South Viet Nam: Night Assault

Prowling along the coastal plains of Quang Tin province some 40 miles south of Danang, the 400 U.S. Marines found their prey just before noon one day last week: some 2,000 Communists of the North Vietnamese 2nd Division.

The enemy was so deeply dug into a valley floor that the Marines, despite reinforcements and withering air and artillery strikes, failed to dislodge the Reds in all-day fighting. So, in the dark of night, a Marine assault force stormed in, supported by AC-47 Dragonships. Next morning the sun rose on the bodies of 450 enemy dead littering the valley, at the...

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