Landing Zone X-RAY

The spoiling attack, code-named BILLINGS, soon to encompass eight battalions, began on 12 June as 1st Division troops moved at first ten, then thirty, kilometers north of Phuoc Vinh searching for the enemy. The absence of resistance led Hay to conclude that the 271 had moved even farther north, most likely to a large, bean-shaped clearing designated Landing Zone X-RAY. Hay had a hunch that the Viet Cong would be lying in wait for an airmobile insertion, so he sent Col. Sidney M. Marks' 3d Brigade overland from Landing Zone RUFE. On the morning of 17 June Lt. Col. Rufus C. Lazzell's 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry, led the way to X-RAY, preceded by a walking artillery barrage. After positioning his men thirty to fifty meters into the tree line around the clearing, Lazzell awaited the arrival of Lt. Col. Jerry S. Edwards' 2d Battal ion, 28th Infantry, which was to close Ru~c and follow in Lazzell's footsteps. No sooner had Edwards' first elements reached X-RAy than a patrol reported a group of Viet Cong approaching from the northwest. About 1300 the enemy attacked, punching through the northern and northwest ern perimeters. Only prompt artillery and gunship support and the com mitment of a reserve platoon prevented the attackers from reaching the central clearing. Hardly had the Americans beaten back these assaults when the Viet Cong launched a second attack, this time from the southeast. The defend ers met the onslaught with determined fire, and at first it looked as though the enemy would falter. "We were stacking them up like cord wood," one platoon leader later said, but it was not enough to turn back the attack. The enemy soon overran the position, and Lazzell lost radio contact with the platoon. The few survivors withdrew into a clearing to join adjacent units, forming a defensive line to halt the assault.' What at first had appeared a chance engagement soon proved to be the well-executed, possibly rehearsed, attack of a force estimated at two battalions. Alerted by the marching artillery fire and further informed by scouts with telephones positioned around the clearing, the Viet Cong commander had ample time to prepare. His men, wearing khaki uniforms and steel helmets and armed with recently acquired Soviet-type AK47s and RPG2s, had been well rested and well trained. When told to move out, they traveled over ca refully marked trails under the jungle canopy to their assault positions, attacking the Americans before they had a chance to fortify their perimeter. The arrival of the first air strikes at 1345 stabilized the situation, and soon after the Viet Cong began to withdraw, covered by a twenty-minute mortar barrage. By the time the division's reaction force, the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry, under Lt. Col. Richard E. Cavazos, had air-assaulted into a nearby clearing, the battle was already over. Lazzell's battalion had been mauled, with 35 dead and 150 wounded. (Mnp 35) Marks evacuated Lazzell's casualties and placed Cavazos in overall command. A hasty search of the battle area on the late afternoon of 17 June produced 72 enemy bodies. When the 1st Division asked for a body count later that night, the 3d Brigade reported 135; shortly past midnight the total increased to 196. The next morning sweeps conducted deeper into the jungle resulted in the discovery of an additional 26 bodies. On succeeding days the Americans found more enemy dead a few kilometers away. In one Viet Cong camp, which a prisoner captured on the seventeenth identified as his assembly area, were 35 dead, apparently killed by artillery fire and air strikes, an indication of the haste with which the enemy had withdrawn. In an attempt to mete out more punishment, General Hay placed heavy fire, including B-52 strikes, on likely withdrawal routes. Assuming that the 271st Regiment would head deeper into War Zone D, he also established blocking positions east and northeast of X-RAY, but the insur gents stayed out of the way. When the operation ended on 26 June, the 1st Division claimed to have killed 347 Viet Cong and captured 1 prisoner. Yet, during the two-week effort, the division also reported that it had found only 6 enemy weapons, casting suspicion on the high body count claim. Overall American losses were 57 killed and 196 wounded.3