publius horatius cocles defended a bridge when rome was under attack.
publius horatius cocles defended a bridge when rome was under attack.
who defended a bridge when rome was under attack?
publius horatius cocles
Na
Na
then there were the various other special units which make up a division, i.e., engineers, heavy weapons, etc. a conservative figure of the total strength of this division would be 15,000 men with related equipment. the preponderance of force is staggering when one considers that the marine battalion defending dong ha numbered just 700 men and at the time of the enemy's attack that morning only half of the battalion, two rifle companies, were actually in dong ha. when the enemy arrived on the north bank, these two companies defended the village along the river alone. one company went into position along the highway bridge and the other just off of route #9 near the partially destroyed railroad bridge which was already in enemy hands. these two companies defended the village against a furious attack by the enemy to cross at both places. the enemy actually did get across at the railroad bridge site establishing a foothold there, but were contained by the marines. it was at this point that i employed my first naval gunfire mission. i requested a continuous ngf mission in the vicinity of the railroad bridge, 300 meters to the right and left of the bridge, and 200 meters deep (north) as interdiction to the enemy forces attempting to cross. my request was sent directly to the senior advisor with the vn marine brigade then located at quang tri combat base. there was an anglico team co-located with the brigade advisory staff which forwarded my request to your ship. this was to be my primary and most effective method of requesting and employing ngf during our defense of dong ha. occasionally a spotter aircraft with ngf capability was used, but never as effectively or with as rapid a response as the anglico teams. this same advisory team with the brigade worked up a number of defensive fire boxes (targets) north of the river in the general vicinity of the highway and began firing indiscriminate unobserved fire. none of us could see the impact of the rounds, but as most were landing in this area where the concentration of the enemy forces was the greatest the effect of this varied and continuous mission in disorganizing the enemy must have been superb. it forced him to go to ground or to suffer casualties, thus definitely limiting his ability to mass for attack. still the enemy had many tanks and these were generally unaffected by ngf except for a direct hit, although the infantry normally accompanying the tanks were seriously limited in providing any protection to them.
uss buchanan (ddg-14)