Cambodian Incursion, 1970

During the Cambodian Incursion of 1970, the 5-12th Infantry, Delta Battery, 2-40th Artillery and elements of Fireball Aviation were op-conned to the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division.

                                B/5-12 right before the move into Cambodia, evening, May 12th, 1970.

I had been in Vietnam with the 2nd Platoon of Bravo Company, 5th Battalion, 12th Infantry, 199th Light Infantry Brigade since arriving in-country as a scared but optimistic draftee on July 4, 1969. 

       Bravo Company, along with the other four infantry companies in our battalion, had for nearly six months operated deep in the remote and far-flung boonies around Firebase Libby and Gladys in Long Khanh Province.  Daily, we humped through hell-like heat and gushing jungle rains, searching in near vain for the phantom-like little people of the 274th Viet Cong Main Force Regiment and their hardcore brethren from the northern regions that comprised the 33rd NVA Regiment.

       Sometimes, when not pounding and trudging through the lush, tropical jungle like mindless green zombies, we would catch the enemy off guard while on ambush, grimly netting a body count of 2 or 3 enemy soldiers killed in action.  Sometimes, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese would catch us off guard...

       For several months, we lived in this nightmare epitome of jungle warfare, with young men barely old enough to vote or buy a beer back home in the world, fighting and dying in hundreds of small but deadly firefights and ambushes that never grew beyond the company level.

Most of my tour in Vietnam was like this.  Then, the battalion went into Cambodia.  Shit.

"Raiding the Sanctuary."  Redcatchers in Cambodia, 12 May - 25 June 1970.

Image courtesy of  Stanley Buchanan, B/5-12. 

When Task Force Shoemaker thundered across the border in the early morning hours of May 1st, 1970, the U.S. soldiers had very nearly achieved a complete tactical surprise on the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.  It was not until May 12th, when the NVA attacked elements of the newly-arrived 5-12th Infantry at LZ Brown, that they began mounting any serious resistance or counter-attacks.  Despite this surprise, however, the Communists were still able to move an estimated 400-600 tons of supplies out of the danger zone both before and during the first days of the Incursion.

For the next forty-five days, there was not only near sustained and heavy fighting between the North Vietnamese and units of the 5-12th Infantry, but with all American ground units participating in the campaign as well.  In the end, the Cambodian Incursion of 1970 was a huge success, although most of the major American media and news agencies, just like the Tet Offensive of 1968, did not report it as such.

The Incursion severely damaged the Communist logistical and support bases in Cambodia and Vietnam, thus disrupting Hanoi’s plans for the next two years.  Over 11,000 North Vietnamese were killed or wounded.  It also decreased the number of casualties that the United States would have suffered while pulling out of Vietnam during the Vietnamization Program.  The ammunition found and destroyed alone, could have supplied most, if not all of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers in South Vietnam for well over 10 months and the number of weapons captured would have been issued to over 74 NVA Infantry battalions. The rice destroyed could have fed more than 25,000 enemy soldiers for the year.

It can also be argued that because of the cross-border offensive, the downfall of Saigon was postponed years later until 1975.  The vast majority of the American troops that served in Cambodia knew, both then and now, that Nixon’s decision to go ahead with the Incursion was right.  Time has shown this to be true.  

Roger Lowery, HHC 5-12

Portions of B/5-12 going out to Cambodia and FSB Brown.  Stanley Buchanan

Roger Lowery, HHC 5-12

Approaching LZ Brown the morning after the firefight.

Images of LZ Brown (below), where Bravo and Charlie Companies collided with two reinforced companies from the 174th NVA Regiment on the night 12-13 May 1970 shortly after hitting the landing zone.  The 174th NVA Regiment was the same unit that had fought toe to toe with the 173rd Airborne at Dak To and Hill 875 more than a year earlier.

LZ Brown a few weeks after the firefight of May 12 -13.  The base has grown significantly larger than it was when Bravo and Charlie first landed there.

Scenes from the berm and immediate perimeter area of FSB Brown the morning after the fight, 13 May 1970.  Image by SP4 Peter Nagurny, 40th PIO.

                                                                            Reid Mendenall

"When the flares went up, I could see them running at us and I immediately opened up with the M60.  On and on they came.  I fired so many rounds, the barrel got white hot.  We were firing so furiously, I think that we almost ran out of ammo.  I know that I had several belts of 100 rounds linked together.  It is hard to remember how much time went by from when the gook got on top of the berm to when I stopped firing the M60.  I can remember praying for daylight.”

Tracks from the 11^th Armored Cavalry rolling into LZ Brown just minutes after the firefight.  (Reid Mendenhall)

Captured enemy weapons and munitions.

North Vietnamese Army Order of Battle

Fishhook Region, Cambodia, 1 May - 30 June, 1970

(Operational Report, 1st Cavalry Division, Airmobile, 31 July 1970)

Dong Nai Regiment Headquarters

a.  K1 Battalion

b.  K2 Battalion

c.  K4 Battalion

Sub-region 5 Headquarters

a.  Thang Loi Battalion

D168 Regiment

D368 Regiment

81st Rear Service Group

84th Rear Service Group

86th Rear Service Group

90th Recovery and Replacement Regiment

K33 Artillery Battalion

5th Viet Cont Main Force Battalion

a.  174th NVA Infantry Regiment

b.  275th NVA Infantry Regiment

c.  Z22 Artillery Battalion

d.  Z24 Anti-aircraft Battalion

e.  Z27 Reconnaissance Battalion

70th Rear Service Group

Song Be Infantry Battalion

Z22, 208th Infantry Regiment

                                        Terry Braun with captured Chinese 12.7mm machine gun.

While across the border, the 5-12th Infantry would endure human wave attacks, ambushes, constant firefights, and find over 400 tons of rice and countless enemy arms and ammunition.Because they were under the control of the 1st Cavalry, the unit never received the proper recognition for its role during the Cambodian Operation.

A very small portion of the huge SKS cache that B/5-12 would uncover on 21 June 1970.

                                                                                40th PIO

                                                                                 40th PIO

                                                                                40th PIO

                                                                    Reid Mendenhall, B/5-12

                                                                Stanley Buchanan, B/5-12

                                                    FSB Myron, Cambodia.  (David Ashworth)

                                                                Stanley Buchanan, B/5-12

               Bob Kenna of B/5-12 inspecting one of the huge caches that were found by the battalion.