Vietnam War: Battle of Hill 875 – Rare Footage of the Bloodiest Siege at Dak To | War Documentary

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:43][music] >> In late 1967, as the Central Highlands increasingly became a major battleground between US forces and the PAVN, the Dak To Tan Can area quickly turned into one of the most volatile hotspots along the Vietnam-Cambodia border.

[00:01:15]For the Americans, the region was not only a critical blocking line intended to prevent PAVN units from moving south from the Ho Chi Minh Trail into Kontum, but also a battlefield where they hoped to force a large engagement that could fully exploit US firepower and air mobility.

[00:01:33]Meanwhile, the PAVN deliberately drew their opponents into rugged jungle terrain where American units would have to fight with limited visibility, restricted maneuverability, and heavy dependence on aerial resupply.

[00:01:46]According to US intelligence reports at the time, several main force PAVN regiments had appeared around Dak To, constructing trench systems and fortified defensive positions along the high ridge lines near the border.

[00:01:58]Rather than relying solely on artillery and air strikes to inflict damage from a distance, the US command decided to launch deep search and destroy operations into the mountains and jungles, aiming to locate and destroy enemy forces before they could further expand their positions.

[00:02:15]In the middle of that series of clashes, one hill, deep inside the jungle, quickly became the focal point. Hill 875.

[00:02:25]During the final days of November 1967, the hill turned into a battlefield where American companies were pinned down under close-range fire, where every meter of advance came at the cost of mounting casualties amid forests blackened by napalm strikes and artillery bombardments. Within only a few days of fighting, Hill 875 had become one of the bloodiest battles of the entire Dak To campaign.

[00:02:52]At 9:45 a.m. on November 19, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, Jr., deployed companies C and D along with two platoons from Company A of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry, to advance toward Hill 875.

[00:03:10]The battalion moved in a two forward, one reserve formation.

[00:03:14]Companies C and D climbed the slope side by side, while Company A followed behind as a reserve force and secured the helicopter landing zone below.

[00:03:24]The initial American plan was familiar.

[00:03:26]Infantry units would slowly push uphill, identify enemy firing positions, then call in artillery and air strikes before continuing the assault.

[00:03:37]But the jungle canopy was so dense that the entire PAVN defensive system was almost completely hidden from view. At approximately 10:30 a.m. when the American formation was still about 300 m from the summit.

[00:03:51]PAVN 12.7 mm heavy machine guns and B-40 rocket launchers suddenly opened fire from concealed bunkers higher up the hill. Interlocking fire from multiple directions pinned the paratroopers against the steep slope.

[00:04:06]By 2:30 p.m. PAVN units launched additional close-range counterattacks against the flank of Company C, splitting several American platoons apart.

[00:04:17]Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore Jr.

[00:04:20]was forced to commit the reserve elements of Company A to hold higher ground and prevent the battalion from being encircled during the withdrawal. Private First Class Carlos Lozada remained behind with his M-16 machine gun to cover the retreat until he was killed in action.

[00:04:36]He was later awarded the Medal of Honor.

[00:04:38]Although American artillery and air support were called in continuously throughout the day, much of the firepower was absorbed by the dense jungle before it could penetrate the PAVN bunker system.

[00:04:49]Ammunition and water supplies gradually ran low, while several UH-1 Hueys were damaged by enemy fire while attempting to resupply the hill.

[00:05:00]By the end of the day, the companies of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, had become pinned down on Hill 875, forced to dig foxholes and establish temporary defensive positions in the jungle.

[00:05:14]Many paratroopers later referred to that first day of fighting as the Thanksgiving slaughterhouse.

[00:05:19]According to CIA reports, on November 19 alone, the 173rd Airborne Brigade suffered 72 paratroopers killed, 85 wounded, and 17 missing. Meanwhile, American troops found only around 17 PAVN bodies on the battlefield, suggesting that most enemy casualties had been evacuated through concealed trench systems.

[00:05:43]The first day at Hill 875 demonstrated how significantly America's firepower advantage could be reduced when fighting in steep jungle terrain against a deeply prepared defensive network.

[00:05:56]After a night of brutal fighting along the slopes of Hill 875, the command of the 173rd Airborne Brigade ordered the 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry, to reinforce the units pinned down on the hill.

[00:06:11]On the morning of November 20, 105 mm artillery and repeated tactical air strikes pounded the area around the summit. Napalm, cluster bombs, and rockets tore through the jungle in front of the PAVN defensive positions.

[00:06:27]But instead of clearing a path for the advance as planned, the bombardment shattered large sections of the forest, turning the defensive area of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, into an exposed, blackened clearing on the mountainside. By midday, a unit from the 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry, began advancing upward to link up with the isolated troops farther ahead, but quickly ran into mortar fire and small arms fire from concealed positions higher on the slope.

[00:06:59]Casualty evacuation teams had to crawl across the ground to drag wounded soldiers downhill while medevac helicopters still struggled to approach because of anti-aircraft and machine gun fire from PAVN positions. At approximately 6:55 p.m., the situation became even more catastrophic when a US Marine Corps force Skyhawk, piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Richard Tabor, mistakenly dropped two Mark 81 bombs directly onto the defensive perimeter of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry.

[00:07:34]One bomb failed to detonate, but the other exploded in the treetops above the casualty collection area, forward command post, and battalion aid station.

[00:07:44]Bomb fragments and shattered tree trunks tore across the position, ripping through foxholes and stretchers alike.

[00:07:50]At least 42 American soldiers were killed and another 45 wounded within seconds, including Captain Harold Kaufman, >> [clears throat] >> Company D Commander Bartholomew O'Leary, and Chaplain Charles Waters, who had been pulling wounded men away from the front line before being struck by shrapnel. Many paratroopers later described the explosion as a blow that threw the entire defensive line into chaos, just as darkness began to fall.

[00:08:16]For the American units fighting on Hill 875, November 20 demonstrated that overwhelming firepower no longer guaranteed control of the battlefield when visibility was restricted.

[00:08:27]Formations became fragmented and the line between enemy positions and friendly troops became increasingly difficult to distinguish in the dense jungles of the Central Highlands.

[00:08:37]In the early hours of November 21, three companies from the Fourth Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry, began moving through the jungle to reach the Second Battalion 503rd units pinned down on Hill 875.

[00:08:52]Steep terrain, fallen trees left behind after days of bombardment, and sniper fire from the slopes slowed the reinforcing column to a crawl.

[00:09:01]Throughout the morning, PAVN mortar fire continued to pound the assembly areas, killing another five paratroopers and wounding 47 more. Only by dusk did the reinforcement force finally link up with the units farther forward. Immediately after consolidating their positions, the Second and Fourth Battalions of the 503rd Infantry launched a series of small assaults up the hillside.

[00:09:25]Platoons split into small groups and moved through terrain torn apart by bombs and artillery in order to close in on the PAVN trench system. Fighting erupted at extremely close range, inside twisting sections of communication trenches.

[00:09:40]Some paratroopers managed to break through the enemy's forward trench line, but as darkness began to fall, they were forced to withdraw to avoid being cut off by counterattacks during the night.

[00:09:50]Meanwhile, the first battalion of the 12th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division was moved [music] into Dak To to prepare for combat operations.

[00:10:00]By November 22, the command of the 173rd Airborne Brigade shifted towards suppressive firepower instead of continuing direct frontal assaults.

[00:10:11]F-100 and A-1 Skyraider aircraft repeatedly dropped napalm, rockets, and high explosive bombs onto the summit of Hill 875.

[00:10:22]Coordinated with continuous barrages from 105-mm and 155-mm artillery batteries, the bombardment burned away much of the vegetation on the hilltop, turning the area into a blackened wasteland littered with shattered tree trunks.

[00:10:38]While the strikes were still ongoing, engineers from the 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry, used C4 explosives to widen helicopter landing zones and dig additional bunkers along the slopes.

[00:10:51]By the afternoon, American platoons began pushing closer to the summit, but were again stopped by PAVN machine guns, punji traps, and booby traps. Despite a full day of artillery and air strikes, many bunkers buried beneath layers of soil and rock remained intact. After each wave of bombing, whenever the paratroopers managed to advance a few dozen meters, enemy fire would reappear from defensive positions that had survived the bombardment.

[00:11:19]By the end of the day, water and ammunition supplies had begun running dangerously low because very few helicopters could approach under the constant sniper fire.

[00:11:28]When heavy jungle rain poured down on the evening of November 22nd, American troops huddled inside water-filled bomb craters along the slopes of Hill 875, waiting for dawn to continue the advance.

[00:11:42]In the early hours of the 23rd of November, 1967, Thanksgiving Day in the United States, American commanders launched the final assault on Hill 875 from the north and west. The 2nd and 4th Battalions of the 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, advanced up the slopes, while the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division, simultaneously pushed in from the south. Throughout the previous night, artillery barrages and B-52 strikes had pounded the summit area continuously, destroying sections of trenches and shaking the entire mountainside.

[00:12:23]As soon as the bombardment lifted, American paratroopers moved forward through smoke and burning tree trunks.

[00:12:29]Platoons split into small teams, maneuvering past water-filled craters to close in on the remaining PAVN bunker system.

[00:12:37]Instead of advancing in large assault formations as they had in previous days, the troops used grenades, demolition charges, and M79 grenade launchers to destroy the bunkers one by one.

[00:12:49]In many areas, the forward defensive positions had already been abandoned.

[00:12:54]Several captured PAVN soldiers appeared exhausted after enduring days of nonstop artillery and air attacks.

[00:13:02]By noon on November 23rd, units of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, had reached the summit of Hill 875.

[00:13:13]American soldiers temporarily raised a flag on a charred tree trunk in the newly secured area, while other teams searched the bunker system around the peak.

[00:13:22]They discovered that most PAVN forces had withdrawn from the hill during the night, leaving behind scattered bodies and damaged weapons inside collapsed trenches and bunkers.

[00:13:33]After 4 days of continuous fighting, Hill 875 had finally fallen to American forces.

[00:13:41]On the summit, now covered with bomb craters and burned trees, surviving paratroopers sat beside stretchers carrying wounded comrades and set up a small Christmas tree in observance of Thanksgiving Day.

[00:13:53]Images of soldiers singing hymns atop a hill flattened by bombardment were quickly captured by war correspondents and later became one of the most iconic scenes of the Dak To battle in 1967.

[00:14:06]Hill 875 was only a jungle-covered hill in the Dak To region, but during the final days of November 1967, it became one of the bloodiest battles American forces experienced in the Central Highlands.

[00:14:22]In 4 days of continuous fighting, the 173rd Airborne Brigade alone suffered more than 300 casualties, including around 87 Americans killed and over 130 wounded on Hill 875 itself.

[00:14:40]Many platoons were pinned down for hours on exposed slopes under machine gun fire, mortars, and RPGs launched from carefully concealed bunker systems.

[00:14:49]Numerous wounded soldiers had to remain overnight inside bomb craters and trenches because medevac helicopters could not reach them under anti-aircraft fire and sniper attacks from PAVN positions.

[00:15:01]At several points during the battle, American troops were forced to fight while simultaneously digging foxholes into muddy hillsides covered with burned tree trunks in order to survive the fire coming from higher ground.

[00:15:14]The greatest loss came during the friendly fire incident on the afternoon of November 20, when a US Marine Corps a four-skyhawk, mistakenly dropped bombs onto the defensive positions of the second battalion, 503rd infantry, within seconds, the explosion killed 42 American soldiers and wounded another 45, including many troops who were already lying in the battalion aid station or waiting to be evacuated down the hill. The blast wave, shrapnel, and falling trees tore apart the casualty collection area and threw the entire defensive perimeter into chaos as darkness approached. Many paratroopers later recalled it as the moment when morale within the unit collapsed more severely than at any other point in the battle. The incident is still regarded as one of the deadliest friendly fire accidents suffered by US forces during the Vietnam War. On the PAVN side, American estimates claimed that between 400 and 500 soldiers were killed during the fighting at Hill 875.

[00:16:19]Although the true figure remains difficult to verify because most bodies and wounded personnel were evacuated through trench systems and jungle routes behind the hill.

[00:16:29]When American troops finally reached the summit on November 23, they found only a few dozen bodies along with numerous bunkers and trenches destroyed by artillery and bombing.

[00:16:39]However, what impressed many American officers was not the number of enemy dead, but the durability of the defensive system that remained on the hillside. Many underground bunkers made from timber and packed earth were still largely intact despite enduring days of artillery barrages, napalm strikes, and even B-52 bombardments.

[00:17:00]For the United States, Hill 875 clearly exposed the limitations of the search and destroy strategy when confronting a deeply prepared defensive system in mountainous jungle terrain.

[00:17:13]Despite the massive use of artillery, tactical air power, and even B-52 strikes, many PAVN defensive positions remained combat effective after repeated bombardments.

[00:17:25]American units were forced to launch repeated frontal assaults up exposed slopes while enemy fire continued to reappear from bunkers and trenches that had survived the strikes.

[00:17:35]After each wave of bombing, US paratroopers could advance only a few dozen meters before being pinned down again by machine guns and grenades coming from defensive positions higher up the hill.

[00:17:47]If Ia Drang in 1965 demonstrated the power of helicopter warfare and air mobility, then Hill 875 in 1967 became a warning about the danger of infantry forces being trapped in a costly attritional battle under unfavorable terrain conditions.

[00:18:10]The distance between a highly mobile air assault and a bloody siege-like engagement could sometimes be measured by only a few hundred meters of jungle and a defensive system deep enough to absorb most of the opponent's firepower.

[00:18:23]Advantage.

[00:18:24]At Hill 875, American forces still possessed overwhelming superiority in artillery and air support, but the steep terrain, dense jungle canopy, and layered PAVN bunker systems significantly reduced the effectiveness of those advantages. The Battle of Hill 875 also became one of the clearest signs that the war in Vietnam was entering a far more exhausting and attritional phase for the US military.

[00:18:53]After Dak To, American commanders increasingly began to question the effectiveness of direct assaults against fortified positions in remote border jungles and mountain regions.

[00:19:03]Meanwhile, for the PAVN, the battle demonstrated that they could pin down and inflict heavy losses on highly mobile American units through trench systems, ambush tactics, and close-range fighting conditions in which the enemy's advantages in bombs, helicopters, and air mobility were sharply reduced. Hill 875 was not merely a battle for control of a hilltop in the Central Highlands. It was a sign that the war in Vietnam was becoming an increasingly prolonged war of attrition, where every hill captured came at the cost of severe casualties.