Defiance - The Battle of Xuan Loc

During the closing days of the 1975 North Vietnamese Offensive, four NVA divisions were pitted against a small ARVN force, dug-in astride the rugged hills near Xuan Loc - a town of 30,000 people located along one of the key roads into the capital, Saigon. Advancing in strength down the coastal highway were the NVA 5th, 6th, 7th and 341st Divisions, massed with artillery and T-54 tanks. Defiantly blocking their way were the ARVN 18th Divisions and 3rd Tank Brigade. The battle which followed was unique in many respects for the Vietnam War, involving units of divisional size, devastatingly effective ARVN airpower and sophisticated US-made CBU-55 Cluster Bombs. For nearly 2 weeks, the ARVN held Xuan Loc and counterattacked against impossible odds. It was an engagement describable only as 'heroic and gallant' on the part of the South Vietnamese defenders, being one of the few places where the ARVN, though outnumbered, stood and fought with a tenacity which stunned their opponents. So epic was the stand of the ARVN that the entire South Vietnamese Army, previously routed, grew confident again. News reporters were flown in from around the world to witness the battlefield strewn with NVA corpses, repelled in assault after assault with heavy losses.