Kontum: The Battle to Save South Vietnam

17. "You Are Going to Be Overrun!"

17 “You Are Going to Be Overrun!” Here lie the bones of Lieutenant Jones, A graduate of this institution. He died last night in a firefight, Victim of the approved solution. —Graffito at the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, 1953 Kontum was surrounded by around 5,000 enemy troops with tanks.1 We were being constantly pounded by intermittent artillery and rocket fire, and at 0100 on 26 May the tempo picked up. As we lay on our cots in the CP bunker, Major Lovings looked at his watch and started counting. An enemy artillery round was hitting us every 30 seconds. Nearly a thousand artillery and rocket rounds hit Kontum that night.2 At 0300 hours, the enemy launched human-wave attacks from the north against the positions of the 44th and 53rd Regiments. The enemy artillery continued pounding us, while their infantry and tanks broke through our front-line positions. The 44th Regiment was hit with an enemy infantry regiment and about 20 tanks.3 Possibly because the NV A thought the division CP was there—or because this position was the highest point in the city—its main attack was against the 44th Regiment, and it assaulted directly toward our regimental CP. With only two of our four battalions with us in the hospital area, we were hard pressed to hold off the much stronger assaulting force. The NV A’s secondary attack was 218 • KONTUM against the 53rd Regiment to the northeast of the 44th. It also assaulted our forces in other areas of the city.4 Our troops endured a terrible battering even before dawn. The area around our CP was mostly rubble and burned-out buildings. The intensity of the fighting outside the bunker increased. We could hear the knuck, knuck, knuck of enemy AK-47s firing just outside and knew a sapper could toss a big satchel charge into our bunker at any minute. Then Major Lovings and I heard something neither of us had ever heard before, but we knew instantly what it was: the extra loud, sharp CRACK! of an enemy tank firing its main gun directly at us. Major Lovings ran to the bunker entrance to see for himself. An enemy tank with a battle streamer flying from its turret was only 50 yards away. From one of the nearby bunkers, an ARVN officer fired an M-72 at the tank, and the sound of its impact could be heard above the other battle noise. It made a hole in the turret, and the tank engine stopped. Seeing the lead tank destroyed, the next T-54 turned to move away. Another ARVN soldier took advantage of the broadside shot and knocked it out with an M-72.5 Colonel Tien was standing near the bunker door, surrounded by his staff, and shouting rapidly into his radio. Our situation was critical, and his voice and manner conveyed a sense of urgency. I stood nearby with Sergeant Hao and told him to translate what the CO was saying. Hao frequently gave only the briefest summary: “He ask battalion commander what is situation.” It was like the old foreign movies with subtitles where an Italian would talk for five minutes and the English subtitle would summarize it all as, “Somebody stole my bicycle.” Our 3rd Battalion was the main element defending our own positions. So many soldiers were coming down into the bunker that we began to wonder how many were still manning the perimeter. We got word that the 3rd Battalion had broken and run. Then their battalion commander himself came into our bunker. Major Lovings slung our radio onto his back, picked up his rifle, and said, “We’re in deep shit, Colonel.” I nodded my agreement and slammed a magazine into my M-16. Colonel Tien looked my way, said, “We go,” and headed for the door, followed by his entourage . As we started after him, I radioed the DTOC with a last message , “My counterpart is leaving the bunker!” Colonel Rhotenberry asked, “What are you going to do?” I said, “We’re going with him.” He responded, “We’ll try to get you out of there.” Lovings and I “YOU ARE GOING TO BE OVERRUN!” • 219 exchanged a quick glance. We knew there was no way for anyone to extract us from the middle of such an intense firefight. We would have...