To further strengthen the fighting power of our army and people in the Central Highlands battlefield during the General Offensive and Spring Uprising in 1968. Regiment 209 includes Battalion 7, Battalion 8, Battalion 9 and Battalion 9. The affiliated companies were ordered into the Central Highlands battlefield to fight. After more than 20 days of marching until the end of February 1968, Regiment 209 was present at the B3 Command base of the Central Highlands front. According to the decision of the B3 Command of the Central Highlands Front, the Regiment was assigned to the 1st Division (codenamed Farm 1). From here E209 took on the title of Construction Site 320, Farm 1, Division 1. Regiment 209 was established on September 2, 1949 during the resistance war against the French in Phu Tho, participating in 55 days and nights of attacking the Dien Bien Phu stronghold. During the process of fighting, building and growing from 1965 to 1968, E209 was an elite infantry regiment. The Central Highlands has a very important strategic position for South Vietnam.
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| High score 995 - Chu Tan Kra |
Therefore, the US imperialists and their henchmen have implemented a brutal policy to intimidate, seduce, entice, and bribe ethnic minorities, in order to establish a repression apparatus to herd people into strategic hamlets. to separate the people from the revolution. But under the leadership of the Party, the ethnic minorities of the Central Highlands continuously rose up to fight against the cruel rule of the US - Puppet and their henchmen. This is a solid support for the Regiment to implement the combat plan of the Central Highlands Front Command. Regiment 209 was assigned the task of attacking the key direction of Kleng Airport, a US-Puppet commando and reconnaissance training center protected by an American battalion, with the purpose of coordinating with other directions to destroy the base, attack and prepare a springboard to attack the east of KonTum town.
Implementing the combat plan of the Central Highlands Front Command, the Regiment's Party Committee has determined: This is the first American battle on the Central Highlands battlefield, we must organize a careful study of the characteristics of the situation, and develop a way to fight secretly. Secrets and surprises are most effective. To strengthen reconnaissance work, understand the enemy's activities and protect the route the unit operates to attack Kleng Airport.
On March 19, the 7th and 9th battalions, support companies and the regiment's forward headquarters gathered around the ChuTanKra and Chu Tan An mountains, ready to fight. At dawn on March 26, 1968, three signal artillery shots from the battle commander flew into the night sky and the sound of war trumpets echoed. Immediately, the DH10 mines were tilted up to blow up the barbed wire fence and explode. Open door. Simultaneously, war cries rang out from all four directions. Our troops attacked, one class fell down, the other class rushed forward. It was a quick, intense and simultaneous assault by the C1 and C2 infantry right from the first minute of shooting, they went through the open door and rushed straight in to capture the gun emplacements, then quickly developed into the center of the battle. The enemy's artillery and command headquarters, with bold attacks using artillery, grenades, and close-range submachine guns, despite the enemy's frantic resistance, in desperation bombarded them indiscriminately with all kinds of bombs. It was the synergy of combat support detachments that provided effective support for the infantry to rush to destroy the enemy. At around 4:00 a.m., our troops completely occupied the western side of the base and the artillery field, forcing the American army to mobilize reconnaissance and engineer platoons to organize the defense of the headquarters area and they dispatched a large army. The secret team near the base attacked from the northwest into the base to relieve the danger.
The examples of heroic, selfless fighting seem to give our soldiers more will and strength to advance and destroy the enemy. Like company commander Ngo Xuan Lam, he single-handedly carried his armor and rushed forward to destroy enemy bunkers for the assault troops, then commanded his troops to fight continuously until they died. Vice Captain Nhac (Company 1) was injured but continued to command the troops in combat. Gunner Nguyen Cong Truc alone fired 7 B41 shells... Until dawn, the entire battlefield, including the artillery battlefield, was in the hands of our troops. The last American soldiers of the division huddled together only in the mother blockhouse on high point 995. Our soldiers no longer had strong firepower: such as B40 and B41 to destroy. American helicopters began rushing in to land troops to retake the peak. The battle ended at about 7:00 a.m. on March 26, we injured and sacrificed more than 200 comrades, but the enemy's artillery position was completely destroyed and about 204 Americans were destroyed.
On the morning of March 26 of that year, more than 70% of Hanoi's helmeted soldiers who participated in the first battle of their lives did not return to their hiding places. Some people died in the front infirmary. More than 135 people lay at Chu Tan peak. Kra. All of them fought their first battle in Chu Tan Kra on March 26, 1968 and many of them stayed forever in this mountain range before dawn.
The battle at high point 995 of Regiment 209 was the opening battle in the resistance war against the US on the Central Highlands battlefield. The battle demonstrated the unyielding will, courageous fighting spirit, and fearlessness of sacrifice of the "Dedicated to Death for the Fatherland" officers of the soldiers of Regiment 209, which is the tradition of a regiment that has was built in the early days of resisting the French colonial invasion, and that tradition continued to be promoted on the battlefield against America to save the country, contributing to the overall victory in the 1968 Mau Than general attack and complete liberation. the entire South, unifying the country.