The "Divine Hawks"
in the Summer of 1972
Major Luong Xuan Duong
At 2:00am, 08-04-1972,when I entered the Marine Division headquarters stationed at Hue, my superiors were still awake. A moment later, they told me to watch the radio and to report immediately if anything should happen. While they rested, we were fully alert, following the developments in the battlefield. An hour later Colonel Lan rose from his rest, and assessed the situation. He warned us that enemy tanks were within the 6th Battalion's area of responsibility.
“With so many tanks, they will certainly attack the “Divine Hawks” and then pierce through My Chanh Phong Dien to separate us into two. So, pass my orders to the 6th Battalion.. they are to defend until death. If they survive until tomorrow, I will send two Battalions of the 147th Brigade to reinforce them. We will co-ordinate with Tactical Aircrafts and the Artillery to “kiss” those tanks goodbye. Under no circumstances will they divide the ranks.”
Having pre-empted their moves, we kept watch until morning to see how the life and death duel would progress. Time seemed to stand still. At 5.00am, the sky was still dark as it had been a foggy night.
5.15am:
Reports came in saying that the enemy was attacking the 6th battalion. Their tanks were moving 1000-1,5000M to the North - Northwest. Another tank column was moving south. Their plan was to besiege the “Divine Hawks”.
5.30 am:
Enemy tanks assaulted Base Pedro. They advanced very slowly with headlights on, and directly fired at the base. From that moment onwards, the situation changed rapidly. The “Divine Hawks” reported that the tanks had breached the fence of the base.
6.00am:
The "Divine Hawks" reported that the enemy tanks were storming towards the Battalion Headquarters... 300m... 200m... 100m... 50m ! Through the radio we clearly heard the Commander of the 6th Marine Battalion say “Farewell, forever...” and then the radio went dead. Everybody's face fell. The Commanders felt the stab of losing a brother in arms, and prepared themselves to mourn the brave soldiers. It was particularly painful that we had foreseen their tactics, yet was still unable to change the situation - now in a wink, the 6th Battalion was annihilated.
The Marine Headquarters busied itself organising reinforcements to breach the enemy siege. The radio remained dead from Pedro.
About an hour later, the radio crackled to life:
“Song Than, Divine Hawk is calling..”
The Colonel himself grabbed the radio:
“Song Than here...speak!”
"Reporting to Song Than: We have destroyed five tanks, just 100m away from our headquarters. The enemy tank column has been stopped. We are presently regrouping. There are 20-30 casualties. Over.”
Fifteen minutes later, Divine Hawk reported again: The total number of tanks destroyed was twelve, one was captured, and there were five prisoners.
In the TOC, everybody sighed a sigh of relief, and there was an air of excitement - so very different from the mood at 6.00am when the attack had started.
At 7.30am, a more exact report came:
Twenty Marines had been lost, thirty one wounded, no weapons lost.
On the enemy side, 17 tanks were destroyed, two captured, eighteen prisoners held, and The "Divine Hawks" still held their position.
News coming from the reinforcements were also interesting.
The 1st Marine Battalion, coming as reinforcement had destroyed four more tanks and were in pursuit of the enemy. The situation was very encouraging.
Everybody in the TOC was very talkative at this stage. There was great admiration for the 6th Battalion, for it was the first time a battalion had destroyed so many tanks. The Marine Corps was so proud of it, that the battle became a study in how to confront tanks. Later on, ARVN would repeatedly use the 6th battalion's tactics to destroy NVA tanks at other fronts eg at Binh Long, Ban Me Thuot and Tri Thien.
Meanwhile, the 1st Battalion reported the strangest phenomenon. Apparently one of their M48 tanks had defected and run away with the enemy tanks. The M48 in question had destroyed one enemy tank, but then at 8.30 am had run to the fore and followed the enemy tanks, which were 1 km ahead, to finally disappear from view. The 1st Battalion was convinced it had defected. At around 10.00am, an VNAF reconnaissance plane detected a tank rushing in the direction of the Marines. At the same time, the 1st Marine Battalion received reports through the radio from the returning M48. Appparently, the crew of the M48, on seeing the three enemy tanks fleeing, had became so carried away that they had sped forward to pursue them for 10km. They eventually caught up and shot all three!
Major Luong Xuan Duong
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