Plei Me NVA Hospital Attack - Divided Ground - Vietnam

Located at ZA 045-027 in Pleiku province, II Corps. Regimental surgical hospital for the 33rd NVA Regiment. The hospital was sited here to treat expected casualties from the 33rd NVA Regiment's attack on Ple Me CIDG Camp. On the morning of November 1st, 1965, members of the B Troop "Blues" platoon of the 1st Squadron 9th Cavalry discovered the hospital after being inserted 1.5 kilometers south of its location to engage NVA soldiers seen in the vicinity by a scout/gun team from B Troop 1st/9th Cavalry. The cavalrymen captured the hospital after catching the NVA totally by surprise. The platoon killed fifteen NVA and took 43 prisoners (staff and patients). About 100 NVA who had been tasked with defending the hospital broke and ran from the scene. Unknown to the cavarlrymen was the fact that 1.5 kilometers east of this location, the three companies of the 1st Battalion 33rd NVA Regiment were in defensive positions prepared before the attack on Plei Me. The positions however were oriented in an easterly direction since they anticpated that U.S. forces would approach from the east in response to the attacks on Plei Me. Now the NVA found that they were facing the wrong direction with the cavalrymen in their rear. Since their mission was to evacuate the hospital and the patients and equipment and move back to the NVA Field Front Headquarters at the base of the Chu Pong Massif the NVA battalion commander decided to send one company to distract the Americans at the hospital while the remainder of his surviving units exfiltrated back to the Ia Drang river