Army First Air Cavalry reinforcements arrive in operation Pegasus. Marines in trucks pursuing retreating elements of North Vietnamese on Highway 9 that had been opened by Marine engineers. Views of many marines eating the various concoctions. Marines preparing their own combinations of ingredients into meals being cooked over open fires. Marines doing their wash and having a meal of C rations. A marine plays a guitar as some others listen. Some marines select books from a library. Some play basketball with an outdoor improvised backboard and net. During a lull in battle Marines fill sand bags,maintain their weapons, play cards, and keep occupies as they sit and wait. A UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) helicopter flying low over the base. bombardment and air strikes appear to prevent massing of enemy forces for an assault. Officers are seen in CINCPAC Command center. Marines manning machine guns as enemy rockets and mortars continue to pound the garrison. A Marine plotting enemy movements on a plexiglass chart. More views of B-52s bombing North Vietnamese targets. View from above of a B-52 dropping bombs only yards outside the Khe Sanh perimeter. Another napalm attack by a U.S plane creates a large conflagration. A C-123 aircraft takes off with dense black smoke in the background. Heavy black smoke rises at the base from shelling by North Vietnamese artillery. On February 13, Marines suffered casualties when a platoon was ambushed just outside the base perimeter. Marines on the ground at Khe sanh opening packages of supplies and using a tractor to transport large boxes.
Another having load delivered by low level extraction. C-123 transport landing at a Marine base and a C-130 taking off. More views of parachute drops from C-130 aircraft to Khe Sanh. Closeup of C-130 dropping mail from above. View from below of the parachutes descending with supplies. A C-130 transport plane dropping supplies to U.S. View from the air of bombs exploding on the ground.
Air Force B-52 bomber dropping conventional bombs on North Vietnamese targets. F-4 Phantom fighters taking off from an Air Force base. Reportedly, the F4J was not operating from aircraft carriers in the Vietnam until after1968). View of Navy F4J phantom fighter being launched from the USS Ticonderoga (CVA 14) (Note: this may be an anachronism.
Scene shifts to deck of an aircraft carrier. A marine fires a 4.2 inch mortar, and another fires a recoiless rifle. Inside that base, are seen Ontos M50A1 multi barrel anti-tank tracked vehicles armed with 105 mm recoiless rifles. American artillerymen load and fire a 175 mm field gun at Camp Carrol, and a location called the Rock pile. troops in Vietnam, is seen and heard expressing confidence that American forces would win the battle of Khe Sanh. Army General William Westmoreland, Commander of U.S. American newspapers express concerns about the fate of the Marine Garrison at Khe Sanh. Closeup of North Vietnamese newspaper warns that the Americans face a defeat comparable to that of the French at Dienbienphu. An F4 Phantom drops napalm that creates a swath of fire. Infantry firing guns mounted on vehicles. aircraft drop munitions on enemy positions. Views of those attacks being repelled by artillery and air strikes as well as organic infantry weapons like the A1 millimeter mortars, 3.5 rockets, and M79 machine guns. American Marine Colonel David E Lownds, Commander of Khe Sanh garrison, describes North Vietnamese offensives against some American held positions. Map of Hue, area of South Vietnam, showing disposition of American forces in the region. View of photo interpreter rolling large wet film taken by Air Force surveillance aircraft. Narrator says American intelligence reports on January 29, 1968, of a 4th North Vietnamese Regular Army Division in the Khe Sanh area, bringing total enemy strength to about 40 thousand regular troops. Air Force McDonald Douglas F4 Phantom jet fighters in flight. The battle of Khe Sanh in the Vietnam War.įilm begins showing two U.S.