2 May '70:Deeper into Cambodia

2 May '70

2-47th Mech.:

Lt.Col. Claybrooks (CO) gave his tac order to his officers:They were to continue north through rubber plantations until reaching Route 7,which ran west to east.Then he geathered his gear to board the C&C Huey from the 1st Cav. inbound to their grassey laager.
As the battalion task force rolled north, with C/2-47 Mech. and several tanks from A/2-34 Armor on point, they occasionally came under RPG and AK-47 fire. In those initial days across the border, before the units spread out and assets became strained, all a commander had to do was pick up his radio handset and Broncos and Phantoms would appear almost instantly. Each mini-ambush was thus saturated with bombs and napalm as the tanks and tracks broke contact and kept pushing tword the highway. When the C&C Huey was going to return to Vietnam to refuel, Major Weeks, the battalion operations officer,commented to Claybrook,"This is bullshit.I can't figure out what's going on from up here."Maj. Weeks was dropped off on the road.
He was sitting atop an APC behind the lead company when the point vehicles, crossing a sun-blasted clearing, came under heavy fire at two hundred meters from the opposing rubber tree line. Weeks picked up his radio to talk with Captain Kaldi of C Company: "Shoot until nothing moves."His own TC put long bursts from his .50-cal into the rubber trees, and Weeks had to holler at him to knock it off so he could be heard over the radio. At his direction, the jets flashed in again with silver napalm cannisters, and fireballs streamed through the rubber trees.
The NVA fire ceased.A reporter who had been riding on the back of Weeks's track had disappeared at the first shot, and, in no mood to wait for him, Weeks told his driver to get moving again. In the rubber trees they passed a string of NVA who'd been burned to death while crouched in their slit trench. Armed combatants were not the only victums of 2-47 Mech's liberal use of firepower that day. This area had been considered so secure that NVA support troops had apparently brought their families, for the bodies of women and children were discovered in the charred thatch hootches.

2-11 ACR:

Day Two of Cambodia was for the Blackhorse Regiment a drive in the country compared to D-Day, and their link-up with the 3rd Brigade,ARVN Airborne Division, was made all the more simple by the fact that neither element was in contact. However, after passing through the ARVN Airborne,Lt.Col. Brookshire's 2nd Squadron,11th Armored Cav.,rolled into a minor scrape and called in their abundant firepower with disasterous results.A U.S. Cobra gunship and a USAF Bronco observation plane collided over the jungle. The gunship pilot and his copilot, if not killed instantly, rode their machine to their deaths on impact with the jungle, but the two forward air controllers had parachutes and the adviser aboard the C&C Huey of the ARVN Airborne watched the two parachutes descend into the trees.The ARVN advisor made an attempt at a rescue but was forced to abort when he recieved heavy fire from the area.
Col. Brady of the 1st Cav. Div. Arty piloted his Huey into a small clearing about fifty feet from one of the parachutes while two Cobra fire teams placed continuous suppressive fire in a complete circle around his landing site.One of the observers was found hanging in his lines directly above an NVA bunker which may or may not have been occupied;they had not paused to check.His legs had been severed below the knees-probably by the main rotor of the gunship-and his blood loss was just too great.He died in route to an aid station.The body of the other observer was later recovered in similar condition.

3-11 ACR:

The troops of M Co. recieved fire from a lone NVA who ducked into a bunker.After the bunker was distroyed,they found and followed a como wire which led to a to a weapons cache.This was a two-hundred-cubic-foot series of pits loaded with NVA rockets, mines, and mortar rounds and covered with a bamboo mat camoflaged with dirt and leaves.Dozens of other caches were found by elements of the Blackhorse in the vicinity.They were blown in place.

[MORTARDUDE]

Hal :

Thanks for posting this info. You, me and Sid were all very close to each other during this period.

Larry

Larry-

See part I.