Ancient history

A fierce fight

The fire falling on the defensive perimeter increased in intensity when Cie. D, on the left flank of Cie. C, was attacked, and at 07:45 the landing area was covered with rocket, mortar and automatic weapon fire. The 7th of Cav. responded with full firepower, and the enemy suffered heavy casualties. By 7:55 a.m. the situation had reached such a degree of seriousness that Moore ordered each Sn. to indicate its position by colored smoke.
They obviously revealed friendly positions to the North Vietnamese but, more importantly, they also revealed them to the pilots of friendly aircraft who intervened with bombs and napalm so close that they reached the ammunition reserve by accident. The North Vietnamese had targeted the mortars that had been massed and knocked out a few. Moore had no choice but to ask Brown again for another Co. At 9:10 a.m., Co. A of 2nd Bn. landed under heavy fire and went to take up position in the extension of the Co. B of the same Bn.

Finally, around 10:00 a.m., the tons of projectiles that had been dumped from the air and ground began to produce some results, and the enemy pressure reduced to harassing fire. This moment of respite allowed the riders to resupply ammunition, bring the wounded to the aid post and resume the wait. Fortunately, the 2nd Bn. of the 5th of Cav. had crossed the 3 km which separated him from the place of combat and, after overcoming a slight resistance, he made his entry at noon into the landing zone X-RAY, which brought the forces there, to nine Coys ., four of whom had been badly strangled.
Moore reviewed the situation with Lieutenant-Colonel R.B. Tully, commanding officer of the Bn. who had just arrived. The first thing to do was to clear the Sn. isolated. As they knew the way, it was agreed that the men of Cie. B of 2nd Bn. of the 7th Cav., would drive Tully toward Savage at 1:15 p.m., while Tully's A and C Companies would lend weight to the operation. To presumably draw the enemy's attention away from Tully, Moore organized a new exit around the perimeter at the same time as he searched the interior to counter possible infiltrations. The troops moved through the bloodstained grass to find enemy corpses piled up behind the anthills. The failure suffered by the sortie executed during the morning resulted in American corpses surrounded by enemy corpses.