The fighting spread across II Corps on the night of 23–24 August when enemy mortar and rocket crews shelled more than thirty locations, among them An Khe, Bong Son, Phan Thiet, and Phan Rang. That same evening, the 66th Regiment from the 1st Division plus the 20th Sapper Battalion and several heavy weapons units converged on Duc Lap, a small village in west ern Quang Duc Province approximately seven kilometers from Cambodia. The division’s 320th Regiment established a blocking position on Highway 14 northeast of Duc Lap to intercept allied ground units coming from Ban Me Thuot. The 95C Regiment stayed back near the Cambodian border with the division’s headquarters and support units. The Dak Sak Special Forces camp, a collection of log and sandbag bun kers manned by two mobile strike force companies, a South Vietnamese Special Forces team, U.S. Special Forces Detachment A–239, and a few Australian advisers, lay approximately five kilometers southeast of the larg est hamlet in Duc Lap village. Highway 14 bisected the community, extending southwest toward Cambodia and northeast toward Ban Me Thuot. Inside the main hamlet was a subdistrict headquarters, a wood and earth fortification not much larger than a football field defended by a half-dozen or so Special Forces advisers and a Regional Forces company. Another Regional Forces company manned the Bon Sar Pa outpost, located three kilometers to the southwest on a knoll overlooking Highway 14.35 The attack began in the early morning hours of 24 August when two squads from the 20th Sapper Battalion crept up to the Duc Lap subsector head quarters and cut through several layers of protective wire without alerting the 34 ORLL, 1 Aug–31 Oct 68, 23d Inf Div, p. 10; AAR, Opn Burlington trail, 1st Sqdn, 1st Cav, n.d., pp. 3–4, box 31, AARs, Asst Ch of Staff, J–3, MACV, RG 472, NACP. 35 AAR, Battle for Duc Lap, I FFV, 24 Sep 68, pp. 4–5, box 29, AARs, Asst Ch of Staff, J–3, MACV, RG 472, NACP. 658 Thwarting the Third Wave guards. They stormed into the compound and began throwing satchel charges, while a North Vietnamese infantry company stationed outside the wire raked the compound with covering fire. One of the satchel charges partly collapsed the advisory team headquarters, wounding five of the Americans who were sleeping inside. When they emerged to rally the Montagnard defenders, heavy enemy fire killed one of the advisers and drove the rest back (Map 47).36 Trapped in their headquarters, the advisers in the subsector compound radioed the Dak Sak camp for help, only to learn that it, too, was under heavy attack. North Vietnamese troops had penetrated the wire and occu pied part of the northern hill inside the camp. Nevertheless, the command group at Dak Sak promised to send a company of mobile strike force soldiers when daylight came. In the meantime, an AC–47 Spooky gunship arrived to suppress enemy mortar and machine-gun positions beyond the reach of the defenders’ weapons.37 At General An’s headquarters in Ban Me Thuot, the South Vietnamese commander met with Generals Peers and Stone to discuss the relief of Duc Lap and the security of the provincial capital. To shore up the latter, Peers ordered General Allen to airlift the 4th Battalion of the 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade, from Tuy Hoa to Ban Me Thuot where it would join the newly created Task Force sPoiler . Commanded by Col. Herbert J. McChrystal, the task force included his 2d Brigade, 4th Division, as well as the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry, two troops from the 7th Squadron, 17th Air Cavalry, and seven artillery batteries. General An ordered a battalion from the 47th Infantry Regiment to redeploy from Phu Yen Province to Ban Me Thuot. The South Korean Expeditionary Force offered to provide additional troops should the need arise.38 Turning to the relief of Duc Lap, General An dispatched two battal ions from the 45th Regiment that were currently patrolling Highways 14 and 21 near Ban Me Thuot. General Stone arranged for the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry, to defend the highways during their absence. General An also received permission from his corps commander to fly in several mobile strike force companies from the coastal lowlands. They and the two South Vietnamese battalions would receive direct 105-mm. artillery support from Colonel McChrystal’s 2d Brigade, 4th Division. After establishing a new fire base three kilometers southwest of the Dak Sak camp, McChrystal agreed to fly in Battery A from the 4th Battalion, 42d Artillery, and two platoons from the 2d Battalion, 35th Infantry, organized as Task Force lanCe. Peers provided additional help to the Duc Lap defenders with five B–52 arC light strikes that bombed the surrounding hills later that day.39 36 Ibid., p. 16. 37 Ibid., pp. 13, 19–22. 38 ORLL, 1 Aug–31 Oct 68, 7th Armd Sqdn, 17th Air Cav, 11 Aug 68, p. 8, box 60; ORLL, 1 Aug–31 Oct 68, 4th Inf Div, pp. 2–3, Encl 1, box 25. Both in ORLLs, 1966–1971, Cmd Historian, HQ, USARV, RG 472, NACP. Msg, Peers NHT 1125 to Abrams, 6 Aug 68, Abrams Msg files, CMH. 39 AAR, Battle for Duc Lap, I FFV, pp. 25–26. 659 Staying the Course 66(-) PAVN I I I 66(-) PAVN I I I 66(-) PAVN I I I BREACH ZONE BREACH ZONE 25 Aug 1000 hours 24 Aug BREACH ZONE BREACH ZONE 562d Co Ammunition Dump 563d Co Headquarters 563d Co Ammunition Dump 561st Co Headquarters 561st Co Ammunition Dump Tactical Operations Center 564th Co Ammunition Dump 564th Co Headquarters Camp Perimeter 24–25 August 1968 SKETCH NOT TO SCALE ATTACK ON DUC LAP SPECIAL FORCES CAMP Enemy Limit of Advance, Date Area under Enemy Control MaP 47 On the morning of 24 August, U.S. helicopters airlifted a mobile strike force company into Duc Lap, landing them outside the wire of the main camp. Fighting its way into Dak Sak, the Montagnard unit attacked the enemy-held hill on the northern side of the compound. The assault failed with heavy losses. U.S. helicopters tried to land on the airfield to retrieve the dozens of Montagnard casualties, but North Vietnamese machine guns on the hill shot down four of the aircraft, discouraging further attempts for the moment. The allied situation at Duc Lap began to improve late that afternoon when helicopters positioned the South Vietnamese 2d Battalion, 45th 660 Thwarting the Third Wave Regiment, into a landing zone near the subsector headquarters in Duc Lap village. Enemy fire brought down two helicopters, but the other aircraft got the battalion on the ground before nightfall. Around dusk, another flight of helicopters deposited two mobile strike force companies into a clearing three kilometers south of the Special Forces camp, securing the site for Task Force lanCe set to arrive the next day.40 The twenty-fifth of August proved to be the turning point in the battle for Duc Lap. The North Vietnamese renewed their attack against the subsector headquarters, now down to 61 troops out an original complement of 118, but the defenders held out until relieved by the South Vietnamese 2d Battalion, 45th Regiment. After rescuing the compound, General An’s battalion swept the high ground to the north where the attack had originated and forced the North Vietnamese to retreat from the village of Duc Lap entirely. The situation that day at the Dak Sak Special Forces camp was more precarious. The attacking North Vietnamese infantry took complete control over the small hill that dominated the northern end of the compound, forcing the defenders—three depleted mobile strike force companies plus their U.S., South Vietnamese, and Australian advisers—to withdraw to a second, larger hill at the southern end of the camp where the main command post and most of the advisory buildings were located. Help arrived just in time. Once the artillery battery from Task Force lanCe deployed at its designated landing zone three kilometers to the south of Dak Sak, the two mobile strike force companies that had secured the position the night before headed north and fought their way into the Special Forces camp at around 1300 on 25 August. The Montagnards broke up a North Vietnamese attack, hitting the enemy from the flank as Communist soldiers advanced across the runway toward the southern hill. After push ing the foe back to the northern hill, the two Montagnard units, joined by a fresh mobile strike force company that had just arrived from Pleiku, waited for air and artillery strikes to soften up the position before they assaulted the summit. North Vietnamese fire cut down dozens of the attackers, killing three U.S. advisers who led the charge, but the remaining irregulars swept to the top of the hill. By 1900, the entire Dak Sak Special Forces camp was back in allied hands.41 The intensity of the fighting diminished on the twenty-sixth. The South Vietnamese 2d Battalion, 45th Regiment, continued to battle enemy troops in the hills just north of the subdistrict headquarters, but the 66th Regiment made no effort to renew its siege of the Dak Sak Special Forces camp. By 27 August, the crisis in the Duc Lap area appeared to be over. General An flew in the South Vietnamese 1st Battalion, 45th Infantry Regiment, just as a precaution, but the government troops found little trace of the 1st Division in the days that followed.42 40 Ibid., pp. 28–29. 41 Ibid., pp. 31–35. 42 Periodic Intel Rpt no. 35-68, I FFV, 25–31 Aug 68, 31 Aug 68, p. 4, Historians files, CMH. 661 Staying the Course Allied casualties for the battle of Duc Lap came to 114 killed and 238 wounded. Seven of the dead were U.S. advisers. The I Field Force estimated that over 700 North Vietnamese soldiers had perished, most from air and artillery strikes. Allied commanders later learned that the 1st Division had ended the campaign prematurely due to a lack of trained replacements, food shortages, sickness magnified by the rainy conditions, and a scarcity of arms and ammunition.43 U.S. commanders praised the performance of the South Vietnamese at Duc Lap. General Peers singled out the 1st and 2d Battalions of the 45th Infantry Regiment, which in his words had “demonstrated professional ism and a fighting spirit equal to that of any unit in the history of the war.” Abrams called the performance of the South Vietnamese “magnificent” and said that General An had handled the Duc Lap battle “with consummate skill.” Tragically, an air accident claimed the life of An and his wife on 8 September. He was posthumously promoted to major general and awarded the highest decoration in the Vietnamese Army.44