Fighting at Ba Gia, Quang Ngai
Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Minh Chau
In the middle of 1965, the NVA Division 3, "Gold Star" attacked the Ba Gia outpost with an overwhelming force. This outpost was protected by a RF Company. The 3rd Marine Battalion was airlifted by C130 aircrafts from Da Nang to Quang Ngai. One day after the Ba Gia outpost had been lost, Battalion 3 crossed the departure line of West of Son Tinh district, to advance towards the Son Chau village with a wide row formation. Major Nguyen The Luong was very clever. He predicted that the NVA Division could apply a very old tactic, namely, "Attack the outpost and chop at the reinforcements."
He ordered me, being the Executive Officer of the Battalion, to command two companies, 1 and 2, to cross a barren field as carefully and as quickly as possible to reach the edge of the village. The Battalion headquarters and Companies 3 and 4 would follow after the two first Companies occupy the predetermined target.
I thought the enemy did not dare to occupy the edge of village, because in doing so, they would be easily exposed and pounded by artillery and air strikes, and they would have deployed and hidden inside bunkers and trenches to ambush us.
It really was so. At 12:00 noon, Battalion detected telephone lines in the direction North-South. The enemy started firing, simultaneously, to attack the 3 prongs: on the left, outside the village was the independent Infantry Regiment 51, far on the right was the Ranger Battalion 39, and the 3rd Marine Battalion was in the middle. The enemy used 82mm mortars and 57mm recoilless rifles to indiscriminately fire at the village. They did not care about villagers' lives and properties. Battalion 3 and the friendly units requested the Artillery to counter shell. The enemy had been waiting there. They rushed their troops to charge. However, all their charges were repulsed by Marines. The NVA had heavy losses and we seized many weapons. Company 1 also seized a NVA order of operation, a map and personal papers of a NVA Colonel, Chief of Staff of Division 3 "Gold Star." These papers were full of blotches of blood. I thought it was likely that he had been killed, but his body might have been pulled away hurriedly by his comrades so that these documents would have been dropped. I still kept his scarf, made of a parachute material as a souvenir, until 30-4-1975.
The battle continued until the evening. Both sides clung to positions. The NVA hid in trenches and solid bunkers. The 3rd Marine Battalion Commander ordered us to hold our positions on this side of trenches and wait for orders. The next morning, under the command of Major Ton That Soan, the 1st Marine Battalion and the 5th Airborne Battalion were airlifted to Quang Ngai, then helilifted to the battlefield to pursue the enemy. He was very experienced and was calm in the battlefield.
The enemy suffered heavy losses. They had to withdraw into the mountains west of the Ba Gia outpost. Our casualties were moderate.
Lt Colonel Nguyen Minh Chau
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