[Hermit]

The battle shaped up to be a totally one-sided massacre. The enemy attacked en-masse for the most part, had no vehicles, no armor, and few heavy guns. They got a few good shots in with their hand-held anti-tank rockets and 57mm recoilless rifles. A new heavier Recoilless weapon called a B-10 also made an appearance, but the few of them that made it to the front lines shot from long range and revealed their positions too soon. They did not score any hits before being demolished by return fire from our vehicles.

Our infantry advanced rapidly in their APC's and set up blocking positions in the wooded areas, and our armor waited in positions at the fringe of woods that had open shots to the bottlenecked areas. As the enemy appeared, our armor cut loose with MG's and occassional cannon fire to stop the advance and force the enemy formations to pack together, then artillery was called in to obliterate the concentrated troops.

An unexpected and very effective enemy mortar barrage succeeded in heavily damaging one of the Dusters and immobilizing another. It also sent a platoon of ours running for cover. There must have been 20 or 25 shells landing within the course of a minute or two. There was just one explosion after another as they kept firing them on us. Most of their other mortars fell without significant effect. Sometimes it forced our tanks to fall-back momentarily while suppressed to avoid any surprise infantry charges, but otherwise the enemy made poor use of its much-vaunted mortar teams. Perhaps this was because it could not find most of our infantry until they were in the thick of things. Enemy arty consisted of light 76mm pieces which had very little effect other than to immobilize two of the Shermans. It was silenced by counterbattery fire after about 15 minutes in any event.

As predicted, the real action was around the wooden bridge. Heavy infantry fighting occurred in the woods to the north of the bridge, as our troops attempted to stop an enemy flanking attack. It was touch and go for a while, as the enemy kept pouring troops into the fight. Two of our squads lost their nerve and fled before being reminded of their duty. APC's were providing supporting fire, but in those close quarters, they had some difficulty. In fact, two APC's were lost to enemy hand-held AT rockets, and about 20 of our men also fell. Eventually the two Sherman Flame tanks of Bn B appeared and laid waste to both wood and flesh around them. Three of our own men suffered severe burns when some splash-back landed on them in the close-packed woods. Although diminished, it wasn't until the whole enemy force called it quits that this entanglement ended. By the time it was over, we had committed 4 platoons of infantry to the fight, including supporting APC's, plus the two flame tanks.

It was the opposite situation on the bridge itself. One Sherman FO tank and one platoon of infantry held the bridge for the entire battle. Upon arriving at the bridge on our side of the flooded area, we could already see the enemy troops approaching the other side. By good fortune, there was a slight rise in the road just before the bridge. Our tank could sit protected behind the hump, then nudge forward to heave shells and pour MG fire into any enemy troops that tried to cross. They were only able to get three or four AT shots at it the whole fight, and they all missed, then the launchers were blasted to bits. The enemy made repeated attempts to cross, all of which were repulsed. While a few single soldiers managed to make the crossing, our supporting troops made short work of them. Seeing that we were not willing to blow the bridge itself, the enemy troops gathered their nerves and prepared to make a concerted rush across and overrun us with sheer numbers. That's when the tank commander called in a strike by a flight of the A-26 marauders. I could tell from the size of them that they must carry a good-sized payload, and boy, did they. Between the three of them they must have dropped 10 tons of bomblets on the hapless enemy. The planes droned overhead at extremely low altitude and it looked like someone was shaking pepper down on the enemy. It sounded like firecrackers at a Chinese new-year celebration, with a continuous pop-pop-poppoppop-pop noise wafting over the water. After the dust cleared, all that we could see of the enemy was the fleeing backsides of the survivors. It wasn't long after that until the whole enemy force began disappearing into the woods.

When we slowly advanced over the bridge, it was a grisly scene that awaited us. We must have wiped out the major part of a whole enemy regiment. We counted almost 400 bodies on and in the approaches to the bridge. While we were generally happy to have succeeded in our mission, it was sobering to see all that wasted human effort.