The FReeper Foxhole Revisits Remembering Con Thien/Operation Buffalo - Jan. 3, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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Con Thien

A PLACE OF ANGELS



A mud-covered hill, 158 meters in height, anchoring the northeast corner of Leatherneck Square, the quadrilateral of Marine combat bases – Gio Linh, Dong Ha, Cam Lo and Con Thien – South of the DMZ (demilitarized zone), Con Thien loosely translated means “place of angels” of “hill of angels.” But no angels were in evidence there during the terrible summer and fall of 1967 when the base came under heavy ground and artillery attack by the invading North Vietnamese Army (NVA).


Con Thien is North up 1A from Hue

Situated less than two miles from the DMZ, elements of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, nervously eyed the hostile terrain in front of their perimeter at Con Thien. The date was May 8, 1967.



At approximately 0300, the all-too-familiar sound of a flare popping broke the eerie silence. Soon, the surrounding landscape was bathed in an artificial light, giving the battlefield a surrealistic touch. Suddenly, the deafening roar of rockets stabbed the night air, and the Marines dove for any available cover to escape injury. As the artillery fell, NVA units jockeyed to prepare a ground assault on the compound. Armed with flamethrowers and using Bangalore torpedoes, two NVA battalions managed to breach the wire. It was the first reported use of flamethrowers by the enemy since American troops had engaged NVA regulars. Company D was hit extremely hard and the leathernecks were engaged in hand-to-hand fighting as a platoon from the 11th Engineers raced into the line to plug the gap. After desperate fighting that lasted until dawn, the defenders were able to repel the attackers.


M-48 carrying dead and wounded

During the firefight, Lance Cpl. Michael P. Finley, a grenadier with Company A, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, vaulted from his position and accurately lobbed two rounds from his M-79 “blooper,” destroying an enemy machine-gun emplacement. Despite being wounded, he dashed to another Marine’s aid. After finishing with him, he raced to administer medical treatment to his mortally wounded squad leader. Killed in the attempt, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the nation’s second-highest medal for bravery. When the attack ended, 44 Marines had been killed and 110 wounded. The NVA lost 197 killed and 8 captured. Why had the enemy pressed so hard at Con Thien – an undersized knoll a “stone’s throw” from the DMZ? What was so important here?

Burdened with construction of the strongpoint obstacle system, pejoratively called “McNamara’s Line” by the Marines, Con Thien overlooked enemy supply routes from the north and its capture would constitute an enemy foothold in Quang Tri province. As Colonel Richard B. Smith, commanding officer of the 9th Marines, put it: “Con Thien was clearly visible from the 9th Marines Headquarter on the high ground at Dong Ha 10 miles away, so good line-of-sight communications were enjoyed. Although Con Thien was only 160 meters high, it tenants had dominant observation over the entire area. If the enemy occupied it he would be looking down our throats.”



And the NVA wanted to be the new tenants. Consequently, several attempts would be made to seize Con Thien. Until mid-1967, the northern section of the DMZ had been a safe haven for the Communists. Here, they reorganized and prepared their plans for future assaults in Northern I Corps, including the strongpoint of Con Thien. The first of these thrusts was in the spring of 1967, as recorded above, and coincided with the anniversary of the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The second would be made in the summer, when the NVA utilized heavy artillery, for the first time, in support of ground units. The third would be made, during the months of September and October; the enemy fired punishing artillery barrages on the occupants of Con Thien.

After the May 8 offensive on Con Thien, Washington directed the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) to enter the southern portion of the DMZ. Previous to this, the NVA was using this area as a sanctuary and U.S. Forces were expressly prohibited from penetrating this region. Code-named Operation Hickory for the 3rd Marine Division, Lam Son 54 for the 1st ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) Division, Beau Charger for Special Landing Force (SLF) Alpha, and Belt Tight for SLF Bravo, the Allies wasted no time in making contact with the enemy.



The Operation Hickory phase of the three-pronged advance into the DMZ began on May 18. By late morning, Lt. Col. Charles R. Figard’s 2nd Battalion, 26th Marines, ran head-on into two NVA battalions. Fighting from well-camouflaged bunker complexes, the enemy delivered a hail of automatic weapons fire upon the leathernecks’ right flank.

Realizing his squad was unable to maneuver, Corporal Richard E. Moffit of Company G lunged forward at the hedge-row where the shooting was coming from and let loose a steady stream of rifle fire. Once there, he killed two NVA soldiers manning the trench. The following day, the intrepid Moffit braved another enemy machine-gun nest.



Again, he rushed the fortification, this time hurling fragmentation grenades. He would miraculously survive to be awarded the Navy Cross for his actions. During the intense combat, Lt. Col. Figard and his operations officer were hit by mortar fire. Soon, Lt. Col. John J. Peeler’s 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, was also heavily committed.

Meanwhile, Operation Lam Son 54 was initiated by two ARVN battalions from the 1st ARVN Division. Making no contact, the South Vietnamese units proceeded to the Ben Hai River, located in the center of the DMZ itself, and started sweeping southward.



While these two battalions were advancing on the east side of Highway 1, three ARVN airborne battalions did so on the west. On May 19, the 31st and 812th NVA regiments met the ARVN multibattalion sweep and fighting ensued that would continue for more than a week. The ARVN, while losing 22 killed and 122 wounded, dealt the Communists a greater blow: 342 dead, 30 enemy soldiers captured and 51 assorted weapons seized.

Beau Charger was another story. Company A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, the assault element for SLF Alpha, was greeted with a hot reception at its destination, Landing Zone (LZ) Goose. As the fifteen UH-34s (“Sea Horses” from Squadron HMM-263) prepared to land, enemy machine-gun fire blasted the vulnerable choppers.



The lead helicopter, flown by squadron commander Lt. Col. Edward K. Kirby, was struck by a broadside as it hovered less than 50 feet off the ground. The initial burst rendered the chopper’s radio inoperable and injured the copilot, crew chief, door gunner and three Marines from 1/3. Another leatherneck was killed outright and tumbled from the “bird.” Upon hearing of the “hot LZ,” SLF commander Colonel James A Gallo, Jr., scrubbed all further heliborne assaults into Goose and opted instead to disembark his Marines at LZ owl, 800 meters to the south.

However, A 1/3, already on the ground, was isolated. With the enemy so intertwined with the Marines, urgent requests for naval gunfire from warships just offshore had to be aborted. By 100, other units, plus a force of M-48 tanks, reached the trapped men a LZ Goose. The infantrymen met the enemy in hand-to-hand combat as fixed-wing aircraft hammered NVA trenches. After 11 jets pounded the positions, Companies A and B of 1/3 jumped off to continue the planned attack.



While attacking the enemy’s bulwarks, Corporal Russell F. Keck, a machine-gun squad leader with Alpha Company, dispersed his guns to deliver accurate fire upon the trench line. Coming under a heavy barrage, Keck ordered the automatic weapons moved to another location to prevent their being destroyed. Although wounded, Keck remained in his position to administer covering fire for another Marine, knowing this action would surely result in his death. Corporal Keck received the Navy Cross posthumously.



All told, the various operations carried out in the southern portion of the DMZ by the Marine and ARVN units snagged 789 enemy killed, 37 captured, and 187 weapons confiscated. Allied casualties would attest to the intensity of fighting as 142 Marines and 22 ARVN soldiers were killed, and 896 and 122 respectively, were wounded.

But the Marines were not idle either, In July the leathernecks counterattacked with another multibattalion operation code-named Buffalo.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[Darksheare]

Morning!

[Light Speed]

Hi Sam

A 3rd Marines account in Con Thien sector.

Gio Linh was 2100 meters from the DMZ. Con Thien was seven miles east of us. At Gio Linh, everything was dug down in holes and bunkers as every night between 11:00am and 1:00am, the VC would drop mortars on our small firebase--average 20-30 a night. They were close enough that you could hear them dropping them in the tubes with the "cadunk" sound, then the whistling as the round came in, and then the explosion of detonation.

One afternoon, we mounted up, and a large entourage of grunts, two tanks, two Dusters with their twin 40mm's, and our two Ontos, left the perimeter of Gio Linh and went out to the fire break to await large helicopters bringing in large wooden towers. The firebreak at this time was 200 meters wide and was bare dirt. (Many years later I found out how this was cleared--Agent Orange.) The firebreak was ultimately supposed to be 800 meters wide, going from Gio Linh to Con Thien, and was to have a series of manned wooden towers along its border. The idea was to keep the NVA from filtering down from the North through this area. I believe they gave up on that project. That day, when we were all on line sitting in the scorching sun on the bare dirt of the fire break waiting for the choppers with the wooden towers, we were told it was 140 degrees.

We started taking mortar fire from the north. After numerous close rounds to our troops and vehicles, the enemy ceased firing after artillery from Gio Linh fired on their positions. Finally, a large chopper brought in a wooden tower and placed it on the firebreak. At Gio Linh, the Army had four 175mm artillery pieces. They had very long barrels, and were on tracks. These were on the north perimeter. The Marines had five 105mm towed units, set up in the usual large circle-shaped battery position.

One day, we took a couple of incoming enemy rockets. That was odd, as we were only used to the nightly mortar attacks. And then one evening around 6:30pm when I was going to late chow after my two fellow Ontos crewman (Sgt. Mac from Chicago and L/Cpl Reavis from Indiana) returned from chow to relieve me from our position on the south perimeter, I was in the large GP (General Purpose) tent that was dug down;into a large three foot deep hole. I was in the process of declining the slop that was being served, figuring I'd go back and eat some "C Rats," when what sounded like a screaming Phantom jet with its afterburners on, went over my head, and exploded out in the minefield and wire on our perimeter. Another Phantom jet went screaming over my head and exploded. I then realized it wasn't a Phantom--it was enemy artillery. I expected them to drop several rounds on us and then stop, but it just kept coming and coming. I had been shot at with small arms, mortared, and been in rocket attacks, but this was the worst. The incoming scream of those rounds was terrifying and something I shall never forget, because you know they are either going to get you, or they are not, and there isn't much you can do to prevent it except pray.

During one lull in between rounds, there were about four of us hunkered down in a corner of that big, wide hole of the mess tent--we heard a Marine calling for help. We looked up, and saw a Marine that was not hit, but obviously suffering from shell concussion. He was in a daze. We told him to get down in the hole with us, but he either couldn't hear us or was just too dazed to understand. We grabbed his hands, and just as we pulled him down into the hole, a round came in, and exploded behind us about fifty feet away, fortunately above ground, and not in the big wide hole we were in. The concussion slammed us down into the corner of the hole and temporarily deafened us for a few minutes. It was like two giant hands coming together on your ears. When rounds hit close, the shrapnel sounded like it was ripping the air. The shelling stopped for a short time. I ran back to my vehicle and fellow crewman. There were craters and shell diameter-sized entry holes in the ground all over. My small bunker and two crewman and Ontos were okay. The only damage suffered to our Ontos was shrapnel cut off the two metal radio antennas, and the ammo can and its belted .30 cal ammo on the machine gun was pierced by a large piece of shrapnel.

I sat on the front of the Ontos that was sitting in a hole dug out by a bulldozer, with the loose dirt pushed up behind. I had the dry heaves as I tried to regain my composure. As a grunt Lt. and Sgt. were checking the lines, the heavy shelling started again. Instead of taking cover in my bunker that was about forty feet away, I opted to take cover underneath my Ontos. I don't know how I got under there wearing my helmet and flak jacket, but I did. {I was a lot slimmer back then.) The grunt Lt. and Sgt. took cover on the ground in the hole at the rear of the Ontos. And the artillery shells kept coming and coming. After awhile, you could just about tell where they were going to land, if they were going to be short or long. They say you never hear the one that gets you. Well, I don't know if you hear it explode, but I heard this one coming. I think my heart stopped for a second, as I stiflened up waiting for the impact, as this round sounded like it was going to be a direct hit on us. It came in screaming, and then their was a "wump" sound, and the ground shook. I held my breath, waiting for the explosion. It didn't explode. The grunt Lt. asked the grunt Sgt. where that round hit. The Sgt told him, "Don't move, I must be sitting on it!"

After another long duration of incoming artillery rounds, it stopped for a few minutes at which time I ran to my bunker, and the two grunt NCOs went back to their positions. We saw that that one incoming round landed in the soft bulldozed-up dirt on our side of the slope, less than ten feet from where we had taken cover. There was a nice round neat hole where it had cut a path downwards into the loose pile of dirt. If that round had gone off, we probably would have been scattered over the countryside. We later learned that there was an NVA artillery battery (or two) which dropped approximately 2000 rounds on our small firebase in a 1 O-hour attack. They were dropping point-detonating and delayed fuse shells on us. The first rounds made direct hits on three of the Army's 175mm guns, and the fourth 175mm's powder pit was on fire, taking it out also.

Those extremely brave Marines in that 105ram artillery battery kept firing and were basically out in the open in the waist-high sandbag wall of the large circle containing their guns. One by one, the NVA artillery took them and their guns out. When everybody else was hunkered down, these guys were standing at their guns firing back as fast as they could. Those were some brave guys.

Both of our ammo dumps had been hit and were on fire, with our own ordnance detonating. It was pure hell that night. All our artillery was gone. We had two Ontos, two tanks, two twin 40 dusters, and on 81mm mortar. That was the extent of our heavy weapons. Our wire and large mine field on our perimeter was pretty chewed up with some of the rounds landing there, and detonating out mines. We expected a ground attack during the darkness. All the other firebases were getting hit at the same time, so they could not support us with any artillery fire.

A couple hours after it started, we got a couple of Bird Dog spotter planes coming in from the south but when they got close to us, the NVA were shooting air bursts at them and coming close. After midnight, we got two Phantoms in that dropped their ordnance but when they came into the area, the NVA stopped shooting. When the Phantoms left to rearm, the NVA started on us again. The Phantoms were never able to locate the exact position of the NVA artillery. We had heavy casualties. We did get a medevac chopper in for some of the wounded. Heat tabs that burn with a very low blue flame, were arranged in a large circle to mark the LZ (Landing Zone). Just after the medevac took off, and cleared the LZ with the wounded, the NVA zoned in on the LZ and dropped several rounds on it, but didn't get the medevac.

All night, the artillery continued. It was constant. My Ontos Commander, Sgt. Mac, who was on his second tour, was a tough, lean, black Marine. He told me he had been raised Catholic but wasn't very religious. Sgt. Mac was even praying that night! Just before daylight, the shelling stopped. We came out of our holes. It seemed like almost every square yard of the ground was covered by jagged pieces of metal shrapnel, like leaves on the ground in the fall.
Everything was blown up. I was so happy just to be alive.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for all the additional info on Con Thien, Light Speed.

The Ontos was a strange weapon.

[Light Speed]

History channel aired a documentary last night on the Ardennes offensive.
The program used animated movement of units....seeing the entire front move hour by hour really helped me to understand what occured.

Was suprised to learn that Hitler removed a large Panzer Army..12th Panzer I believe from the Northern sector's assault planning..sending it East.

Also...the para drop..some 1000 troops..scattered everywhere.
About 350 of the German paras were able to rally and set about there mission.
Guess they realized they were in over their heads and made a run for their lines...only 100 got back.

Hitlers planning on this was pretty stupid IMHO.
Antwerp was the final goal...why the sweeping action over such a long front?
why not bolster a stronger assault in the North with with a unified seperate advance from the south to face Pattons 3rd Army which was sure to come up?

The documentary noted that General Jodel gave a thumbs up for the plan..along with the other Yes men Hitler surrounded himself with,
yet the majority of the actionable line commanders viewed the operation as a certain disaster.

During the first week of January the Luftwaffe finally got off its butt and really did some damage to the allies.
Guess they hit over 50 airfields...destroying some 300 allied aircraft.

[SAMWolf]

IMHO, the Ardennes offensive is one of the most interesting battles in the West. I can't read or see enough about it. I have so many books in my library dealng with the Bulge or a part of it that the Bulge gets it's own shelves.

Snippy covered part of Operation Bodenplatte on the New Years Day Thread.

The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the Legend of Y-29 ~ Operation Bodenplatte (1/1/1945) - Jan. 1, 2004

[SAMWolf]

von der Heydte's story is on of the fascinating ones to come out of the Bulge. Although the mission failed it caused widespread panic. Between him and Skorzeny, the Americans saw Germans behind everytree in the Ardennes.

At dawn on the morning of December 17th, Colonel Friedrich A. Freiherr von der Heydte surveyed the pitiful shards of Operation Hohes Venn. This paratroop drop had been scheduled for December 16th, but postponed when gasoline for the trucks to carry the paratroopers to the airfields was stolen by another division.

The drop had gone ahead 24 hours later, but everything went wrong. Heavy antiaircraft fire had broken up the formations of transport planes, scattering them all over the Ardennes. German paratroopers came down just about everywhere. High winds added to the confusion and caused many landing injuries. Colonel von der Heydte was one of the few members of the attack force to actually land on the objective. For the next few hours, his men combed the area, bringing in stragglers. By dawn, he had collected about 300 men out of the 1250 that had taken off from Germany 4 hours earlier. He had no working radios -- they had all been broken in the airdrop. His request for carrier pigeons had been contemptuously dismissed by Sepp Dietrich. Now he was completely out of touch. Then they heard the sound of approaching vehicles. It was a column from the American First Infantry Division -- the Big Red One, one of the toughest divisions in the American Army. The German paratroops hid in the woods and watched helplessly as the reinforcements they were supposed to delay rolled by. Operation Hohes Venn had failed in its primary mission.

[snippy_about_it]

OMG

Yep.

[snippy_about_it]

Because that was the only part of Massachusest that was not considered squirrely yet.

LOL. Good one!

[snippy_about_it]

Nice job on updating the thread.

Thank you Sam.

[snippy_about_it]

Squirrel fishing. Okay. LOL.

[snippy_about_it]

Thank you Light Speed for the added info on the Marines prior to Con Thien.

[Light Speed]

The documentary showed alot of film footage I had never seen before.....those King Tigers were huge.

Clips of German Panthers moving past burning U.S. Halftracks and Shermans.....lots of German armor moving in the snow too.

The photo below.... 2 GI's and a bazooka....maybe a King Tiger is moments away.
Talk about having nerve to stand your ground : )

[snippy_about_it]

Good afternoon Darksheare.

[snippy_about_it]

...unfortunately they do have our politicians pegged

Sad but true.

[Darksheare]

Afternoon.

[SAMWolf]

The photo below.... 2 GI's and a bazooka....maybe a King Tiger is moments away. Talk about having nerve to stand your ground : )

Yep especially since in most cases the round would wither bounce off or fail to penetrate a Tigers' armor.

[Light Speed]

In one of my video's at home is a few seconds of a Sherman getting it from a German Tanks 88.

The turret comes off the tank upward at least 20 ft.

Cooper, Belton Y. Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1998

The "death traps" of Cooper's title were Sherman tanks, outgunned and out-armored by their German opponents. As an ordnance officer in the 3rd Armored Division, Cooper learned more than most about how Shermans could be knocked out, what else could go wrong with them, and how they could be patched back together.

...One day in Mausbach, Maj. Dick Johnson told me that a tank from the 2nd Battalion was having difficulty in keeping 75mm rounds in the main ammunition storage box underneath the turret. He said this condition had appeared in other tanks before, and no one knew what was causing it.... For some reason the rounds were dislodging when the tank stopped. If the primer happened to strike a sharp object, the rounds could explode prematurely [inside the tank].... I got inside the tank and examined the front of the rack. This particular tank had thirty rounds of 75mm tank ammunition and four bottles of Cognac [in the rack]. The tank crew had decided this was a good place to store their extra Cognac. The diameter of the bottle of Cognac was slightly larger than that of the ammunition. There was enough clearance in the tube to allow the bottle of Cognac to go in, but not without stretching the clips beyond their yield point. The weakened clips would no longer hold a round of ammunition....
When confronted, the crew defended their actions. "This ammunition is no damn good anyway against a German tank. If the going got too rough, we could hide behind a building and break out the Cognac and at least ease some of the pain."

[SAMWolf]

Good book. US armor was at a definate disadvantage in a "one on one" fight.

[SAMWolf]

[snippy_about_it]