Battle of Ong Thanh
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| Battle of Ong Thanh | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Vietnam War | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
 United States |
 Viet Cong |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Terry de la Mesa Allen, Jr. † | Vo Minh Triet | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 142 | 1,400+ | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 58 KIA, 2 MIA, 75 WIA |
163 killed and wounded | ||||||
| Vietnam War |
|---|
| Ap Bac – Binh Gia –Pleiku – Song Be – Dong Xoai – Gang Toi – Ia Drang – Hastings – A Shau – Duc Co –Long Tan – Attleboro – Cedar Falls – Tra Binh Dong – Junction City – Hill 881 – Ong Thanh – Dak To – 1st Tet – Khe Sanh – 1st Saigon – Hue – Lang Vei – Lima Site 85 – Kham Duc – Dewey Canyon – 2nd Tet – Hamburger Hill – Binh Ba – Cambodia – Snuol – FSB Ripcord – Lam Son 719 – Ban Dong –FSB Mary Ann – Easter '72 – 1st Quang Tri –Loc Ninh – An Loc – Kontum – 2nd Quang Tri –Phuoc Long – Ho Chi Minh – Buon Me Thuot – Xuan Loc – Truong Sa –2nd Saigon – Rolling Thunder – Barrell Roll – Pony Express – Steel Tiger – Tiger Hound – Tailwind – Commando Hunt – Linebacker I – Linebacker II – Chenla I – Chenla II – SS Mayagüez |
The Battle of Ong Thanh was a battle of the Vietnam War that occurred on October 17, 1967. During this little known battle, the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, the "Black Lion Battalion", was ambushed and were subsequently destroyed by a well-entrenced and prepared Viet Cong regiment outnumbering the Americans almost 10-to-1.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
In 1967 U.S commanders in the battlefield were under pressure to engage the Viet Cong and destroy them in decisive battles, under such pressure many U.S officers were dismissed as a result of their failure to engage the Viet Cong in large operations. The 2/28th Black Lion Battalion was no different, in 1967 Lieutenant Colonel Terry de la Mesa Allen, Jr. took command of the battalion after many of the units' officers were dismissed from their post.
The lack of contact had much to do with the Viet Cong's reluctance to fighting large-scale battles, where superior American firepower would prove decisive. Instead Viet Cong units often conduct hit-and-run operations against U.S troops.
[edit] Prelude
After taking over as commander of the 2/28th Black Lion Battalion, Terry Allen Jr's immediate objective was to find elements of the Viet Cong 9th Division as part of Operation Shenandoah II.
On October 15, 1967, the communist Viet Cong (VC) 271st Regiment, part of the 9th Viet Cong Division and one of the most experienced VC regiments in the country, arrived in Lai Khe within the 2nd Battalion's area of operation. The main objective of the regiment was to find food supplies instead of engaging American troops. Unfortunately for the soldiers of the 271st Regiment who went for days without food there were no supplies to be found. When local VC units couldn't assist the 271st Regiment, Colonel Vo Minh Triet decided to dig in and wait.
On October 16, elements of the 271st Regiment battled with two companies from the 2/28th Black Lion Battalion with both sides suffering relatively light casualties. Confident of destroying the VC, Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen Jr. ordered a frontal assault the next morning. Meanwhile preliminary B-52 strikes were ordered against Viet Cong positions dug deep inside the forest.
[edit] Battle
Shortly after breakfast at 8:00am Lt. Col Terry de la Mesa Allen, Jr. personally lead two companies from his unit and headed out for the jungle. While out pursuing the VC in the jungle near Ong Thanh, about 50 miles north of Saigon, the soldiers of the 2/28th Black Lion were ambushed by the Viet Cong 271st Regiment, one of three regiments belonging to the VC 9th Division.
The 2/28th were ambushed by an enemy they had pursued: first appeared a small group of VC and then there were waves of enemy troops surged to attack. The Alpha and Delta Companies were pinned down as Viet Cong snipers opened fire from all directions, the two companies took cover and returned fire. As part of their tactic the Viet Cong ran parallel to the American column to "hug the enemy," and closed up on U.S soldiers to make artillery and air strikes extremely difficult to accomplish without massive American casualties. As a result air support could not be requested although artillery fire was called in which killed U.S soldiers along with the enemy.
During the battle the Black Lions were virtually wiped out by the entrenched VC, Alpha Company was wiped out in 20 minutes while Delta Company took heavy casualties. 2nd Battalion commander Lt. Col. Terry Allen Jr. was killed while Lt. Clark Welch (Commanding Officer of Delta Company) was wounded during the firefight. By the time the sun went down, 59 soldiers were dead and 75 wounded--this from two half-strength companies and a headquarters section, totaling fewer than 200 men. The battalion, which was no larger than a typical rifle company had been destroyed while the brigade Operations Officer, James Shelton, was overhead in his helicopter during the worst of the fighting, trying to coordinate artillery, medivac wounded and even giving advice to a soldier on how to use cigarette-pack cellophane to close a sucking chest wound.
After a couple of hours, the VC had withdrawn their forces and the American survivors were evacuated by helicopter.
On October 18 the 271st Regiment withdrew from the area and moved north for refit and rearm, allowing American units to return and collect bodies that couldn't be retrieve the previous day.
During the war the US Army's news services and some American newspapers reported the battle as an American victory.
[edit] US Killed In Action
| Name | State |
|---|---|
| ADKINS DONALD WAYNE | Virginia |
| ALLEN TERRY DE LA MESA JR | Texas |
| ANDERSON LARRY MICHAEL | Iowa |
| BARKER GARY LEE | California |
| BLACKWELL JAMES LISMAN JR | Indiana |
| BOLEN JACKIE EVERRETT JR | West Virginia |
| BOOKER JOSEPH OTIS | Virginia |
| BREEDEN CLIFFORD LYNN JR | Michigan |
| CAMERO SANTOS | California |
| CARRASCO RALPH | Arizona |
| CHANEY ELWOOD DAVID JR | District of Columbia |
| COOK MELVIN BRUCE | Oregon |
| CRITES RICHARD LEE | Ohio |
| CRUTCHER JOE ALBERT | Florida |
| DODSON WESLEY ELLSWORTH | Pennsylvania |
| DOWLING FRANCIS ELLSWORTH | North Dakota |
| DYE EDWARD PHILLIP | Ohio |
| EAST LEON NELSON | Virginia |
| ELLIS MAURICE STEPHEN | North Carolina |
| FAMILIARE ANTHONY JOHN | Pennsylvania |
| FARRELL MICHAEL JAMES | Lousiana |
| FITZGERALD PAUL L JR | Georgia |
| FUQUA ROBERT LEE JR | Ohio |
| GALLAGHER MICHAEL JOSEPH | New York |
| GARCIA ARTURO | Texas |
| GARCIA MELESSO | California |
| GILBERT STANLEY DONALD | Minnesota |
| GILBERTSON VERLAND ANSEL | California |
| GRIBBLE RAY NEAL | Indiana |
| HARGROVE OLIN JR | Alabama |
| HOLLEDER DONALD WALTER | New York |
| JAGIELO ALLEN DALE | California |
| JOHNSON WILLIE C JR | Georgia |
| JONES RICHARD WILLIAM | Illinois |
| KRISCHE JOHN DANIEL | New York |
| LANCASTER JERRY DAVID | Tennessee |
| LARSON JAMES EDWARD | Wisconsin |
| LINCOLN GARY GENE | Ohio |
| LOVATO JOE JR | Texas |
| LUBERDA ANDREW PATRICK | Illinois |
| MEGIVERON EMIL GEORGE | Michigan |
| MILLER MICHAEL MERLIN | Florida |
| MOULTRIE JOE DAVIS | South Carolina |
| NAGY ROBERT JOSEPH | Ohio |
| OSTROFF STEVEN LARRY | California |
| PLATOSZ WALTER | Connecticut |
| PLIER EUGENE JOHN | Wisconsin |
| PORTER ARCHIE ANDREW | West Virginia |
| RANDALL GARLAND JERONE | Texas |
| REECE RONNEY DEAN | Georgia |
| REILLY ALLAN VINCENT | California |
| SCHRODER JACK WAYNE | Nebraska |
| SHUBERT JACKIE ECHOLS | Florida |
| SIKORSKI DANIEL | Wisconsin |
| SMITH LUTHER AUGUSTUS | Florida |
| THOMAS THEODORE DAVE JR | Texas |
| TIZZIO PASQUALE JOSEPH | New York |
| WILSON KENNETH PETE | North Carolina |
[edit] Books on the battle
The Battle of Ong Thanh is featured in David Maraniss's award-winning book, They Marched Into Sunlight (Simon & Schuster, 2003). A 2005 documentary film, part of the PBS American Experience series was based on this book and titled Two days in October. The book and film also feature a parallel story which was taking place at the same time back in the US. This was the student protest against Dow Chemical at the University of Wisconsin, which resulted in violence and perhaps triggered similar troubles on a much wider scale in the US from then onwards.
Retired US Army Brigadier General James Shelton, a former operations officer with the 2/28th Battalion has also written a limited-release book, "The Beast Was Out There," about the defeat of the Black Lion Battalion at the Battle of Ong Thanh. It is available only from the Army's 1st Division Museum. The museum's web site has more information.
Actor-producer Tom Hanks' production company is looking into the possibility of producing a film on the battle.
[edit] External links
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE 28TH INFANTRY REGIMENT
- 1st Infantry Division after action report for the Battle of Ong Thanh
- Two days in October (PBS documentary film)
- New York Times Article, "One Morning in October"
