MAY 6, 1969
The day after Major General Elvy Benton Roberts took command of the 1st Cavalry Division on May 5, 1969, the North Vietnamese decided to annihilate LZ Carolyn, which stood on a site near the abandoned Prek Klok Special Forces camp. NVA began the assault in the early morning darkness with rocket and mortar barrages, followed an hour later by a pincer ground assault against two sides of the base. Enemy soldiers broke through the wire and stormed onto the LZ, overrunning six perimeter bunkers and capturing a medium howitzer. They threatened to cut the camp in half.
American defenses were reduced to only two companies since several other companies of the occupying Second Battalion, 8th Cav, were out on patrol when the attack began. Artillerymen, supply and signal personnel, engineers and clerks all took up arms in a counterattack to hurl back enemy penetrations and save the camp. The most violent fighting raged on the northern side of the base. A 155mm howitzer position exchanged hands three times in fierce hand-to-hand fighting with rifles, pistols, knives, and entrenching tools.
Air support that included Cobras, fighters, AC-47 “Spooky” and AC-119 “Shadow” gunships rolled in against enemy antiaircraft weapons ringing the perimeter. American defenders shot holes in fuel drums at the aviation gas dump and ignited fuel to form flaming barriers. A howitzer gun pit received three direct hits from rockets, touching off a fire in its powder bunker. Two 105mm artillery ammunition points exploded around 3:30 A.M. Cook-off of the ammunition in the resulting fires sprayed the LZ continuously for the next four hours. Grass and forest fires raged everywhere. Flames licking high into the night air created a sky glow visible from as far away as Tay Nin h and Phuoc Vinh.
Desperate 155mm gun sections lowered their cannon, packed them with Bee Hive rounds or powder charges and blasted the attackers at point-blank range. Blazing pellets discharged in solid walls of flame pierced skin and flesh and continued to burn inside body cavities. Screams of terror and pain added to the hellish din of battle on the LZ.
Cut off by loss of communications, small pockets of Americans fought on in isolated desperation. The mortar platoon’s four tubes fired 1,500 rounds of illumination during the night. Everywhere there were shortages of ammunition. Volunteers dashed through fire-swept open areas to look for more rounds in storage bunkers. Cannoneers redistributed ammo by crawling from gun section to gun section under a hail of enemy fire and exploding shrapnel.
Gradually, as dawn approached, cavalry counterattackers reestablished Carolyn’s perimeter. Air assets continued to pound enemy reserves and antiaircraft and mortar positions. By 6:00 A.M., the NVA force was retreating, leaving blood trails for Cav helicopters to follow. Columns of black smoke bellowed into the dawn from shattered LZ Carolyn, but the base had held against considerable odds.
During a period of twenty-four days following the attack on Carolyn, Cav forces used helicopters, Blue infantry, and two batteries of artillery to force sixty-two separate contacts with NVA/VC units and put pressure on the X-Cache Trail and its route to Saigon.