Week of November 10

Week of November 10

This week in Vietnam War history, we remember the November 1967 battle of Đăk Tô. In a rugged part of the Cao nguyên Trung phần (Central Highlands), an area that had seen heavy fighting since June of 1967, at least four regiments of the of North Vietnamese Army 1st Division attacked an outpost and Special Forces camp near the village of Đăk Tô. The camp was located in Kontum Province, amid hilly terrain, thickly covered with jungle vegetation. The camp’s defenders and reinforcements included elements of the U.S. Army 4th Infantry Division, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), and 173d Airborne Brigade, along with several units of South Vietnamese Army forces.

Đăk Tô and the region surrounding it had been the scene of numerous battles in 1965 and 1966. But beginning in the summer of 1967, Communist forces begin an even greater buildup in the region in preparation for the coming nationwide Tet Offensive planned for early 1968.

The battle for Đăk Tô began in early November and continued for over three weeks. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces engaged North Vietnamese units on a series of hills. The fighting included some of the bloodiest and most intense combat of the Vietnam War. From November 1 to November 23, major engagements occurred on numerous hills, including Hill 823, Hill 724, Hill 223. The costliest engagement happened on Hill 875, where units of the 503d Infantry Regiment assaulted blindly into unseen bunkers and trenches and were subsequently surrounded when North Vietnamese troops closed in behind them at the bottom of the hill. Through repeated attacks, hundreds of casualties, and the accidental dropping of an U.S. 500-pound bomb in the middle of Company C, the trapped men of the 503d reached the crest of Hill 875 on November 22.

The United States and South Vietnam sustained heavy casualties in the battle for Đăk Tô, but North Vietnamese troops suffered greater losses and failed to achieve their objective of wiping out the American defenders. At least three North Vietnamese Army regiments were decimated to the point that they were unable to participate in the Tet Offensive as scheduled three months later. Over 170 American troops were killed at Đăk Tô in November, and at least 718 were wounded. Dak To represented a bloody harbinger of the next few years of the Vietnam War, as the years 1967–1969 were far and away the deadliest period for American troops in Vietnam. During those three years alone, over 40,000 Americans were killed in Southeast Asia, nearly 70 percent of total U.S. fatal casualties in the war from 1956 to 1975.1

1“Statistical Information About Casualties of the Vietnam War,” National Archives, Military Records, https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.html (accessed 11/8/16); John H. Hay, Jr., Tactical and Materiel Innovations, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1989) 78–80; Richard W. Stewart, American Military History: The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2003 (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2005), 332–33; George L. MacGarrigle, Combat Operations: Taking the Offensive, October 1966 to October 1967, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1998), 297–98; Shelby L. Stanton, The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1963–1973 (New York: Random House, 1985), 166–75. Marilyn B. Young and Robert Buzzanco, eds., A Companion to the Vietnam War (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2002), 459; Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 254–56. John M. Carland, Stemming the Tide, May 1965–October 1966, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2000), 276–87.


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173rd Airborne Brigade Troops

Men of the 173d Airborne Brigade fighting for Hill 882 during the battle for Đăk Tô, circa November 1967. (U.S. Army)

Hill 875 Aftermath

Aftermath of the fight on Hill 875, circa November 22, 1967 (U.S. Army)

4th Infantry Division Troops

Troops attached to the 4th Infantry Division on Hill 742, five miles northwest of Đăk Tô, circa November 14, 1967. (U.S. Army)

Hill_875_Handrawn_Map

Hand-drawn map of the assault on Hill 875 during the battle of Đăk Tô. The map, which is taken from a declassified U.S. Army War College paper, shows the positions of North Vietnamese trenches, bunkers, and escape tunnels. It illustrates the extreme difficulty of capturing the summit for any assaulting troops. (Defense Technical Information Center)