South Viet Nam: The Rockpile

The terrain was as tough as any the U.S. Marines had ever contested. It combined the horror of a Guadalcanal jungle with the exhausting steepness of the slopes at Chapultepec. Added to that were fusillades of bullets as ferocious as at Tarawa and showers of shrapnel that turned the forest into a tropical Belleau Wood. But “the Rock-pile,” as Viet Nam’s latest big battleground has come to be called, is weirdly unique. There, just south of the inaccurately named Demilitarized Zone, a task force of six Marine battalions has been battling two entire divisions of North Vietnamese regulars whose apparent aim is to invade Quang Tri province. So far the Reds have failed. Over the past few months, Hanoi’s hordes have shifted away from their old infiltration route, the Ho Chi Minh trail, which empties into the isolated Central Highlands. Instead, more and more have been striking directly southward into the populous coastal plain (see map). The aim of the Marines’ “Operation Prairie” is to cut those arteries from the DMZ and push the Reds so far west that they will once again be forced to use the trail.

Key to the fighting is “the Rock,” a jagged, 750-ft. fang of granite that thrusts upward at the intersection of three river valleys and two enemy trails. During July’s Operation Hastings, the Marines established a reconnaissance post atop the Rock, and a lone sniper fed by airdrops of C rations controlled the area. Now it is a Marine battalion command post, under almost steady siege. Across from the Rock rears the Razorback—a steep ridge whose sides are pocked with caves dug by the Japanese in World War II, but now occupied by North Vietnamese. Several hundred yards below the Rock, the Reds have dug “spider holes” from which they lob mortar fire and mount ambushes. Two miles to the south stands Hill 400, dominating the Rock-pile and infested with Reds. Last week the Marines moved simultaneously against the Razorback and Hill 400. By week’s end, both were in their hands.

Snakes & Lanterns. Fighter-bombers seared both hills with flaming napalm, then returned with rockets, heavy fragmentation bombs and machine gun fire. For three days, the Reds on Hill 400 hit back with mortar and small-arms fire so intense that Medevac helicopters could not land to take out Marine wounded. Finally, Marine pilots used 1,000-lb. bombs to blast craters deep enough to provide cover for the choppers, and a few critical cases were evacuated. Then the Marines moved out, stormed the hill with satchel charges,* and blasted the Reds out of their holes. They found a Communist regimental command post replete with underground rooms and trenches.

Near the Razorback, Marines were treated to an eerie spectacle at night: dim lanterns moving back and forth on the ridge across from them. “The North Vietnamese are afraid of snakes,” sneered one Marine. “That’s why they carry them flashlights.” Whatever their purpose, the lights provided excellent targets for artillery and air strikes. To date, Operation Prairie has killed 943 Reds, and the Marines have taken moderate casualties in the process.

Reinforcements. Still, there were plenty of Reds left in the Rockpile area, their numbers steadily replenished from the fast-multiplying network of jigsaw trenches and concrete bunkers in the DMZ itself. There, according to Marine intelligence, a third North Vietnamese division—the 304th—is preparing to move south. U.S. planes pounded the DMZ again last week, and ranged north into North Viet Nam’s Panhandle to blast the Yen Xa railway and highway bridge and flatten a dozen antiaircraft sites. One Navy Phantom was hit by a chunk of shrapnel that slashed through the ejection seat, grazed the pilot’s helmet, then ripped out through the canopy. The pilot made it safely back to his carrier. Strike pilots operating near

Hanoi again spotted Red MIG.21s, but the Communists did not engage.

Far to the south, at Qui Nhon, another 2,500 American troops debarked to join the 4,000-man brigade of the 4th Infantry Division in the Central Highlands. That brought the total U.S. force in South Viet Nam to 317,500—and for the first time in the war, the Americans outnumbered the South Vietna mese regular army (there are 388,000 more South Vietnamese under arms as militia and police). With more fighting like that at the Rockpile in the offing, every man will be needed.

* Canvas cases containing 10 to 20 Ibs. of high explosives, which are tossed into enemy emplacements.