Tien Len! - Divided Ground - Vietnam

A Shau CIDG Camp, 40km SW of Hue, Thua Thien province, I CTZ (Best played as either side). A Shau was an isolated camp southwest of Hue, about five miles from the Laotian border. The camp's mission was border surveillance and the interdiction of infiltration routes. During the first week in March 1966, captured enemy documents and information from defectors indicated that an attack by four North Vietnamese Army battalions was imminent. Reinforcements were requested. Headquarters, I Corps, disapproved the request, but the commander of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) committed a mobile strike force company of 143 men, seven of them U.S. Special Forces men, which arrived in the camp on 7 March. The garrison consisted of 220 civilian irregulars, 10 U.S. Special Forces men, 6 Vietnamese Special Forces men, several interpreters, and 41 civilians. Although local patrols and night ambush parties had failed to find the enemy on 7 and 8 March, the NVA began to probe the outer defenses at 1930 on the 8th. Early on 9 March the enemy opened up with 81-mm. mortars, causing fifty-seven casualties and damaging camp structures. Air strikes were ineffective because of heavy ground fog, and one incoming C-47 crashed after being hit by ground fire. A helicopter evacuated twenty-six wounded. Finally, during the night of 10 March, the dreaded shout "Tien Len!" (Kill!) was heard all around the perimeter as compact waves of North Vietnamese infantry launched the final assault on the beleaguered camp...SOURCES: Vietnam Studies: US Army Special Forces in Vietnam, 1961-1971.