Xa Cat Rubber Plantation Ambush

Submitted by John Sandri

This is to go with the accompanying Sketch Map and with the Tape Transcript of the Xa Cat rubber plantation ambush that took place October 6, 1968 based on my best memory.

The mission of 'Alpha' troop 1/4 Cav was to road march from Quan Loi base camp to a village west-southwest of An Loc, seal the village and secure an LZ for an infantry company that was going to sweep the village.

Order of march:

• 2nd platoon ('Mike')
• HQ platoon (4 ACAVs)
• 1st platoon ('Lima')
• 3rd platoon ('November')

The ambush occurred at 0830 (approx) and was sprung on ' Lima' platoon. Since the troop was strung out on the secondary road - much like an accordion - and making a right turn off the main road, most of 'November' platoon was still on the main road. All the vehicles that were in the rubber herringboned and did the "mad minute" thing for about 2-3 minutes with all weapons firing until it was decided that this was a one- sided ambush (west-side).

'Lima' maneuvered on line, HQ and two 'Mike' ACAVs moved to secure a dustoff LZ and 'November' formed a double column as it moved in to the rubber preparatory to forming line. This was done to create room for the rest of 'November' to access the rubber from the secondary road that was raised above the marsh.

The 'November' columns outdistanced the 'Lima' line (very bad) and 'November' 7 took an RPG hit right at the cupola that killed the TC. 'November' then stalled at the first bunker line until 'Lima' got abreast of 'November' 7. 'November' then got on line and penetrated the first set of bunkers when 'Lima' 15 took an RPG hit. The line pulled back almost to the road and 105mm artillery pounded the area for 10 minutes.

The line then swept forward to the marsh.. The action was over by about 10am and no vehicles were lost:

• USA 1 KIA, 6 WIA
• NVA 23 KIA ( bodies recovered)

The Troop regained the road and then 'Mike' platoon was ambushed another 300 meters north by an RPG team+. 'Mike' and 'Lima' dealt with it - no USA losses, 8NVA.

Alpha troop finally reached the village around noon. Nothing was subsequently found in the infantry sweep and Alpha returned to Quan Loi around 5-6 pm.

Enemy force size? We only know what we counted in bodies but I suppose it was larger since some got away to the west where the rubber ends and a 200 meter wide tall reed/grass marsh exists (a part of the map I didn't copy).

Enemy weapons? Ditto, all we got were AK-47, RPGs and less than the 23 bodies. If memory is correct there were only 10 weapons recovered.

The enemy did break for the open during the artillery barrage, so the sweep through the second and third bunker lines was quite easy. The third line was unmanned - at least there were no bodies in them.

Bunkers were very small, log and dirt trapezoid shapes about 6 feet at front, 4 in back, 3 feet deep and 1 1/2 feet above ground level. Firing ports were at the corners, in front.

Copyright

This material is Copyright of John Sandri (© 2002) and may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author. All rights reserved. The author would like to express his thanks to Ms Kathryn Williams for assistance in editing.