Cholon.

This is coolbert:

From a comment to the blog regarding the use of the flechette round:

"My father told me they came across an NVA [North Vietnamese Army] soldier that had been nailed to a tree by a beehive. If the military don't use this anymore, they should. My dad was with the 173rd at camp LZ English, 1968-69. I want to personally thank every veteran that has ever served our armed forces for there service and to let each one know that they are all my hero. Also I want to thank the person that wrote this great piece of information."

ONLY vaguely was I familiar with this episode from the Second Indo-China War for which the recoilless rifle was apparently an important factor.

The Battle of Saigon [1968] during that period of the Tet Offensive.

Urban warfare conducted under the most difficult of circumstance. In particular American and South Vietnamese troops clearing the Cholon district, as inhabited by ethnic Chinese. Those American soldiers part and parcel of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade.

"Tet Offensive: 7th Infantry Regiment in Saigon"

Read that account of American troops during the combat action and at this web site see an embedded video of troops from the 199th light infantry clearing a section of Cholon.

This YouTube video also showing combat in the Cholon district. What I believe are South Vietnamese Marines participating in urban combat: "War in Vietnam - Cholon fighting"

Some observations regarding the city fighting in the Cholon district:

* Army Captain Antonio Smaldone leading that foremost unit of the 199th into Cholon described by an American general as: "the best damned company commander I've ever seen". BEST!

* The 106 mm recoilless rifle very useful in city fighting. Firing either that HEAT or the flechette round.

* Up until at least 1972 it was reputed as many as one thousand American deserters were being harbored by the ethnic Chinese of the Cholon quarter. That number based on observed remittances as issued and forwarded by family members in the states..

Those military personnel from various periods described as BEST to include:

* General Fonseka. Sri Lankan military. BEST army commander.

* Lieutenant Rick Rescorla. BEST platoon leader.

* Captain Antonio Smaldone. BEST company commander.

BEST a subjective judgment of course. Such pronouncements to a large extent however probably based on fact!

coolbert.