Pacific Stars and Stripes, Vol.21, No. 333              Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1965

"WAS FIGHT TO FINISH"

VC, Viet Toll High In "Fiercest" Battle

    Saigon (AP) - Relief troops Sunday carefully picked their way across a devastated rubber planation littered with scores of Vietnamese dead.  A U.S. military spokesman said government casualties were heavy in the action which took place about 45 miles north-northwest of Saigon  An infantry regiment was hit by human waves of Viet Cong in the Michelin rubber planation early Saturday.  The headquarters unit and two battalions were overrun and massacred.
    The casualties could be the highest in any single action of the war.
    The Vietnamese regimental commander and his American advisor were killed.  Casualties among the Americans also were reported to have been heavy.
    A U.S. spokesman said Vietnamese troops reported counting 300 enemy dead.
    There was still no full account by late Sunday of what took place during the battle Saturday.  A U.S. spokesman said "there is still a lot of understandable confusion up there."
    There was little doubt, however, that the communist planned and executed a devastating attack with precision, coordination and fearlessness, the spokesman said.
    Associated Press photographer Horst Faas visited the battle ground Sunday and reported that the area was reoccupied by government forces at noon.
    Faas found Vietnamese and Americans lying dead in their foxholes surrounded by spent cartridges, attesting to a fight to the finish.  Faas saw rubber trees pierced by bullets and shrapnel dripping latex.
    Among the government dead were some troops, who appeared to have been executed.  A U.S. sergeant reported that a group of Vietnamese soldiers who gave themselves up at a loud speaker request of the attacking Viet Cong were gunned down.
    Remnants of the government regiment were back in the battle area late Sunday picking up their dead.  The wounded had been moved out in a dramatic rescue by U.S. helicopters Saturday afternoon.
    The helicopters flew into a clearing where the wounded had been carried and were loaded so full that the helicopter crews had to toss off their ammunition and personal gear.
    The attack came at dawn Saturday and struck with furry against the regimental group deployed in foxholes around a clearing and straddling a road inside the sprawling planation.
    "The initial communist fire sounded like a volley of a huge firing squad," a U.S. Ranger advisor said.
    Within minutes, his Ranger battalion, separated from the main regimental force, knew that the regimental commander was dead.
    The Viet Cong attacked with enormous firepower from three sides and split the regiment in two.
They then swept across the headquarters unit and two battalions. The regimental command post had been in the same place for four days.
    The main attack lasted about three hours, survivors said.  The regimental remnants retreated about 1,300 yards, fighting all the way, and leaving scores of dead behind.
    Continuous artillery fire bracketed the government positions during the night, but the Viet Cong had apparently slipped away into the hills to the west.
    Unconfirmed reports said the Vietnamese regimental commander, a full colonel, was captured by the communist, tortured and then shot.
    There were no firm figures available on government killed, wounded and missing.