All,
Following the debacle at the NDP last night (early morning, actually), the squad is allowed to rest through late morning, get cleaned up, then went on working party for a few hours. During this time 2nd Battalion passed through 3rd Battalion into the assault on Hill 475, while 1st Battalion (the squad's parent element is on holding the southern flan. The vicious nature of the fighting has got many calling Operation Apple Cobbler "The Battle for Chopped Sirloin Hill."
By mid-afternoon 2nd Battalion's attack is stalled; in preparation for 1st Battalion assuming the assault position, several choppers' worth of replacements were flown out to join the battalion in the field, to include enough to bring the squad up to full strength. This was causing some sever consternation amongst the few survivors of the squad, and Sgt Banaszak had the rare occasion to voice his opinion directly to the Company commander: "Sir, I don't like it, we've got men out on convalescence! They're coming back, and they belong with the squad! There's no way we're keeping these FNGs while our buddies get farmed out to other units."
"Sergeant, perhaps you haven't been paying attention to recent events. It's 1430 hours (I don't know why the Army insists on saying 'hours' after the time…); your squad will be heading up that hill at 1530. The way things are going, you'll have plenty of room on the squad for your returning buddies." Banaszak's expression turned from one of anger to concern, his mouth went dry, and he peered over his shoulder at the looming hill. "Uh, I see Sir, sorry Sir." "No problem Sergeant, now you get back to your squad and get your boys ready." This is what we call foreshadowing…
At 1500 1st Battalion was passing by LZ Bluebird, where so many wounded and dead were being evacuated by helicopter that Banaszak figured no one could be left in 2nd Battalion, and at 1530, as the squad passed through 2nd Battalion's front lines, he saw he was pretty much right… Picking up the action at approximately 1545 on 24 Oct 1967.
Overview of board, north is right, US baseline is south (left), NVA is right. You can see three enemy bunkers at far right, which are (top to bottom) Bunker1, Bunker2, and Bunker3.
Looking north at the NVA, left to right: Bunker1, Bunker2, and Bunker3. At top left is an 82mm mortar position.
The US squad, moving north (right) up Hill 475, unknowingly about to run into an NVA bunker line (they've passed two abandoned bunker lines on the way up.). Banaszak can't help but think, 'if only Holmes were here, he would have spotted the enemy already and warned the squad…' The 'new' squad is as follows, from left to right: Pvt Mansfield, a replacement rifleman, Spec4 Shell, a replacement field medic, Pvt Thomas, a replacement grenadier, Cpl Ham, now 2nd Team's leader, Pvt Swan, now a rifleman in Team 2; Sgt Banaszak is between the two teams; Pvt Webster, grenadier, Sgt Bradley, a 'Shake and Bake' 90-day wonder, given his Sergeant's stripes pretty much straight out of basic (an 'interesting' program instituted by the Army, not real popular with guys already 'in-country' that are suddenly outranked by an FNG straight from the World), replacement Team 1 leader, then Pvt Wagner, replacement assistant machine gunner, Pvt Brown, replacement machine gunner, and Pvt Kolb, replacement rifleman walking point.
View from behind pointman Kolb, looking up the trail at Bunker3.
The action starts at Bunker3 (foreground). One NVA activates and spots Kolb, Brown, and Wagner, opens up, and puts Kolb down (first shooting roll was a damned 20) with a serious wound (followed with a 14). Next NVA opens up, Brown is down, out of the fight. Third guy spots Bradley then shoots Wagner, seriously wounding him. All three guys in Bunker3 fired, I count it as spotted. Unbelievable: three NVA activate, three US troops out of the fight…
Banaszak, on the trail between his two teams when the shooting started, sprints right, moves up, and flops prone (bottom left in the bushes, next to the seriously wounded Kolb, on the trail, with Bunker3 at far right).
And then things got really crazy!!! Sgt Banaszak has been recommended for the Medal of Honor for his actions on Hill 475 on 24 Oct 1967, which went beyond the call of duty. That game was intense, and it certainly worked out like real life. That is, you don't need a big-time hero until you've got a big-time problem.
For the rest of the fight, please check the blog at:
link
V/R,
Jack
with some 'babes', and she did the rest...
has been spending time in paradise lately.
