Army Reporter information
for 25 INF DIV
For date 680330
25 INF DIV was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Operation SARATOGA
Hau Nghia Province, III Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Cu Chi
Description: The following is an edited version of an article titled "Saigon To Cu Chi Saratoga Clearing Out Reds" dated 30 Mar 1968.
Operation Saratoga infantrymen of all three 25th Inf Div brigades, searching through a wide arc from the Saigon River almost to Cu Chi, killed 243 Communists in scattered but continuous actions during the first week of March. Fighting ranged in intensity from all-day battles to brief, sporadic contacts between the U.S. soldiers and VC. Daily air strikes and artillery barrages poured on enemy positions in support of the 25th Inf. Div. soldiers, under the operational control of the 2nd Bde. In the heaviest fighting throughout the brigade, the 4/9th Inf, 1st Bde engaged well-armed enemy forces in a series of pitched battles four miles north of Saigon. The infantrymen encountered the enemy forces, believed to be elements of the 2nd (G Mon) Battalion, as they conducted reconnaissance-in-force missions through a dense rubber plantation. Troopers of the American battalion swept through the area, killing 20 enemy and capturing two assault rifles. Artillery and armed helicopters supported the unit throughout the day. Two days later, the battalion again came in heavy contact with entrenched VC, fighting from shortly after noon until 10 o'clock at night. Twenty-three communists were killed and two secondary explosions were observed in the enemy positions. Throughout the week, the 1st Bde unit continued to make heavy contact with enemy units poised along the Saigon River north of the capital. So far a total of 89 VC have been killed. Operating to the north of the 4/9th Inf., and the 3/22d Inf, 3rd Bde also met stiff enemy resistance. The battalion, working with river boats of E/65th Engr, conducted nightly ambush patrols and daytime reconnaissance operations. The amphibious operations met with "great success," a 2d Bde spokesman said, in carrying ground troops to areas inaccessible by land and in disrupting enemy supply movements on the Saigon River and the canal system bordering in it. On one night alone, a solitary ambush patrol from A/3/22d Inf. fired antitank weapons into a procession of sampans moving at different intervals down one of the canals, slaying 12 VC and sinking all five boats. Supported by tactical air strikes and artillery ,the Tropic LIghtning unit accounted for 40 enemy dead during the weeklong period. An armor-infantry task force, meanwhile, operated in the vicinity of Tan Hoa, a village 3 miles east of the Cu Chi base camp and the scene of heavy fighting early in February. The task force composed of headquarters elements and A/2/34th Armor and a company each from the 1/5th Inf and the 4/23d Inf, combed the area for enemy supply points and troop concentrations. The task force met only light resistance throughout the area, which apparently had served as a major VC supply center. C/1/5th Inf. discovered 82 mortar rounds, 3,300 rounds of small arms ammunition, 100 pounds of medical supplies, three rocket launchers, a radio, 100 enemy life vests and 500 VC gas masks. Throughout the seven-day period, the task force accounted for at least 23 communists killed and numerous weapons captured. An ambush patrol from the A/2/27th Inf killed all four VC moving by on a sampan. The Wolfhounds later located the bodies of 19 more VC slain in recent actions. Total enemy losses for the week included 46 enemy killed by artillery, another nine killed in air strikes, five by armed helicopters and four more by miscellaneous actions. Equipment losses for the VC included 19 automatic weapons ,four light machineguns, 13 rocket launchers, 264 rounds of rocket ammunition, one 82mm mortar and 104 mortar rounds, 15 122mm rockets and 31 pounds of documents. The Operation Saratoga troops also destroyed at least 150 bunkers, tunnels and other enemy fortifications.
The source for this information was 6803AR.AVN supplied by Les Hines
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Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023