Re: [GZG] Colonies cooling down :)

At 10:26 PM +0200 5/14/08, Enzo de Ianni wrote:
>

Except in this case, you're not quite getting the defeat meant. It's a
short term victory over a partial US unit. Platoons of a larger force.
The main position was not budged. Were this a WWII battle defeat would
lie in the principle that the US position would be over run in toto.

There were no parallel examples in Vietna, to any sort of Iswhandallah
or utter losses of an entire defended position of note.

> From "The Rise and Fall of an American Army by Shelby L. Stanton
>(usually regarded as a good and informed source, last I heard):
>page 166 - "a company of the 2d Battalion, 503d Infntry (Airborne),
>clashed with the 6th Battalion,24th NVA Regiment in one of the most
>violent battles of the Vietnam War. That morning, Company A left its
>night positions in the triple canopy jungle and began threading its
>way down a steep ridgeline. ... The point squad collided with a North
>Vietnamese Army force and the battle quickly engulfed the
>parachutists. Artillery fire crashed down and helicopter-delivered
>rockets pierced the green foliage. All failed to check the assault...
>At eleven o'clock all contact was lost with the forward platoons.
>Then a band of disheveled, wounded troopers stumbled in the company
line..."
>page 172 - "Company A was in reserve at the bottom of the hill
>cutting a landing zone out of the jungle. Waves of screaming North
>Vietnamese Army regulars charged through its positions in such a
>force that two platoons simply evaporated. Now split and under fierce
>assault, the battalion's reserve was in imminent danger of being
>overrun as well"
>page 178 - "Lieutnant Colonel Ohanesian's column was beset by a thick
>snarl of jungle and began moving down a trail just beyond Company L's
>lines, confident the NVA forces had departed. The North Vietnamese
>triggered a massive ambush along the trail, showering the Marines
>with a hail of grenades and machinegun fir which tore the entire
>column in shreds and killed both lt. col. Ohanesian and his sergent
>major... the Marines crawled over abandoned equipment and dozens of
>dead comrades, dragging their wonded back to company L. The North
>Vietnamese then kept the armor supported perimeter under such
>devastating rifle and grenade fire that medical evacuation
>helicopters were unable to land."
>

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