New scenario:
Off with a Bang - Battle of Bu Dop
29 November, 1967
[Bu Dop, Binh Phuoc Province, South Vietnam]: [H2H/SIDE A][HIS][CSL]: Bu Dop Special Forces Camp is a former U.S. Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam base in Bu Dop District, Binh Phuoc Province near the Vietnam-Cambodia border. It was strategically placed near the upper Song Be River reaches as it passed near the border, as this area was a known heavily used infiltration route for the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) to bring supplies to War Zone D. While the 9th PLAF Division began withdrawing from Loc Ninh, elements of the 5th PLAF Division were massing near Song Be town, some forty kilometres to the east. The 275th Regiment arrived from War Zone D in southern Phuoc Long Province to join the 88th Regiment, now attached to the 5th Division. The second phase of the PAVN Military Region 10’s campaign to improve the security of Communist lines of communications into III Corps was about to unfold. A large number of Communist troops building fortifications near Bu Gia Map, an abandoned hamlet twenty-eight kilometres northeast of Song Be that had a small airfield formerly used by the Special Forces. The Viet Cong was gearing up for a new campaign in Phuoc Long Province, with evidence supporting that view when part of the 275th Regiment attacked the South Vietnamese Army camp south of Song Be on November 25th. The fight lasted more than four hours, but later turned out, was a diversion. The real targets were Bo Duc, a district capital some twenty kilometres northwest of Song Be, and the neighboring Special Forces camp at Bu Dop, located two kilometres to the north of Bo Duc. On November 26th and 28th, Montagnard troops from Bo Duc observed unidentified enemy forces moving through the area and later on the 28th, the 2nd and 3nd Battalions of the 272d Regiment attacked the Bo Duc District headquarters, a fortified compound defended by a reconnaissance company from the South Vietnamese 5th Division, a company of Regional Forces soldiers, and two Popular Forces platoons. Viet Cong mortar fire prevented the Montagnard soldiers stationed at the nearby Bu Dop Special Forces camp from reinforcing the embattled district headquarters. The enemy attacked the compound from multiple directions to take advantage of his superior numbers and a group of Viet Cong troops fought its way through the southern perimeter and forced the defenders to regroup in the northern half of the compound. The U.S. adviser attached to the reconnaissance company called down napalm and 750-pound bombs a mere seventy-five metres from his location to prevent the enemy from overrunning the compound. The air strike landed on target, violently jarring the government soldiers in their bunkers but also killing many Viet Cong troops caught in the open. When the defenders saw the enemy waver, they counterattacked and drove him back into the jungle. Both Communist battalions broke contact around 0630. Allied reinforcements arrived during the afternoon of November 29th and consisted of two infantry battalions from the South Vietnamese 5th Division that took up defensive positions in the town, while the U.S. 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry, as well as Battery A/2nd/33rd Artillery, equipped with 105-mm. howitzers arrived and established a firebase at the northwestern end of the runway. The Viet Cong would test the American position later that night, starting with a barrage of 122mm rockets and mortars. [ALL][CSEE, Variable Objectives][1.00]
