Battle of Dai Do Part 1

near the end of April 1968 one of the most fiercely fought but little-known battles of the Vietnam War pitted Marines of battalion landing team two for the magnificent bastards against the North Vietnamese three hundred and twentieth division it took place on a piece of terrain approximately one and a half miles northeast of headquarters of the third Marine Division which was located at the Dong Hawk combat base the engagement is known both as the Battle of dido for the principle village where the fighting occurred and a battle of Dong Ha for the principle target of the NVA forces the fighting extended over a three-day period this is the only engagement of the entire Vietnam conflict where a single reinforced battalion sized Marine unit with less than 1,000 effective fighting men which was supported by an intense naval gunfire fought head-to-head with the division sized unit of between 6,000 to 10,000 regular NVA soldiers who were augmented with 600 guerrillas and who were supported by artillery from the Demilitarized Zone the Dong Ha combat base was a strategic importance to the entire Marine Corps effort in a northern I Corps because essentially all of the logistic support for the units in the area came from this base destruction of the ammunition fuel and supplies that were stored in Dong Ha would have severely limited the tactical activity of all the marine units defending along the Demilitarized Zone enemy control of dido area would have prevented resupply activity using naval vessels on the Croisette and bodu rivers which accounted for more than 90 percent of the materials and supplies that were transported to Dong Ha Lieutenant Colonel William Wiese bill was a commander of magnificent bastards during this battle bill had assumed command of the 2nd battalion 4th Marine Regiment in October of 1967 in December of that year the Magnificent bastards were assigned as the ground component a special landing force alpha which along with a helicopter squadron and a combat service support component were embarked aboard and ready group alphas ships off the coast of Vietnam once designated the battalion was reinforced with various attached units of artillery engineer amphibious vehicles reconnaissance tanks on toast and other combating combat support units and designated BLT - for a task organized unit capable of conducting and fibia stopper a shove March 1968 the Magnificent bastards were lifted by helicopter to my Siachen on the northern shore of the quad via for almost two months prior to the Battle of dido the BLT was engaged in heavy contact with NVA units who attempted to travel down Jones Creek a well-traveled infiltration route from the DMZ to various locations in the south this combat activity made BLT 2 for a battle-hardened albeit somewhat depleted in numbers and physically exhausted unit of Marines serving under an extraordinary leader who in his earlier days was referred to as Wild Bill wheeze it seemed as if bill wheeze had prepared himself during all of his adult life for the battle of Dido from the streets of South Philadelphia where he spent his drawing years and met his wife Ethel to the hallowed halls of Temple University he was a natural to become a leader of Marines he saw combat action in Korea went to the Army Ranger school taught at the basic School in Quantico was a rifle company commander and a battalion operations officer he served in two of the Marine Corps his elite force reconnaissance companies he was both jump in scuba qualified he attended the Army's command and staff course and was selected for a tour as the marine instructor for this course bill was in Korea when he decided to accept back-to-back unaccompanied tours so that he would have an opportunity to serve his country as battalion commander in Vietnam the interlacing of command and teaching would be put to the supreme test at Dido Keith Nolan in his book about Dido entitled the magnificent bastards describes in detail the tactics used by Bill that led to his assignment as a battalion commander of the magnificent bastards yes bill we said systematically prepared himself for the opportunity to lead a battalion of Marines into combat against enemy forces the larger the enemy for us the better bill would like the odds I came walking in and I saw him in the planning just as they were finishing up he turned around he slammed his fist into the table and he says we've got him we know where they're at we're not going to let him get away and I don't care what it's going to take we could get our outfit here and we're going after him we'll go in after him now what bill was not prepared for however was that he would be denied access to all of his blt assets with which to fight the numerically stronger North Vietnamese division when the battle was joined Bill's maneuver units consisted of just one under-strength company and two platoons of another company additionally he had just two operational m48 tanks and the remnants of a platoon of amphibian tractors operational control of other blt assets would be released to bill Wiese on a piecemeal basis over the three-day period of the intense fighting this story is that of the Battle of Dido from its beginning on 29 April 1968 until the afternoon of the third day when bill Wiese was severely wounded and was evacuated from the battlefield Billy's a retired Brigadier General of Marines is the storyteller the Battle of Dido was a fierce bloody brutal struggle between the 2nd battalion 4th Marines an under strength unit and the elite 320th north of Vietnamese army division during three hot humid days in April and May of 1968 the battle succeeded because we stopped the enemy from closing the river we pushed him back and prevented him from launching an assault on dog hot combat things the thing that triggered a battle was the enemy firing on a landing craft utility boat the spurring supplies up the quad river through the bodu River over to the ramp at Don ha this occurred about Oh 400 on the 30th of April and because the division reserve had previously been committed to other actions and we were the nearest unit we were test with the mission of clearing the portion of the bank where the fire came from and reopening the river which had been closed to Navy traffic because of the attack on the LCU my battalion was spread out in its tactical area area of operations along the north bank of the quad Viet River not far from the South China Sea when this battle started one of my companies have been taken away and was under the operational control of the third Marine Division on highway 1 another company could not be moved that was Golf Company which guarded the northern area of our t AOR open e ha lambs 1 East nor could one of the platoons of Fox Company which was located in the village of my lock over to our right so when things started to get hot I actually had only one and 2/3 rifle companies to maneuver with the nearest rifle company hotel occupied the southwest portion of our t AOR and it was spread out in a number of patrol bases and it took a while for them to assemble in order to carry out their mission of clearing of taking and clearing on line also we had to move the boundary lines which was then on a stream just to the left of hotel company over to another stream further west so that we could move maneuver freely in that area without having to coordinate our supporting arms or maneuver with the arvin forces which was usually difficult and bureaucratic and delayed during this period of assembly and preparation for the clearing of on lot I border a monitor it was an LCM six a World War two landing craft that had been specially configured for riverine operations in Vietnam it was armored along the sides and it was equipped with weapons that the LCM six normally didn't have namely a breech loaded 81-millimeter mortar and several machine guns also the cockpit of that from where the Coxon operated was raised and enabled me to see the action in the area that we were operating in very clearly from the river and gave me a degree of mobility they wouldn't have if I was on the ground so we moved into the area and has hotel company moved to Bock Fong a village which was just across the stream from Don Juan it came under heavy fire from Don wad and from the village of Dido so in order to investigate and clear on log we first had to take the village of Don Juan and this was the mission that I assigned to hotel company supported by the two platoons of Foxtrot company not Adan am friends our small reconnaissance platoon under command of first lieutenant bill Mueller and our two m48 tanks on the base of fire from hotel company from the hamlet Bob Connor once he was organized captain Williams the commanding officer of hotel company found a crossing point which was well north of the village of Don Juan which to cross the small stream and then he had to move south across the open overgrown rice paddies to get into an assault position against Don Juan this he did with excellent use of smoke and Willie Peter fire to conceal his movement when we kicked off that assault there was no stopping those Marines they had fixed bayonets they were firing from the hip they were moving fast across that dry rice paddy and when they hit that Ville just as the the naval gunfire and the smoke lifted the enemy was looking down the faces of bayonets in' and m16 muzzles and i don't think they ever knew what hit him also once he started his movement Foxtrot company moved across the stream and put heavy fire into the dido area to confuse the enemy as to the direction of our attack and exactly what was happening on our side with this type of support and with this concealment I watched hotel company move across without seeing one marine stick his head up they literally crawl that entire distance into the assault position conducted their assault on order and swept through the village of Don Juan they had to fight their way inch by inch from fortified bunker to fortified bunker unfortunately during this initial fighting Captain Williams was seriously wounded and had to be medically evacuated first lieutenant Scotty Prescott the executive officer took over the company and continued the assault finally they completed the assault and occupation and consolidation Don Juan after about three hours of heavy fighting once I was sure that hotel company had a strong grip on Don Juan I ordered Foxtrot company to go forward and assault the village of Dido however the enemy positions in Dido were so strong and the fire was so fierce that the small force of two platoons from Foxtrot company were unable to do that they actually reached the edge of Dido but could not push their way in so we had Foxtrot company at that point spread out over the open area east of Dido hotel company consolidating at Don Juan and no other resources readily available you

Channel: marinepurple

Views: 112,429

Keywords: Vietnam, Battles, Marines, 2/4 Bastards, History, Dai Do

Id: DOOH2POXOT0

Length: 14min 12sec (852 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 26 2011