He described it simply as, 'The Third Circle of Hell.' Bodies and body parts were strewn everywhere, the wounded groaned and asked for help. Enemy soldiers were firing from as little as 20 meters away. It was impossible to determine exactly where friendly lines stopped and enemy lines began. Matt helped to put some of the dead into body bags. They became part of a four foot high wall that helped provide cover for the living."
How did it happen that the soldiers of the world's most super dooper, high-tech military wound up fighting from behind a four-foot high wall of body bags? It was all planned that way, my friends. So get yourself a bag of popcorn, you're all going to the movies with Sgt. Skull. The fighting described above took place on a hill designated Hill 875 because its highest point was 875 meters above sea level as marked on the maps. The attacking unit was the 2nd battalion of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. That was my old unit. I was in the 2nd battalion of the 173rd Airborne Brigade during my tour of Vietnam in '65 and '66.
On November 19, 1967, the 2nd battalion began their assault up Hill 875 against multiple defensive lines of trenches and machinegun bunkers. Four days later, they captured the top of the hill. Link here for a picture of the top of Hill 875 after the battle. Approximately 350 soldiers of the 2nd battalion began the assault on the hill. Eighty-seven were killed and 166 wounded. That's a casualty rate of 72%.
How did this mess come to be? I quote from the book, "The 173rd Airborne Brigade," published by the Turner Publishing Company.
"In early fall, 1967, enemy activity began to escalate in the Central Highlands. Intelligence reports indicated that the Dak To region was threatened by six NVA regiments and, once again, the 173rd Airborne was airlifted in the area. This time, the operation was code named, MacArthur. Although American staff planners were unaware of it at the time, this buildup was part of a gigantic deception designed to draw U.S. combat strength away from the cities in order to help ensure the success of the "Tet Uprising" scheduled for January, 1968. ... A Special Forces (Green Beret) B-Detachment, conducting operations on 18 November, discovered an extensive network of NVA trenches located atop Hill 875. After suffering ten wounded, the SF detachment withdrew, and called for indirect fire and air strikes against the enemy trenches. They did not know that these trenches, built months earlier, were covered with up to ten feet of earth and log overhead cover. In addition, the positions had the advantage of six months of jungle growth to enhance their camouflage."
Know this: A hill with manned trenches means one thing and one thing only - a major NVA base camp. Any grunt who had been in the 'Nam for a few months could tell you that. At this point, the damn hill should have been flattened by multiple B52 strikes using 2,000 pound bombs. A 2,000 pound bomb makes a crater big enough to bury a small house in. Nothing short of extremely deep and concrete-reinforced bunkers can withstand 2,000 pound bombs. 2,000 lbs. bombs would have turned Hill 875 and all its trenches and bunkers into something resembling the surface of the moon, and killed every last NVA there, case closed. A squad of boy scouts could have taken the hill after that. But the powers that be didn't call for B52s because this was just another Hollywood war made by Illuminati productions. Thank you Gen. Wastemorelives. Thank you, LBJ. Thank you, me Lord Rothschild.
One grunt in the 173rd said that prior to the assault, "They told us that there was at least a regiment dug in on the hill. We just looked at each other like we were dead men." On the morning of November 19th, the Air Force hit the hill with 500 pound bombs and napalm, and the brigade's artillery pounded it with high-explosive rounds. Companies A and B were held in reserve on the first day. Companies C and D of the 2nd Battalion began the "assault." That means approximately 160 guys actually started up the hill against an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 NVA regulars dug into multiple trench line and machinegun bunkers.
Think about that - 160 guys charging uphill against at least 1,000 NVA regulars in trenches and bunkers. I knew one guy who was in the Herd (the nickname for the 173rd) when I did my tour in '65 and '66. He signed up for a second tour. (Don't ask me why, he must have had scrambled eggs for brains by that time.) He said the fire they ran into was the most intense he ever experienced - recoilless rifle fire, mortars, rocket propelled grenades, machineguns, chi-com grenades, the works. He was shot through the hand almost immediately, and his platoon leader told him to fall back. He did as ordered, and he told me that just about everybody he knew was subsequently killed.
Mind you, being hammered by 500 pound bombs and napalm is no picnic. Still, the point is that this tactic of working over dug-in NVA with 500 pound bombs and napalm and artillery never really worked. There were always enough survivors to man the firing positions and lay down hellish fire on the attackers who were exposed and moving. Know this: that damn hill was a bomber's dream - hundreds of NVA concentrated in a relatively small space just begging for a massive B52 strike. Even the normal air strikes would have done the trick if they had kept it up for several days. A direct hit by a 500 pound bomb is sufficient to collapse most bunkers, or at least leave the defenders with blood oozing out of every orifice of their body.
The initial assault on the hill was doomed from the start. By pure raw courage, the attackers overran the first trench line in some places, but not in others. The NVA counter attacked and overran portions of A company that was guarding the helicopter landing zone at the base of the hill. The battle on Hill 875 became a swirling hell of confusion and close up butchery for both attackers and defenders. Most fighting in dense Vietnamese jungle was so close that the fighters could have hit each other with rocks. Think of it as Neanderthal warfare with rocks and spears and clubs and conducted at about the same range and you've pretty much got the picture.
The initial fighting in such conditions is a hell of automatic weapons fire that rakes the area. The Chaplain of my battalion described a similar battle this way, "To stand up was to die." Take a good look at the picture of the hill linked to above and you will note that if you lay on the ground that there is usually a lot of downed trees and churned up earth that provide substantial cover. That plus the fact the many of attackers and defenders are killed and both sides run low of ammo. In such circumstances attacks bog down almost every time, and both sides hunker down in the confusion and try to pot shot anybody who moves or sticks his head up.
I'm not attempting to give an exact account of the assault on Hill 875 here. Instead, I'm pointing out why the circumstances of the situation caused such attacks to bog down and fail just about every time. Everybody knew this, but time and time again army and marine units were ordered to conduct the same doomed, stupid and pointless attacks. Time and time again, known concentrations of NVA were spared B52 strikes and the brass fed battalion after battalion of grunts into the meat grinder in attacks that they knew full well were pointless, stupid and doomed.
That first day of the battle was topped off just after sundown when a 500 pound bomb accidentally scored a direct hit on the 2nd battalion's command post where the wounded were collected, and where most of the officers were. The wayward bomb killed about 40 guys and wounded many others. The bomb blew one grunt in half. His torso wound up in a tree and his guts fell down onto the guys below. Dead bodies and body parts were everywhere, both American and NVA. The stench must have been incredible; grunt meat rots fast in the jungle.
The surviving medics were completely out of morphine at this time, and everybody was out of water. The NVA gunners shot down three helicopters attempting resupply missions that first day. Hill 875 was a Stalingrad in the jungle. If the NVA had been on the ball, they could have swarmed down the hill with their superior numbers and wiped out the whole damn battalion, no problem. But they didn't, and so the battle entered its second day.
On the evening of the second day of the "battle," the 4th battalion of the 173rd arrived and reinforced the survivors of the mangled 2nd battalion. On the afternoon of the third day of the battle, the 2nd and 4th battalions again assaulted up the hill. This attack made some progress, but it failed for the same reasons the previous attacks did, and the grunts of the 173rd were driven back to their original lines.
On the morning of the 23rd, units of the 4th Infantry reinforced the 173rd, and together they began the final assault on the hill. Luckily, the NVA had mostly withdrawn, and only 5 guys were killed when a mortar round scored a direct hit on a group of 173rd soldiers. Total casualties of all units involved in the fighting on Hill 875 amounted to 107 killed in action and 282 wounded and 10 missing in action. Another account claimed 158 killed in action and 411 wounded. The NVA managed to shoot down 11 helicopters, and two guys from the 173rd were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor ... posthumously. Here's an account of the evacuation of the wounded survivors during the battle.
"Late on Tuesday afternoon, a landing zone was finally cut near the base of the hill, and the wounded started out for evacuation. Men who were peppered with shell fragments carried the legless in litters rigged from ponchos. Blinded troopers stumbled down the hill, their hands on the shoulders of the men in front of them. The helicopters began to land, and it took two hours for the 140 injured paratroopers to be lifted out. ... More choppers came in, carrying food, water and desperately needed ammunition. The Brigade's combat engineers came in, too, carrying demolition charges and flame-throwers. There was still a ridgeline to be taken. "
I've read numerous accounts of the assault on Hill 875. No account ever identified who ordered this pointless butchery. Every account always uses the passive voice, saying something like "the soldiers were ordered to assault the hill." Every account agrees that Hill 875 had no "strategic" value. In fact, the 173rd abandoned it shortly after its capture. It was just another hill, and the only attraction was the known concentration of NVA there. The powers that be didn't bomb it to hell for the same reason they didn't bomb Haiphong Harbor or torpedo the ships carrying supplies into it.
If nothing else, I think I can convince most sane people that when you are the world's most high-tech military, that something has got to be wrong when your soldiers wind up fighting from behind a four-foot high wall of body bags. The whole damn, phoney baloney war was a contraption to put the American taxpayers into debt to the Illuminati owners of the Federal Reserve, and secure the South Asian drug supplies, and for pure Satanic blood lust.
My fellow peasants, know this: The butchery of Vietnam was chump change compared to what the Illuminati have in store for us this time. This time they mean to conquer the entire world, and gut whatever is left of our wheezing republic. The butchery in Vietnam was retail. This time it's going to be wholesale slaughter until our entire military is ground into sausage and the entire continent of North America is a defenseless military vacuum which they will overrun with foreign mercenaries. Do you suppose the zombies will even notice? I'll see y'all in the soylent green soup lines. |
