Battle of Nui Thanh - the first victory over the US

Three days after the US troops landed in Ky Lien and Ky Ha (now Tam Nghia and Tam Quang communes, Nui Thanh district, Quang Nam province), on May 10, 1965, the Military Region 5 Command assigned the Quang Nam Provincial Military Command to quickly launch and change the ideology of the troops and guerrillas from fighting the puppet army to fighting both the puppet army and the US. The immediate task was to destroy an American company at all costs, the target and the unit that carried out the battle were selected and decided by the province.

Discovering that Company 2, Battalion 2, Brigade 9, Division 3 of the US Marines from Chu Lai base had come to station in Nui Thanh (from May 17, 1965), Quang Nam Provincial Military Command decided to choose Nui Thanh as the target for a preemptive strike. Nui Thanh is the name of a hill with two main peaks (hill peak 50, hill peak 49, 500m apart) and a secondary peak belonging to Tinh Tay village, Ky Lien commune. Here, the enemy had 180 troops, arranged in 3 clusters on 3 hill peaks. The enemy built field fortifications, arranged in a terraced pattern surrounding the hill peaks from low to high, interspersed with bushes. The outermost side had two rows of barbed wire fences 1m high and 1m wide for protection. If Nui Thanh was attacked, the enemy could use the artillery positions in Ao Vuong, Chu Lai, gunboats, ships and aircraft from Chu Lai base to support.

Following the order of the Military Region 5 Command, Quang Nam Provincial Military Command decided to use the 2nd Infantry Company, 70th Infantry Battalion, reinforced with a special forces unit of the 16th Special Forces Company of Quang Nam Provincial local troops, to fight the Americans in Nui Thanh. The guiding ideology of the battle was: Strike first, strike quickly, destroy the American company, and control the battlefield.

Based on the enemy situation and terrain, we arranged our forces to attack in two directions. The main direction to attack hill 50 included two spearheads: Spearhead 1 consisted of 25 people divided into 5 groups (1 deep thrust group, 2 circle attack groups, 1 secondary spearhead attack group, 1 reserve group); spearhead 2 consisted of 12 people divided into 3 groups (1 deep thrust group, 2 circle attack groups). The secondary direction to attack hill 49 consisted of 12 people divided into 3 groups (2 groups attacking from the Southeast and 1 reserve group). In addition, we also arranged 1 group (3 people) to intercept and attack the enemy retreating in the East. With this force arrangement, our troops were strong enough to destroy the enemy defending in the field fortifications at Nui Thanh.

On the night of May 26, 1965, our troops were ordered to open fire. In all directions, the spearheads used grenades, grenade launchers, and submachine guns to capture the outer fortifications and then developed attacks on each enemy-held hill. In the main direction of attacking hill 50, spearhead 1 after two minutes of organizing a deep penetration and captured 2/3 of the target but was blocked by enemy fire; spearhead 2 developed smoothly, the deep penetration team captured the top of the hill, planted the flag "Determination to fight, determination to win against the American invaders" on the command position of the American company. The surviving enemy retreated toward Ao Vuong and were annihilated by the ambush force. We controlled hill 50 and the secondary hill.

On the secondary direction of attacking Hill 49, two assault teams captured two outer fortifications. The enemy used 75mm DKZs, heavy machine guns and grenades to fire down from the top of the hill. Due to the steep slope and slow development, our troops had to stop to consolidate their formation and send reserve forces to raid from the Northeast, combining with two assault teams from the Southeast to coordinate in capturing Hill 49, controlling the battlefield. After 30 minutes of fierce fighting, we annihilated most of the American company in Nui Thanh, eliminated 139 from combat, captured 4 Garand M2 guns, destroyed an 81mm mortar, 2 75mm DKZs and many weapons, military uniforms and equipment.

The victory of the battle of Nui Thanh marked a new step forward in the spirit of proactive deployment and the ability to organize and use combat forces of the Military Region 5. This was the first battle in which a local army company with reinforced forces applied flexible fighting methods, secretly bringing forces close to the target, forming a siege, quickly penetrating deep, dividing, and unexpectedly destroying each part of the American company equipped with strong firepower, defending in field fortifications and supported by aircraft and artillery.

The victory at Nui Thanh was the opening event that strongly affirmed the ability of the army and people of Military Region 5 as well as the army and people of the entire South to defeat the US; at the same time, it opened up a movement to compete to destroy the US with the slogan "Find the US and fight, meet the US and destroy" that arose on all battlefields in the South, winning step by step, moving towards completely defeating the "Local War" strategy of the US imperialists.

DUONG DINH LAP

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