. ACAVs had spread themselves between the trees arcing their vehicles between each major highway. The tanks had interspersed themselves between the ACAVs. A maintenance crew had occupied the clearing at the road junction and spent the morning fixing vehicles. The key tasks were in replacing broken main gun hydraulic units in the tanks and broken torsion bars on the ACAVs.

Directly across the road to the east of K Troop, a 155mm battery had emplaced itself. It occupied an area that had been cleared of trees by the Rome plows in anticipation of establishing an ARVN military outpost. The plows had windrowed the fallen rubber trees perpendicular to Highway 20 to a height over a man’s head. Mixed throughout the debris were chunks of concrete and barbed wire, remnants of a parallel French strategy.

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