PACIFICATION AND VIETNAMISATION
211
Night is the time of the VC. Under the cover of darkness when the Allies cannot make maximum use of all the paraphernalia of war and particularly air, the VC come out of their hides and come into villages seeking food and supplies and attempting to recruit new blood and turn the people against the government. But even night activity has been seriously curtailed with the active patrol program around the villages over the past three months. The Police Chief of Phuoc Hai, Sergeant Chay, had picked up two Viet Cong agents a few nights previously. They had talked and this had led to the arrest of a further five infrastructure cadres. It had been a bad week for the communist cause in this area. A typical wet season ambush patrol from the Horseshoe was described by Private Frank Wood: We ambushed out in the paddy. It began to pour with rain at 2100 hours and never stopped all night. It wasn't long before we found ourselves with only our webbing and a slight mound to keep our heads above water. By God it was miserable lying in over eight inches of water for the night! No sign of nogs. At this stage, 106th Field Battery had supported the battalion for six months. In this time it had fired 40 000 rounds, including high explosive, variable time, white phosphorus smoke and flares for night illumination. These rounds had been fired to provide close fire support to contacts and to provide some cut–off capability to deter enemy escape. They were also fired at targets chosen to harass the enemy (called harassing and interdiction or H&I fire), particularly during the night, so that no enemy soldier in gun range could predict whether or when artillery could fall on him. This had the effect of distinctly lowering enemy morale and was a factor that frequently led to individual Viet Cong surrendering. In the days following 23 August, 2 Platoon A Company made a rare attempt to penetrate the Viet Cong base area of the Long Hais. A half–platoon patrol moved carefully into a position in the eastern foothills of Hon Vung mountain that evening, moving through the thickest scrub at times at progress rates as low as 20 m an hour, carefully avoiding areas likely to be mined, although using their attached engineers to clear a way when necessary. They expanded their position on 24 August. The next morning, at 1020 hours, four enemy walked into their position. They were engaged at a range of 15 m. Several enemy were wounded and one of them, a female, was captured. She died while waiting for a Dustoff helicopter. On 21 August a platoon of B Company was lifted from Nui Dat to Xuyen Moc by helicopter. The plan for B Company was to use this platoon in a blocking position south of the line between the Suoi Da and the Suoi Mon, centred on the area 4 km east of Xuyen Moc. The rest of the company would then drive from north to south along the line of the Suoi Da,