CHAPTER XII

Phase II-East to West

Technically speaking, Junction City II was scheduled to begin at one minute past midnight on the morning of 18 March. However, for some elements of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division it started much earlier as they repositioned themselves and strove to complete the required facilities before the attack into eastern War Zone C began.

By 3 March, two of the three battalions of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, which had assaulted by helicopter on D-day into the northern portion of the Phase I horseshoe, had been withdrawn from that operational area. The 1st Division engineers had com-pleted their operations in the Phase I area by that date as well; they too were withdrawn and repositioned along the east side of War Zone C.

On 4 March the 1st Brigade, 9th U.S. Division, came under the operational control of the 1st Division. It was assigned the initial mission of opening Route 13 from Lai Khe north to Quan Loi for one or two days in order that several large convoys might pass; included in those convoys would be the men and equipment of the 1st Engineers. On 7 March the forces of the 1st Brigade, 1st Divi-sion, and of the 1st Engineers would join and the preparatory work for Phase II would commence. The mission assigned the 1st Brigade of the Big Red One was to open Route 246 west and south-west of An Loc and to secure the engineer construction party at the site where 246 crosses the Saigon River and the engineer work parties constructing the Special Forces and Civilian Irregular Defense Group camp and airfield on the west side of the river. The mission of the 1st Engineers was to improve Route 246 to the Saigon River, construct a Bailey bridge over the river, and com-mence construction of an airstrip just west of the bridge site. (The construction of the camp would be the responsibility of a non--divisional engineer unit.) After Phase II began, the 1st Engineers had, in addition to its usual support role, the mission of opening and maintaining Route 246 from the Bailey bridge to a fire support base which would be established at Sroc Con Trang, five kilometers northwest of the bridge.