In Good Company Page 19
It was becoming dark and so I made quick preparations for a move to a night harbour position. The platoon was busy burying the dead and sending off contact reports; I decided to move from our present position a couple of hundred metres to avoid any enemy reconnaissance or possible harrassing fire. It was right on dark when I finally put the platoon down on the ground and cleared our area with yet another clearing patrol. Once again we were having no hot meal or brew as time had beaten us and I was worried about the smells from our cooking. I took a lot of interest that night in where Russ Pullen was asking for our artillery defensive fire tasks and found that the company commander was also taking a keen interest in where we were staying for the night. After dark we settled into our night routine but I kept the platoon standing to for an extra half hour after last light just as a precaution.
The company commander conducted an orders group on the radio around 7.00 pm and told us what he wanted us to do the next day. This took some time as we had to take down the encoded message, decipher it, plot it on the map and then prepare any questions in code. All this was being done under a hootchie with a shaded red light and in a stage whisper. The plan was that the next morning 12 Platoon would check to their east and north and come level with my platoon—but about a kilometre away and near the first track I had found earlier in the day. 10 Platoon would close up to our rear and be prepared to assist 12 and us. My platoon would continue to check to our north and east to find out where the tracks were leading. I made out my plan for the next day and wrote up a quick set of orders to give to the section commanders first thing the next morning. By the time I put my head down it was well after 10.00 pm. I was physically and mentally exhausted.
The whole company moved independently in an easterly direction on 21 September. Once 12 Platoon found the track we had located the day before, we set off parallel to the footpad which seemed to be heading north-east. The platoon was patrolling beautifully. Not a sound could be heard as we made our way through reasonably thick bush. I noted that everyone was camouflaged to the eye-balls and that it was diffficult to see a piece of white skin anywhere. It was a comforting feeling knowing that the men were so switched on and alert. We all knew that there was a big group of enemy somewhere in the area and we didn’t want to have them hit us first: we had started to find more logs cut for bunkers and things were really looking dicey.
The first contact the company had with the enemy was with 12 Platoon around 8.30 am. Graham Spinkston had begun following up the track that we had found; after checking along it for a distance, he suddenly found himself in heavy contact. From the radio reports by 12 Platoon to company headquarters we heard that several of 12 Platoon had been hit, including one possibly killed in action. The company commander told me to hold where I was and await developments. Kevin Byrne’s platoon was told to close up to 12 Platoon. I moved onto the track we had been checking and decided to go into all round defence with two guns facing north and one facing east. All guns were to cover the track if possible in case the enemy came along as they had done the day before.
The fighting in 12 Platoon was quite intense and the company commander asked for artillery and air support to give Graham, who was slightly wounded, a hand. To identify where we were on the ground to assist the forward air controller for the fighter-ground attack aircraft, we put up a marker balloon just to the rear of our position. The balloon is inflated by adding water to a chemical compound and filling the balloon with the gas that comes off the mixture. Because it hadn’t rained for two days we found we were getting low on water and by the end of the day I would need a water resupply unless the heavens opened.
By about 9.00 am it looked as if we would have to go and give 12 Platoon a hand. Then, suddenly, the enemy came out of the bush, about 50 metres in front of where we were positioned. We waited until they were about 25 metres away and hit them as they came up the track. The fire we took in return was unbelievable. There were seemingly dozens of AK-47s firing at us from the jungle to our front. Thankfully, most of it was going over our heads. After an initial return of fire, the enemy disappeared just as quickly as he had come out and broke contact. It didn’t look too good and so I ordered all the claymore mines to be set up with emphasis to our front. This had been our second contact in short succession and our ammunition was about half gone and so Darryl Jenkin started cranking up an immediate operational demand for an ammo resupply.
It had been a short and violent contact; and the ferocity and intensity of the exchange, the noise of all the weapons firing at such close range, and the crack of the rounds overhead was quite unnerving. The rounds were passing a couple of feet above us as we hugged the jungle floor and ricocheting off the trees and slapping into the foliage all around us. I must admit our first return of fire was a bit uncoordinated, but then I really hadn’t expected the enemy to come—barrelling out of what must have been their main position—in such strength. I was determined to be ready for them if they came out again and so the claymores were sited to break up any rush against our position. The company commander had told me to stay where I was and to keep him informed of enemy movement. I was quite happy to do this and not go trooping into large enemy camps. Our marker balloon was now up and functioning properly above the 60 feet high canopy above us.
It appeared from aircraft sightings that the enemy was situated in a series of bunker systems. Considerable movement had been spotted as our contacts were taking place. Until this time on operations we had had little need for air support in the form of fighter-bombers or helicopter gunships. That situation was about to change in a big way. The company commander was getting considerable artillery fire brought down on the enemy but with little effect on them from events reported by Graham Spinkston. He appeared to be up to his armpits in enemy and was asking for gunship support which could be brought in a lot closer to our own positions than artillery. We had been adjusting artillery fire in front of our own position for some time ourselves and my forward observer’s assistant had it dropping about 175 metres to our front. Just as I was listening to all this on the radio my forward sections reported movement out to our front again; so I told Jerry Taylor to stand by to send us some air support if things got nasty. No sooner had I moved up to where my floating gun was set up in the centre of the platoon, than firing broke out all along our front. The enemy had come out of the scrub about 30 metres or so in front of our position and on an oblique angle to the way we were facing. He looked like he was in a skirmish or assault formation and his frontage covered about 40 metres.
There were a couple of lines from the limited glimpses I had of them and their forward movement was in short, sharp rushes using fire and movement. We returned fire as he came closer and when they were about 25 metres from our position I gave the order to fire the two banks of claymores right into his assault. The noise from the claymores was deafening. A large black and grey cloud enveloped the whole of the front. The noise and shock of the claymore mines going off must have stirred everyone up as heavier firing broke out everywhere but I was damned if I could see too many enemy to shoot at. Indeed, to see what was going on I was forced to stand behind a large tree to get a better view.
The enemy was hurriedly withdrawing. Several lads reported seeing them dragging wounded away with them. I saw at least one soldier moving in a half crouch and he appeared to be pulling something which I was unable to see. I reported the contact to the company commander and also gave him the news that there was a hell of a lot of enemy about, as the number that came out against us sounded and felt like a couple of platoons. 12 Platoon was still in contact and I don’t think Jerry Taylor was too happy that we seemed to be getting into such a large contact. He still maintained his incredibly cool demeanour. I also told him I was now quite low on ammunition and needed an urgent resupply or operational demand (opdem) as soon as possible. Some of my riflemen were down to only a magazine or so and we would have trouble staving off another enemy contact like the last one we had just had. He replied that the regi
mental commanding officer, Lt Col Jim Hughes, was on his way out to our position—and that he had our ammo on board and would free-drop it into us. He added that fighter-ground attack aircraft and gunships were also on their way to give a hand. Things were really warming up.
This last action by the enemy was a fairly good indication that we had run into a large number of NVA. They were wearing the same pith helmets and greens with chest webbing as the two enemy we had contacted the day before. Jerry Taylor was now on the radio and telling everyone that we would be using artillery to try to dislodge the enemy and destroy as many of him as we could. It was becoming obvious that D Company was going to have another big day of it.
My platoon sergeant was madly running around redistributing what precious little gun ammo we had left. About fifteen minutes after our last fire fight, Lt Col Hughes came up on the radio and said he was heading for our position in his light observation helicopter and he would drop us our ammunition resupply. This was great news and we warned everyone in the platoon to keep their eyes peeled when it was dropped. The ammunition was pre-packed into magazines and bundled into sandbags for easier handling. Before long the commanding officer was overhead and hovering near our marker balloon. The sergeant had organised a couple of soldiers to go and collect the ammunition when it came down through the canopy. The trees were about 60 feet high and I was worried that the magazines would be damaged dropping from that height. As it turned out, only a handful of magazines were damaged to an extent that they couldn’t be used. A few mags broke open upon hitting the ground but we were able to empty the damaged magazines and use the ammunition.
I felt a lot safer once we had all the ammunition sorted out. Everyone went back to his first-line holding—10 twenty round magazines for the M16 rifles, and about 6 twenty round magazines for the self-loading rifles. Now I was called to the radio by a forward air controller who wanted to speak to me about air support. His radio appointment title was ‘Jade zero seven’. He was an American pilot flying over our position and he was going to coordinate and direct the aircraft who were waiting to attack the enemy position. He asked me what my initials were and what colour my marker balloon was. I told him ‘Golf Mike’ and orange and he gave me a ‘Wait out while I check you out’, and flew around to locate me through the canopy. After a minute or so he came up on our radio again and told me he had our position fixed and did I know that the enemy were moving around to my north about 150 metres away? I told him we could only see about 25–30 metres in front of us and he asked if I knew that there was a very large bunker system there as well. I told him I had a fairly good suspicion that was the case. He said, ‘Roger, Golf Mickey, just stay where you are and keep your head and ass tucked in—because help is on its way’.
About a minute after he went off the air he fired a white phosphorous rocket from his Bronco fixed wing plane which landed about 75 metres to our front in the jungle. We could see the dense white cloud of smoke where it had landed and as I was estimating how far out it was, Jade 07 came back on the air and said, ‘Golf Mickey, I put that Wilson Pickett about 75 yards to your centre front, how do you copy?’ I told the forward air controller that his shooting was on the spot and he said, ‘Roger, you are going to get two runs of F-4s (F-4 Phantom bombers) dropping bombs and strafing with cannon’. Sure enough about two minutes later an F-4 bomber screamed in overhead and dropped what sounded like 500 pound bombs into the jungle about 200 metres to our front. Jade 07 asked me what the drop was like and asked if I would like it closer. It was fine just where it was. The noise and shock wave of the bombs was horrendous and made any tank or artillery fire we had experienced seem tame. For about the next half an hour Jade 07 kept guiding in jet fighter bombers and other fighter-ground attack aircraft.
Because the dense vegetation was soaking up a lot of the shrapnel and blast, I decided to bring the fire in just a little closer. Just as we started to do this my soldiers reported that they thought they could see enemy movement to our front again.
All of the artillery and air support that was falling in on top of the NVA must have stirred them up and put them in a nasty mood. They came back out of the bunker system again and headed for where we were. I had moved from our original location to put us more or less on line with our marker balloon as I had been worried that a pilot would mistake it as being our forward line. Consequently the enemy put himself on an angle when he came back out to have another go at us and we caught him flank-on to a certain extent. We didn’t have too many claymores left and I didn’t want them wasted so I told the section commander who had them on our flank only to fire them as a last resort. I moved to where I could see the enemy moving across our front and lay down next to one of my gunners called Kingston-Powles. I could never remember his first name as he was always called ‘Kiwi’. He was a fairly experienced soldier having done a tour of South Vietnam previously as an artilleryman with the New Zealand Army.
We waited until the enemy was about 30 metres away and then everyone let rip with a magazine and the guns let off about 100 rounds. A heavy fire fight broke out but we seemed to be having the best of it. Everyone was staying behind good cover and shooting at movement and not wasting ammunition. It was pretty scary all the same as the noise from all the shooting was tremendous. Kingston-Powles’ gun jammed and had a stoppage. I could tell he was as scared as I was, as he was all thumbs as he carried out his stoppage drill. I could hear Darryl Jenkin talking to the diggers over on my left and he was keeping things calm on his side. The enemy was less reluctant to withdraw this time, probably because we didn’t have the terrific shock effect of the claymores to break up the assault. I got back onto the radio and asked our forward air controller if he could help us out. A new Jade callsign was now on the air as Jade 07 had gone off to refuel. The new Jade told me that ‘gunships were in-bound on our location’ and would be with us shortly.
Within minutes the US Army Iroquois gunships were flying across our front about 40 metres out or even less and strafing the area with 7.62 mm ‘minigun’ fire and 2.75 inch Zuni rockets. The effect of the minigun was devastating. This weapon is made up of a series of machine-gun barrels which rotate on a Gatling gun principle but it is electronically fired. The weapon system spits out around 2000 rounds per minute and when it fires it makes a noise not unlike a raspberry that a child makes when playing. When the gunships made their runs along our front they were ‘walking’ the rounds in toward us until I gave a check fire. The pilots were very accurate and we were able to bring the fire into about 25 metres but I was more content when it was 30 metres out. The Bushranger gunships from 9 Squadron RAAF were now in on the act and they were also firing in support of us. It seemed as if everyone from miles around was calling in to give a hand and drop his ordnance in front of us.
Jade 07 was now back in the air and was asking me how things were going. The enemy had dropped back a bit from us and I told Jade 07 that the enemy were still firing at us and appeared reluctant to break off the contact. In his somewhat inimitable fashion he came back with ‘You just hang in there Gold Mickey, while I rustle up some wall-to-wall heat’. Before he did this he told me he had a ‘section of snakes’ standing by and asked if I could use them. What he had said was that six Cobra gunships were ready to fire and I gave him the green light. We thought the firepower of the Iroquois gunships was great but the Cobra’s effect on the vegetation and ground was awesome. Not only did it fire miniguns and rockets but it also fired 40 mm grenades at 200 rounds per minute as well. The Cobra gunships came in side by side two at a time and absolutely tore the jungle to shreds. After about six passes by the Cobras it was possible to see about another 25 or 30 metres into the jungle.
As the Cobras left a couple of Phantom jets returned and made a pass over our front. Jade 07 came up on the air and told me the Phantoms were about to give us ‘wall-to-wall heat’ and we would be well advised to keep our heads down. The next couple of minutes were incredibly frightening. The F-4s came screaming in and streaked across our f
ront. There was nothing for a second or so and then about 150 metres to our front there was a big bang and a wave of heat hit us as the napalm bombs detonated. The noise and heat were intense as the jungle in front of us erupted into bright orange flame and thick black smoke. About half a dozen passes later the F-4s departed—and so did the enemy. We hadn’t had a shot fired at us for about five minutes and through all the smashed foliage it was difficult to see if anything was moving. I quickly checked around our perimeter and found we still hadn’t lost anyone and everyone was more or less in one piece although I do admit, a bit wide-eyed. The air support from the Americans was a great confidence booster and I could see by the looks on the faces of my men that they liked having it around.
It was now about 1.30 pm, and we had been in contact off and on for about four and a half hours. The company commander decided to reorganise and regroup the company before nightfall and see what would happen next. The platoons were about a kilometre apart and we were told to move to join company headquarters and 10 Platoon who were now together. I gave a set of quick orders and told everybody to keep their eyes peeled for the enemy and to move quietly. Artillery was still falling out to our front and we picked up occasional radio message traffic from the forward air controllers that the enemy were vacating the position by the hordes and heading for the high ground of Nui Le to the north.
By 2.30 pm we had regrouped as a whole company and the company commander called all the platoon commanders into his headquarters to give us a general update on what had been going on and what our next move would be. Everyone was on edge and the atmosphere reminded me of a dressing room at a football match just before a grand final. There was an air of expectancy and a little uncertainty. Jerry Taylor was the coach and we weren’t sure what he was going to say before we went out to play. After he told us that it looked as if we were up against a battalion position but that it was being abandoned by the enemy, we all gave a great sigh of relief. He told us to go back and brief our diggers and be back in about half an hour as he would be speaking with the commanding officer and tell us what would happen after that.