TANK BATTLE AT BEN HET – 3 MARCH 1969 They were strung like pearls on a necklace, with exotic names that could conjure visions of lost temples, Solomon’s mines, and dangerous intrigue: Bu Prang, Duc Lap, Ban Don, Tieu Atar, Duc Co, Plei Djereng, and Ben Het. At least the word “dangerous” applied to the seven far-flung Special Forces camps that were carved into the thick jungle and ragged mountaintops along the borders of South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Their mission was to monitor and interdict NVA infiltration moving down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Ben Het, perched with an airstrip on a barren mountaintop in the Central Highlands, was the northernmost of the camps. It was strategically important because it was located 8 miles west of the point where Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam conjoined. Ben Het was normally manned by a 12-man Green Beret A-team and some 200 Montagnard tribesmen forming a Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG), along with their families. Occasionally two M-107 self-propelled 175mm guns of the 7th Bn, 15th Field Artillery, would go on a raid out of Ben Het. A raid involved two guns and their supply elements moving at high speed to a location where they would fire ‘harassing and interdicting” (H&I) fire on NVA troops in neighboring Laos and Cambodia. They would then return to the relative safety of the CIDG camp. In late February 1969, a series of attacks occurred throughout South Vietnam as part of an NVA spring offensive, and those attacks included shellings of Allied positions in the Dak To-Ben Het area. American units were ordered into the “tri-border” area to shore up defenses there and those reinforcements included Company B, 1st Battalion, 69th Armor under the command of Captain John Stovall. Bravo Co., which was normally headquartered near Dak To under command of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, was assigned the mission of reinforcing Ben Het and securing Highway 512, the only road between the camp and Dak To. The tank company arrived at the Special Forces outpost on 25 February and was subjected to nearly continuous artillery fire from NVA positions both within South Vietnam and across the Cambodian border. The crewmen were rarely able to move more than a few feet from their tanks without dodging shrapnel or sniper-fire. The U.S. tanks and artillery attempted to respond, but had only limited success, as most of the enemy guns were dug into reinforced positions well inside Cambodia. On 1 March, the NVA artillery barrage slowed considerably. U.S. casualties had been light and consisted mostly of minor shrapnel wounds. The men were treated and returned to duty. Only one man had been evacuated; one of the tank company platoon leaders had suffered multiple fragmentation wounds and had been medevaced to Dak To. The 1st Platoon, Bravo Co. held a position on the west hill of the camp with four M48 Patton tanks, three of which were dug-in near the crest, facing west. They overlooked the valley through which Highway 512 wound toward the Cambodian border. Captain Stovall had moved forward and established a temporary command post in a nearby bunker, due to the loss of his platoon leader. Aside from the mortaring of resupply convoys coming in from Dak To and occasional harassing rounds from recoilless rifles and mortars, 1 and 2 March remained eerily quiet. The artillery fire had been so heavy for so long, it was disconcerting to be free of it for any length of time. At 2200 hours on 2 March, Platoon Sgt. Hugh Havermale contacted Capt. Stovall and advised him that his men were hearing some sort of vehicles moving west of camp. The two men went forward and scanned the area with night-vision glasses, but were unable to detect any movement. However, Stovall also heard the sound of engines running for about 20 minutes before they shut down. Morning broke with misty fog filling the valley that sprawled out before the camp. There was little enemy activity during the day and several CIDG recon teams were dispatched to the north, south and east. During the daily intelligence briefing, the camp commander advised the various unit commanders that an enemy attack was imminent and might include an armor capability. As darkness settled over the camp, the defenders were on high alert, awaiting what they assumed would be a full-force NVA attack by units of unknown size and capabilities. At 2100 hours, the camp began receiving recoilless-rifle fire, followed by heavy mortar and artillery fire. Over the roar of the artillery, the tank crews began to hear the familiar sound of engines, and this time it was coupled with the distinctive rumbling of tracked vehicles. Stovall was scanning the area with a night-vision scope and infrared searchlights when an enemy vehicle was suddenly illuminated. It had detonated an anti-personnel minefield located about 800 meters from the camp’s perimeter, and some portion of the vehicle had caught fire. In the light thrown out by the blaze, three NVA tanks and an armored personnel carrier were visible. The lumbering vehicles were approaching the coils of concertina wire surrounding the camps perimeter and the U.S. tank crews opened fire with high-explosive rounds. Capt. Stovall received a report of a fourth enemy tank approaching the left flank of the Allied positions near the camp airstrip and one of the CIDG patrols reported a 10-15 vehicle column moving east toward the camp from the border area. He called for illumination rounds from one of the mortar teams, and the tank crews continued firing, making direct hits on at least two of the NVA tanks and the carrier, causing them to burst into flame. Stovall mounted one of the Patton tanks, and as he stepped behind the turret, an enemy tank round exploded nearby, throwing him off the back deck. The blast also blew the tank commander out of the cupola and 10 feet to the rear of the tank, severely wounding both Stovall and the commander. It also killed the loader and the driver who had been manning an externally mounted machinegun. Apparently the tank had received a direct hit from one of the NVA tanks after its position was compromised by a descending flare. The M48 was still viable, so another crew was scrambled to fill its fighting positions and it rejoined the battle. The exchange of fire continued briefly, but enemy fire gradually subsided. The NVA vehicles were withdrawing; the expected ground assault was not going to take place. U.S. tanks fired several more HE rounds into one of the enemy hulks, reducing it to a pile of rubble, just as B Company’s 2nd Platoon arrived in relief. Lt. Ed Nickels, the 2nd Platoon leader, took charge of the company, in Capt. Stovall’s absence. An AC-47 Spooky gunship arrived over the camp, harassing the NVA withdrawal, and the rest of the evening remained fairly quiet with only an occasional round fired. At daybreak, a battlefield recon team discovered two destroyed Russian-built PT-76 tanks and a burned-out BTR-50 APC which had been left behind by the retreating NVA force. Green Berets patrolling the area near the border also found an abandoned enemy vehicle assembly area. On that March morning in 1969, there seemed to be no logical explanation for why the NVA would mount such an attack on Ben Het. The attack was brief and had no infantry unit with it, so its purpose was unclear, but the U.S. 15th Field Artillery unit was the target. The NVA 202nd Armored Regiment had been given the task of destroying the 175mm self-propelled guns and stopping their “raids.” It is probable that the NVA unit in Cambodia was unaware of the presence of the 69th Armor Company at the camp. The tank unit had been there for only a short time and was well concealed. It seems doubtful that the enemy would have committed its scarce armor resources against dug-in Patton tanks if they had known they were there. This engagement, although brief, marked the first time since Korea, 16 years before, that a U.S. armor unit had decisively engaged enemy tanks. And of the U.S. Armys three armor (tank) battalions in Vietnam, only the 1/69th engaged in a tank to tank duel during the Vietnam War – 3 March 1969.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 23:01:55 +0000
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