Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [88]
Brookshire climbed into the Loach in which Franks had previously landed on the airstrip, and orbited E Troop, which had retired from the frontal fire coming from the marketplace. Their disabled Sheridan, vibrating because no one had shut if off, sat deserted in the street, its engine belching smoke. H Company was on line and firing into the market's row of plywood and tin structures, but because they did not actually smash their way in, the tankers could not see the slit trenches and spider-holes that Brookshire saw from his position behind but above them. Occasionally, an NVA could be seen scuttling between the drainage ditches and prepared positions, and the door gunner fired his M60 while green tracers snapped toward the Loach from the hedgerows. H Company recovered E Troop's Sheridan and withdrew toward the airstrip. Per instructions from Task Force Shoemaker, Brookshire had not pressed his attack into the town, but, exercising the flexibility afforded him as the man on the spot, he decided to employ air strikes to help H Company break contact. Continuing to fire into the windows and hedgerows of the market, H Company rumbled back down the tree-lined streets as Phantoms rolled in to loosen bombs and napalm cannisters into Snoul.
While the 2d Squadron of the Blackhorse pulled back from the market with guns blazing, the 3d Squadron of the Blackhorse, which was strung out along Route 7, closed in on Snoul after having topped off their vehicles from the diesel fuel blivets that Chinooks had set down onto the road. From the high ground of the macadam highway, they could see the specks of Cobras and Phantoms rolling through the rising smoke that marked Snoul.4 To interdict the NVA who were retreating along the northern branch of Highway 13, haste dampened caution, and 3-11 ACR rolled into the prepared ambush in the rubber trees on Route 7 that had been meant for 2-11 ACR. I Troop in the lead turned to face the entrenched NVA and, after a fifteen-minute exchange, the ambushers fell back. The squadron's howitzers halted to shell the NVA withdrawal routes, since darkness was falling too fast to allow them to make it overland. As M Company returned down the road to the laager, they rolled into a second ambush. In the hazy light of dusk, company commander Wallace turned his twelve Patton tanks off the highway, with each tank staring down a lane of rubber trees. Like his tank commanders, Wallace dropped down into the cupola so just his eyes and the top of his CVC helmet showed, then reached up to the butterfly grips of his .50-caliber machine gun. So the TCs wouldn't have to fight with hundred-round ammo boxes during an ambush, each tank had a large green minigun can welded to the turret with a thousand rounds carefully laid inside in a continuous link. With the resulting furor spilling hot brass and links around their feet, they rolled into the smoke and dust. They ceased fire periodically to determine if the NVA were still shooting. The NVA fell back before them, stopping to fire, picking up to run again.
Squadron commander Griffin brought his helicopter down to the tree-tops. Trying to keep the presence of mind not to scream into his radio as AK rounds ricocheted off his tank turret with vivid shrieks, Wallace maneuvered his tank to the front of his now-halted box formation, where a crewman in Griffin's helicopter was able to spot them through the treetops and toss smoke grenades around them. His ground element thusly marked to the gunships, Griffin then directed in the Cobras, but when M Company continued to the end of the rubber they found not a single enemy soldier, alive or dead.5
During the contact, Major Marsh, XO, 2-11 ACR, was directed to halt the Howitzer Battery along Route 7 and have them lay their guns so as to provide fire support. F Troop also halted to provide security, while Marsh went ahead into Snoul by Loach to join Brookshire. Shortly