fight for Hill 875 information
for 2/503 ABN
355 AHC
battle of Dak To
For date 671119
2/503 ABN was a US Army unit
355 AHC was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Operation MACARTHUR
South Vietnam
Description: Cos C and D, 2/503d ABN, 173d ABN BDE tackled the northern slop of Hill 875. After four hours of increasingly heavy return fire, they were abruptly assaulted by waves of NVA. Co A, the reserve, was at the bottom of the hill cutting an LZ when waves of screaming NVA charged through its positions in such force that two platoons simply evaporated. The six-man command group was wiped out in hand-to-hand combat. To make matters worse, a USAF bomb landed in their perimeter which killed 20 and wounded another 30. Later supporting arty starting landing on the beleagured force. An NCO ran from radio to radio until he found one that worked and frantically turned the freq knob until he happened to find the DFC and could adjust the errant shells. The 335th AHC lost six Hueys trying to reinforce this situation.
The source for this information was Rise & Fall P:164
Rise & Fall = The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1963 - 1973 by Shelby Stanton.
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: Gary Roush Email address: webmaster@vhpa.org
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Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023