Mini-Tet Two
by T. Wignesan
And the whole offensive lasted something like ten to twelve hours on Hill 493.
“I was consuming a lot of water. I felt a funny taste in my mouth: something metallic and blood-like. My tongue was swollen. Big Jumala called out to us to get some more ammo and throw out one or two grenades.”
Just then a grenade launched by the NVA landed on Galahad’s nuke and started to roll down his back until it got stuck in the backpack.
“We all looked at him in horror. None of us dared move, and yet we wanted to. There was nothing we could do. We had to watch helplessly.”
The grenade exploded. The pack must have acted as a cushion against the blast.
Galahad got shrapnel only on his back flesh and buttocks; not in his nuke or head or vertebral column. “He was exceptionally lucky.”
He was shouting out loud for everybody to hear: “I’m bleeding like a pig.”
He wasn’t, of course; that was just a feeling.
“I got the strange feeling I was targeted. I saw a safari hat show up over the trench. I counted the minutes it took to show. When I saw the top of the hat again, I waited until I could see his face, and then I got him.”
Then, Ulixes got the guy with the machine gun at the juncture of the L-shaped ambush formation. The NVA threw two grenades. “I saw one as in slow motion. Wasn’t sure which way it was going: to my right or to my left. I took a snap decision to stay put. I was lucky. I didn’t get hit.”
Ulixes was nevertheless pierced in the knees and wrists by slivers. “I was pissed off.”
The NVA opened up with 30 calibre machine gun fire. Ulixes’s unit returned fire with M50s and M60s, the sort of weapons used only on tanks. “We used them on men.”
There was a pause as the NVA were obviously re-loading.
“I threw a grenade. It fell short of the trench. I threw another. It landed in the trench and exploded, blowing up both guns and men.”
The men could only communicate through signs and gestures which were standard communication signals. Big Jumala, Galahad and Maui-Tikitiki held the left flank; Manannan, Alpheus and Gawain the other. Percival stayed back with the radio. “I was on my own in the middle. We didn’t have our Vietnamese Kit Carson scout that day.”
Then, Big Jumala gave the order for the assault.
Big Jumala, Maui-Tikitiki and Galahad set course for the machine-gun to my left. Maui-Tikitiki advanced with his M14 rifle; Galahad with his M76. Big Jumala was pumping his 12-gauge shot-gun. They had to bend down and advance while shooting. The NVA were firing down from the trenches.
In such a situation, “you have to do the insane thing, even if your instinct as a human being wants you to run away from fire.”
All the others had to maintain heavy fire in order to keep the NVA from firing back. In less than fifteen seconds, Maui-Tikitiki and Big Jumala managed to gain the top of the trench and were firing down into it. An NVA bullet hit the nineteen-year old Maui-Tikitiki on his bandolier, and he slid down into the trench. The other two kept up the fire. Maui-Tikitiki stood up. Big Jumala and Galahad then pulled him up. Another bullet struck Maui on the bandolier, and it got deflected into his left biceps. Maui shot one guy in the trench between the eyes with his unhurt arm.
“That’s where his days hunting squirrels in Tennessee came in useful,” said Ulixes.
Then, to get the guy in the trench on his left, he switched the rifle to his left hand. The NVA fighter was firing wild all the time. He had first to push aside a dead body in the way, and then shoot the guy to his left. Big Jumala and Galahad then pulled Maui out to safety.
Dr. T. Wignesan,
ex-Chercheur au C.N.R.S.,
B. P. 90145,
5, Boulevard Pablo Picasso,
94004 Creteil cedex,
France
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