The first
"S" mine was the Schrapnellmine 35 (SMi-35). The SMi 35 was
buried with just its ignites protruding above ground or connected to trip
wires. When tripped, the SMi 35 ejected a small cylinder that scattered some
350 small steel balls over an area of 164 yards. The Allies dubbed these the
"Bouncing Betty." The Stock mine operated on a similar
principle to the SMi 35; however, the device was fixed on a wooded stake above
ground. These are sometimes referred to as "stake mines". The body of
the SMi 35 was comprised of a concrete cylinder that held the charge and the
shrapnel. The shrapnel was scattered when the trip wire was moved.
Digging up a Bouncing Betty AP mine.
Members of the 504th Parachute regiment practice their detection, removal and disarming skills.
Inhale |
Exhale |
Digging up a Bouncing Betty AP mine.
Members of the 504th Parachute regiment practice their detection, removal and disarming skills. |
At 1243 PM Co C. have hit mine at coord. 588833
We have 6 casualties, 1 serious, need medivac.
At 1300 dustoff over Co. C now. Unable to land
At wounded person’s position. Picking LZ at this
Time. (Dustoff completed 1315)
At 1328, Co. C: spot report. Ref. mines,
2 KHA-
Lt. Scully,
PFC Hall,
2 serious wounded-
SSG Conroy,
SGT Montgomery,
Not seriously wounded,
SGT. Walker.
SP4 Thrasher,
PFC Garner,
SP4 Elston,
PFC Henderson,
PFC Howes.
At 1329, Ref Co C mine report. Plat penetrated old
defensive
Wire 300 meters.
Point man stepped on mine. 2 KHA,
3 WHA serious, 5 WHA not serious.
The events of this week are noteworthy. They are well
documented in a paper titled, Seven Days in April. The mission was to cordon
off an area we called, “Sniper Alley”. LINK TO IMAGE. The plan
said, put a ring around the area, drop CS gas in the middle and shoot whatever
runs out of
the smoke. It took us three days to move into position, one day to pass gas and
3 days to hump out of the area. We hit 7 mines, suffered 6 dead and 13 wounded .
April 19 1968
At 0856, Co C request dustoff for 3 US WHA due to
detonation of booby trapped AP mine Vic. BS533853
DUSTOFF completed 0902. 1 other US KHA. Pers
concerned:
SP4 Pennamon,
R. (KHA);
2LT O’Neill, J. (WHA);
PFC Hargrove, L.(KHA);
Finn. WHA
April 22, 1968
At 0715 Co. C. request dustoff coord. BS504875: 1 US litter, gunshot stomach
wound.
Dustoff completed 0724, 1 US WHA Sgt. Fox Donald.
At 0920 Co. C. requested Dustoff.
1 USA WHA
Sgt Jeffrety, Richard,
1 USA KHA
PFC Price Michael, G.
cause, antipersonnel mine
April 23, 1968
At1405 Co. C. req Dustoff for 2 US WHA from detonating Bouncing Betty AP mine.
DUSTOFF completed 1420.
At 1511 Co. C.
requested a Dustoff for 2 US KHA Vic. BS 527853,
resulting from detonation of M16 AP mine.
Lewis Harmon,
KHA,
Russel lee Mathney, KHA
April 24, 1968
At 1836 Co. C. requested a Dustoff coord. BS535801.
Tripped booby trap resulting in 3 US WHA;
Pfc. John Pollte,
Pvt. Thomas Brzoska,
Pvt. Peyton Leslie,
DUSTOFF completed 1850.
April 25, 1968
At 1520 Co. C. requested Dustoff Vic. BS533798. Result of M16A1 AP mine.
Pfc. Eric Ficklin, KHA.
SP4 George Jacobs, WHA.
Pfc. George Daise, WHA.
At 1627 Co. C.
requested a Dustoff for 2 psychological casualties
Click logo to enter
|
Australian APC_Vietnam_1970 |
Link to IMAGE of battle location
This Battle took place
approx. 7 clicks South Southwest of LZ BUF. Charlie Co. 4/3, mounted on APC’s,
is sweeping the Horseshoe on the north side of the SONG TRA KHUC river.
The Journal log summary tells the 
story; 4/3 Inf. Continues offensive search
and sweep operations in the BUF AO. At 0915H Company D
received AW fire from BS556825 w/1 US WHA and evacuated by C&C at 0924H. At 1030H Company C apprehended 20 VCS (Viet cong suspect), MAM’s (military age
males) and the VCS were brought to
LZ BUF. At 1305H Co C requested DUSTOFF for 1 US WHA by SA
fire in the head and the DUSTOFF was completed at 1335H. Later the US died of
wounds.
At 1345H Company C made
contact with a platoon size VC/NVA element at BS510765. The enemy was using AW and RPG’s
against the APC’s.
APC |
RPG |
|
4 US were WHA from the
APC’s by the RPG fire. Company C then spotted Bunkers and Concertina wire. The
Company directed Fast-movers and Cobra Gun ships to
suppress the enemy fire.
F-15 |
Cobra |
|
At 1420H Co C had 5 US WHA and DUSTED off at
1445H from the contact. At 1630H Company C moved to a Ville East of OP #1. At this point Co C observed persons
moving around positioning themselves in the Ville and some were moving out of
the Western portion of the Ville.
Combat Assault |
|
Company B (which had CA’d into BS524774) moved
to the contact area and received heavy AW fire resulting in 6 US WHA and 4 US KHA. Company B then linked up with
company C and they conducted a coordinated attack. Company C then received 1 US
KHA and 3 US WHA. An air strike was placed on the suspected enemy
location and at 1700H 4/3 Inf. Request reinforcements from the 198th LIB. The last air strike
drew heavy AW fire from BS532769. At 1930H Company B 5/36 CA’d into reinforce
4/3 Inf. Elements. At 1927H Recon platoon CA’d from LZ BUF to
contact area.
At 1945H SPOOKY came on station and worked over
the enemy location.
At 2015H contact with the enemy had ceased. The result
of the days contact were:
1 US WHA from Co D.
11 US WHA, 1 US KHA, 3 US MHA from Company C.
4 KHA from Co B 4/3.
A complete list of casualties can be found in
SITREP-69.
Charlie Company Casualties
PFC Fernando Garcia, WHA
PFC George Harnish, WHA
PFC Danial Webster, WHA
PVT George McDonald, WHA
SGT Austin Lawther, WHA
PFC Gary Vergason, WHA
PFC John Hamilton, WHA
1LT Richard Keithline, KHA
PFC Dennis Groff, MIA
PFC Freund Carter, KHA
Eugene Couturiaux, KHA
There is a great deal of confusion about what
started this chain of events. This much is known. Charlie Company 4/3 was under the operational control, (OPCON), of
the 4/21. On April 15, 1970 Co. C 4/3 was leaving Hill 238 for assigned
mission. Something happened while crossing the wire.
Booby traps in the wire, Claymore mines being carried by grunts and nearby 81 mm HE and Illume. Rounds all began
exploding. No one knows which explosion was first. The result was predictable.
Charlie Company Casualties
John F Brooks, WIA
Kennith Gibbs, WIA
Jim Alexander, WIA
Jack Bearden, WIA
Clinton Deacon, WIA
Frank Esteves, WIA
Lorendo Herrera, WIA
Larry Machart, WIA
John McCall, WIA
Jose Rivras, WIA
Danny Snider, WIA
Harold Titus, WIA
Russel Meyers, WIA
Michael Haynes, KIA
Charles Merril, KIA
Clarence Templeton, KIA
Randall Simmons, KIA
Douglas
Edward Ayres
Harmon Edward
Pich
Michael
Dale Wright
All above Charlie
Company KHA
I ask the above question in 2005. Mr Mike Shinn sent this to me October 2006.
I thank him very much. Another mystery addressed.
|
Hi,
During Lam Son 719 the
basic mission of 4-3 was to patrol and guard the northern flank of a portion of
highway 9 that ran from Quang Tri past Khe San and into Laos. (I’ll
answer your Email about Lam Son 719 later – I’m still coming across some
interesting references I had not found before).
The northern flank of
the highway was high hills and deep ravines. The hills were a combination of
deep grasslands surrounded by dense jungle. Our strategy evolved into placing
mech ambushes on the jungle trails and in the ravines. Our squad checked our
mechs and changed their position each day. Unfortunately, the squad that Ayres,
Pichon, and Wright were in got a little lazy. They left a mech in the same
place for several days and only went out to check it each day. It was located
in grove that was surrounded by grassland, and they had to cross about a hundred
yards of grass to get to the grove from the jungle area where they had their
perimeter setup.
The NVA, who occupied a
position on top of one of the hills, were able to spot them going to their mech
location one day. The next day the NVA had an ambush setup when they went to
check the mech and Ayres, Pichon, and Wright killed. Either Wright or Pichon
was the RTO, and we heard him screaming a call for help and then the radio went
dead. Our squad was about a click away and we ran up to assist, but they were
already dusting off our buddies by the time we got
there.
Ayres was the only one
I knew since he was a fellow point man who Bob Besso (the other half of our
point team) and I admired very much. He was the only one I met in
Nam who carried an M14. His squad
said they saw him returning fire with it when he went
down.
Mike
