spartans_in_darkness

"FOP SE6RE'FH60MIN'FH)E1
troops from the U.S. First Infantry Division reinforced
the South Vietnamese. For ten days the
communists kept up their assaults; one bayonet
charge was beaten off using artillery pieces firing
special antipersonnel rounds known as "beehives."
The communists abandoned the attacks;
almost 900 North Vietnamese were killed.
(8//81) The biggest border fight, which
occurred in the Central Highlands, started at
about the same time. Since the beginning of
October, there were SIGINT indications of
communist forces concentrating in Kontum
Province." On 21 October, analvsts at the 330th
Radio Research Company at Pleiku intercepted
the short messages that were the signature of a
communist intelligence unit moving in the hills
west of Dak To in Kontum Province. Within the
next week, the analysts were marking up their
maps with the movements of four Main Force
PAVN regiments, the 32th, 66th, 174th, and the
24th, as they took up positions in Western
Kontum Province." Westmoreland had only one
U.S battalion in the area. Eventually, as the battle
was joined, nine more U.S battalions from the 4th
Infantry Division and the 173rdAirborne Brigade,
along with six ARVNbattalions, were committed.
(S//SI) By mid-November, the battle centered
on Hill 875, where over 2,000 air sorties,
including 300 by B-52s, flattened communist
positions before being overrun by a U.S. ground
assault. By Thanksgiving it was over. Communist
casualties numbered about 1,600, while almost
300 Americans died. The SIGINT tip-off had
proved important: communist prisoners had
claimed that their plans to engage American units
individually had been upset by their rapid arrival
I
in the battlefield. Everyone was pleased with the
SIGINT support·1
J_------
(U) The border battles were military failures
for the North Vietnamese, at least according to
conventional military criteria of casualties suffered
and failure to achieve tactical objectives."
But more was lost by the communists. During the
fighting, American troops had captured a cache of
documents near Dak To containing orders and
directives from the PAVN B-3 Front Command
(Central Highlands) concerning the 1967 Winter­
Spring Campaign. Four objectives for the fighting
were listed:
OGA
• To annihilate a major U.S. unit in order to
force the enemy to deploy more troops ...
• To improve [PAVN] troop combat techniques
...
• To destroy an enemy unit and liberate an area
and strengthen the base area ...
• To effect close coordination of battles
throughout South Vietnam ... .7 5
(V) A trooper ofthe 173rd Airborne
Brigqde near Dak To
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