by Carl Arsenault
Rules: Charlie Company
"Dogbone one-six ... This is six...Be advised that adverse weather prevents lift of two-six. You'll have to execute the mission alone... Over." Even as the lieutenant acknowledged the order and signed off, he had thoughts of foreboding. Seize the village of Bop Din and clear it of hostiles without the rest of the company, what was that idiot of a company commander thinking? Still, he gestured to his RTO. Switching to the platoon net, he rapidly transmitted frag orders to his understrength squads. The lieutenant reoriented his men from securing the landing zone and cutting off avenues of escape to maneuvering to assault the ville. At least the LZ was cold, thank God. 1st squad, already moving south through a wide expanse of head high elephant grass, turned west, heading for the northeasternmost hamlet. Across a break in the grass, 2d squad moved parallel just north of 1st. 3d squad, initially tasked with securing the LZ until 2d platoon and the company headquarters arrived, packed ,up and headed due west. The entire 1st platoon had landed in a large stretch of flat, open ground only 200 meters northeast of the five hamlets composing Bop Din. But moving through the tall grass even in the light cooling winds of early morning was still hard work. It took the platoon twenty minutes to negotiate the tangled elephant grass. Inside the village, the young North Vietnamese junior officer had rushed his men into their fighting bunkers at the first sound of the approaching American helicopters. His force had been operating in the area for less than two weeks and already woefully understrength if the Americans came in any force. At least we can give these imperialists a bloody nose before we disappear into the grass again. He turned to Sergeant Tranh and directed him to check the escape tunnels leading out of village, then decided to check the lines to the claymore mines that his men had recovered two days ago from the site of one of the Americans' mechanical ambushes. Another little surprise, the junior officer thought, for the Americans, and chuckled. All three sqauds reached to edge of the grass at about the same time with one only one casualty. Just minutes before, the trail man from 1st squad had stepped into a punji stake trap after the rest of the squad had missed it; he had a nasty wound, but did not require immediate evacuation, Still, the lieutenant had sent over the platoon medic to treat him and prepare him for evacuation, calling for a medevac, then returning to superintending his platoon's movement to the paddy belt surrounding the village. On the platoon right, 3d squad started to cross the paddy to its front, exiting the cover of the grass. The squad promptly dived back into the cover of the grass, two of its members wounded. Machinegun rounds clipped the grass above their heads as they hunkered down behind what little cover they could find. If the initial burst had not gone wide of its mark, the alert defenders manning the machine gun in the well-concealed bunker covering the approach to the village could have wreaked havoc on the exposed squad. 1st and 2d squads immediately engaged the bunker, providing covering fire and throwing smoke while 3d squad pulled back. 1st squad reported another bunker supporting the first. The young platoon leader had his hands full when contact erupted. He had already called for the company's pre-planned fire as well as for a medevae for his wounded. In between reports from his squad leaders about the contact, he juggled giving a situation report, talking the medevac in, and directing support fires. The first barrage from company mortars failed to knock out the bunker. He directed 3d squad to continue west using available cover and flank the bunker with the machinegun. He ordered 1st squad to move further south while continuing to engage the other bunker, while 2d squad laid down a base of fire. He led the platoon headquarters element into the line as well to give support while detatching his platoon sergeant, the medic, and an RTO to get the casualty back to the LZ and pop smoke for the incoming medevac. The machinegun scored again before the lieutenant's plans bore fruit, shooting up the inbound medevac as it flared to land. Horrified, the entire platoon watched as the smoking Huey veered west, shuddered in mid-air, then crashed into the hill about 400 meters from the village. A later check of the crash site would reveal two survivors, one seriously injured. Redirecting big efforts to supporting fires, the lieutenant had the company mortars fire until a direct hit knocked out the bunker that had shot down the medevac. Supporting pre-planned artillery fell shortly afterwards, striking deeper in the village and eliciting at least one secondary explosion. Charging along the paddy berms, 2d squad reach the edge of the ville behind the two bunkers just as 3rd squad reemerged from. the grass further west on its flanking movement. The mortar and 105mm howitzer fire had knocked out the first bunker, blown a few hooches flat, and knocked down some of barrier hedges that separated the five hamlets composing Bop Din. With the initial assault finally reaching the outskirts of the village, the young lieutenant (Brian Moody) decided to shift his artillery and mortar ban-ages further west. Even after six months in country, he still found it difficult to control the movements of his squads, call for fire and medevac, and'protect his own skin at the game time. Still, his men bore the brunt of exposure as they entered the hamlet at the northeast end of the village. A member of 2d Squad (Alan McGahey) flew through the air as he stepped on a mine--another senseless death. 2d Squad fanned out along the eastern edge of Bop Din, checking various hooches and engaging another bunker from the rear; they saw several khaki clad figures retreating further into the village. 3d Squad (Sacha Leon) investigated the bunker destroyed by the company's mortars, finding body parts and a wrecked machinegun. They joined 2d in the hamlet, fanning out to the west, but failing to catch the retreating Mainforce VC before they disappeared out of sight. Both squads moved into the southeasternmost hamlet. 1st Squad (Chris Moody), following the directions of the lieutenant continued to circle around the east edge of the village engaging enemy bunkers as they found them. When they saw members of 2d Squad appear at the entrance to the hamlet, 3d squad headed across the paddies to join them in Bop Din. Back at base camp, the first set of reinforcements, 2d Squad of 2d Platoon (Luke Smith), boarded two slicks to head to the battle. The rest of the company's air support had been diverted after the inclement weather lifted. The lieutenant shifted his headquarters back to the LZ so that he could personally brief the reinforcements when they landed. He also planned to evacuate some of the platoon's wounded. In the meantime, he kept requesting sitreps from his squads, uncertain about the number of casualties they had suffered. The transports evacuated several walking wounded after discharging their passengers from 2d Platoon. The lieutenant received notice of another in-bound medevac and decided to shift the pick-up zone closer to the village. He promptly sent the fresh squad from 2d Platoon to collect the dead and wounded near the northeast edge of Bop Din and prepare to evacuate them. As he moved his headquarters element to the new PZ, one of the lieutenant's RTO's stepped on another mine, adding to the carnage. By the time he had reached the village, the lieutenant had encountered several more of his men dead or seriously wounded, and the platoon had only entered two of the five hamlets that composed Bop Din! While the lieutenant dickered with the medevacs and calling in artillery, the leader of 2d Squad took over directing the company's mortar platoon, attempting to use the mortars as a club to knock out several more bunkers along the southern edge of Bop Din. Inaccurate shooting resulted in the pasting of the village's central southern hamlet, flattening several hooches. Other members of 2d Squad investigated a number of hooches in the southeastern hamlet. They found one hooch being used as a sandal making factory. A tunnel from the hooch led to an abandoned bunker which 2d Squad blew up with a satchel charge, before turning west to support 3d Squad. After following 2d Squad into the southeastern hamlet, 3d Squad turned west to check out the smouldering ruins of the southern central hamlet. A command detonated claymore followed by multiple bursts of automatic weapons fire raked half of the squad as they crawled across an open area between the hamlets--two more dead including the leader of 2d Squad caught at the extreme edge of the claymore's blast pattern and two more wounded. To ice the cake, the mortar fire that the 2d Squad leader called for just before he died fell short, wounding the leader of 3d Squad. As it left, the medevac pulling out wounded and dead from the paddies northeast of the village reported seeing a number of figures fleeing toward the river west of the village. The lieutenant received orders to withdraw his men from the village so that it could be properly pasted with artillery before anyone checked it again. Every squad except 2d acknowledged the order he passed to them and began withdrawing. After the death of his squad leader, the ranking PFC in 2d Squad, the RTO, took over. Seeing an opportunity, he led his men into the north central hamlet while the remainder of the platoon pulled back to the north edge of the village. 2d Squad discovered a number of tunnels and followed one to an exit in the brush north of the hamlet, rejoining the survivors of the platoon as it withdrew northward. US losses: killed 6; died of wounds before they could be evacuated 4; seriously wounded 1; lightly wounded 5. An additional KIA and WIA came from the loss of the first medevac, shot down by the VC on its approach. Known VC losses: killed 5. Estimated additional VC losses: killed and wounded 10. The US forces destroyed four bunkers and burned a number of hooches being used by the VC to make sandals, store rice, or provide shelter. Analysis. The Americans continue to lose troops needlessly because they fail evacuate them quick enough. For the first time, players used a lot of artillery and mortars; mortars destroyed one bunker while the artillery pasted several hooches and obtained at least one secondary explosion. Unfortunately, US forces made the mistake of pressing forward too quickly without letting the superior firepower do its work properly. As a result, at least one US casualty was the result of "friendly fire." Several other casualties occurred because supporting fires did not last long enough to suppress hostile fire. Back to Dispatch December 2002 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |