LZ X-RAY Commanders names

[wulfir]

Boonierat said:

2d Battalion, 7th Cavalry:
-LTC ROBERT A. McDADE, CO

Company B:
-CPT MYRON DIDURYK, CO
-2d LT JAMES BELL, XO
1st Platoon:
-?
2d Platoon
-?
3d Platoon
-?

One of the platoon leaders in Bravo Company 2/7 Cav was a former British soldier named Cyril R. "Rick" Rescorla who had volunteered for service in Vietnam. Previous combat experience from Africa. Rescorla died September 11, 2001 during the WTC attack. IIRC he is the soldier on the cover of the book by Hal Moore.

Additional stuff 2/7 CAV at the time of LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany.

Bn XO: Major Frank Henry
S3: Captain Jim Spires
Recon Platoon: Lt David 'Pat' Payne

Alpha Company
Captain Joel Sugdinis
XO 1Lt Larry Gwin
First Sergeant Frank Miller

1st Plt - SFC (Sergeant First Class?) James L. Fisher (Jack Hibbard sick)
2nd Plt - 2Lt Gordon Grove, Sergeant Charles L. Eshbach
3rd Plt - 2Lt William Sisson, Sergeant William L. Farrell aka 'Pappy'
Mortar Plt - Sergeant Harold L. Braden (Mike Mantegna sick).

Company C
Captain John 'Skip' Fesmire

[Pyros]

Thanks Ulf

[Listy]

Right some info, taken from a skim reading of "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young".

LZ X-Ray,
Manpower:
1/7th Cav.
A Coy: 115.
B coy: 114.
C coy: 106.
D coy (Heavy weapons and recon trp): 76.

229 Assault helicopter: 16 UH-1.

LZ Falcon,
21st Arty: 2x battery of 6 guns each.
Bat C, OC: Bob barker.
Bat A, OC: Cpt Donald Davis.

66th Regiment:
7th, 8th, 9th battalions: aprox 515+44 officers, or, 450.
(The book gives both strengths; the 450 figure is General Han's).
H-15 Veit Cong main force battalion: 600.

Locations (these are the locations stated by Gen Han):
7th bat: A ridge Above X-ray, about 90mins away
8th bat: 12 hours away
9th bat: 500 Yards south.
H-15: 8 hours away.

Additional info:
The round trip for the helicopters was 30 minuets.
Each squad was carrying 2 LAW's for use on bunkers, trenches and Termite hills.

Hopefully more to follow.

[Pyros]

Great stuff Listy,

Here are few questions though:

Each company was assigned to carry a mortar with maximun ammo loaded inside the Huey, and the all mortars were given to the command of Co D.

What was the total number of the mortars assigned to Co D (3 from Co A, B & C and those that Co D was carrying = ?) ?

Did any additional mortars arrive as reinforcements?

I am certain that some regimental 8" arty has participate in the battle, can you find anything on this?

At the moment of "Broken arrow" what was the quantity & quality of the incoming support?

I haven't yet found anything about any NVA mortars and/or any NVA AA assets... Did the NVA use any mortars at all?

What was the TAC AIR used during the battle?

Number of ARA and Gunships assigned in the battle?

What could be a good model for the ARA?

cheers,
Pyros

[Listy]

Each company was assigned to carry a mortar with maximum ammo loaded inside the Huey, and the all mortars were given to the command of Co D.

What was the total number of the mortars assigned to Co D (3 from Co A, B & C and those that Co D was carrying = ?) ?

Gen Moore says that All the battalions mortars where lumped under D Co for the op. However D co lost most of it's officers and some managed to revert back to the line companies as they where found by the Line officers.

Did any additional mortars arrive as reinforcements?

Not that I know of, the only reinforcement I can remember is that of a Co (B?) from the 2/7th.

I am certain that some regimental 8" arty has participated in the battle; can you find anything on this?

There is no mention in the book about 8", only 105's. However there was almost constant Arty falling.

At the moment of "Broken arrow" what was the quantity & quality of the incoming support?

Quote:
"... And we received all available aircraft in South Vietnam for close air support. We had Aircraft stacked at 1,000-foot intervals from 7,000 to 35,000 feet, each waiting to receive target and deliver their ordnance."

That was at 0715 on the 15th.

About an hour later there was the friendly fire incident, the planes involved where F-100's armed with napalm.

I haven't yet found anything about any NVA mortars and/or any NVA AA assets... Did the NVA use any mortars at all?

I believe they may have had a few 12.7mm's AAA weapons.
What Gen Moore says the unit captured at the end of X-ray.
57x AK47, 44x SKS, 17x Degtyarev 4x maxim HMG's, 5x RPG-2, 2x 82mm mortars, 2 9mm pistols.
Destroyed on site:
100 "rifles and Machine guns"

Make of that list what you will.

What was the TAC AIR used during the battle?

A1E Sky Raiders of the 1st and 602nd Air commando squadrons.
F-100's as mentioned above. Beyond that, it is not mentioned. However that early in the war, a search of what squadrons where deployed to that theatre and what aircraft they where equipped with should provide an answer. It would include USMC air as well...

(On a side note, the building where I am at the moment has just been buzzed at 150 feet by a Catlina flying boat...)

Number of ARA and Gunships assigned in the battle?
ARA: C bat, 2nd battalion, 20th arty. Commanded by Maj Roger Bartholomew. 6x ARA, possibly another ARA, being flown by the battery commander.

4x UH-1 Gunships

What could be a good model for the ARA

Well the ideal solution is a Cluster weapon to pin troops in a large target area. However, with out the custom OOB (That comes later) the next best model would be a normal UH-1 with all 4 weapons slots with 4x7.25" rockets, and 12 rounds of HE each, oh and a very high ROF. The normal practice was to fire half the rockets in one big salvo, and save the rest for emergencies.

And now A question for you. The battle should last about 250-300 turns, if you go by the numbers... Obviously this IS to huge a number.
So how are we going to manage it?

[Pyros]

In order to answer this question we have to take account several parameters.

The basic, since this is a historical simulation is to recreate the battle with the best possible accuracy.

Since the human's decision could create havoc in such a big map we have to limited his option, this is why after further consideration I came up with this idea:

Instead of a single battle that could become something completely fictional and the player would lose the feeling of the battle, I propose that we do something innovating.

We should split the phase of the battle to chapters.
Each chapter will start at the point where the other will end. Also each chapter will be more easily manageable.

At the end we may include also a huge scenario with all the battle for the hardcore players.

There is also the possibility that we may connect the chapters in a campaign and the only unit that the player will have as core force will be his HQ unit (all other units will be FIX aux units (also this way the player will keep a score).

So we have 3 possibilities (we may do 1,2 or all of them):

1. a collection of 4-5 scenario (phases of the battle)
2. a huge battle with freedom to the player to do as he wish.
3. a campaign with a linear link of the scenarios of choice No1 (using a fixed core force of only a HQ units "Moore")


cheers,
Pyros

[Pyros]

Flown by Maj. Bruce Crandall, CO of Company A, 229th Combat Aviation Battalion "Snake 6," Moore conducted a high-altitude recon of the proposed LZ X-Ray at the base of Chu Pong mountain. Crandall was an all-American high school baseball player and a superb athlete; he was my roommate at flight school and later was a flying buddy in our first aviation unit. Two other fellow company commanders included Maj. John Radu, "Tiger 6," who commanded the gun company, "D"/229th, and Maj. Dick Rogers, "Preacher 6," who was the CO of "B"/229th-all old comrades from the 521st Engineer Company (Topo Aviation). An equally fine officer, Maj. (later Col.) Willard Bennett, "Cobra 6," was the CO of "C"/229th, another lift company.

[Pyros]

1/7th Cav's arrival had been preceded by artillery prep from LZ Falcon, five miles away. Fire support came from the 1st Cav's 1/15 Artillery and the 2/21 Artillery. All 12 guns had been moved by the 228th Aviation Battalion's CH-47 Chinooks. Escorting the lift birds was "Tiger 6"; Maj. John Radu personally led his birds while blasting and slashing everything ahead of the troopers.

[Pyros]

The new Huey "D" models used by the Snakes did not yet have mounts for the door guns. Freeman and Crandall made 22 flights into LZ X-Ray, with Freeman counting 14 medevac flights among the total. Each time they went in, the aircrew kicked out ammo, water and medical supplies and then loaded wounded and dead.

[Pyros]

lst Lt. (now Col.) Walter J. Marm is the only other MOH awardee from LZ X-Ray. He was a platoon leader in B/1/7th Cav who single-handedly engaged an NVA machine-gun bunker that pinned down his troops. He destroyed the gun and bunker and killed 11 NVA in the process. He was shot in the jaw and throat in the desperate action.