The Battle of Dak To (3-23 November 1967) was a series of hilltop fights in the jungled mountains of Kontum Province, near the borders with Cambodia and Laos, between the PAVN 1st Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division, 173d Airborne Brigade and South Vietnamese troops. Its last and bloodiest action was Hill 875. On 19 November the 2nd Battalion, 503d Infantry, climbed into the 174th Regiment's bunker complex, was surrounded, and that evening lost dozens of men to a misdirected U.S. bomb. The 4th Battalion, 503d, broke through on 20 November; an assault on the 21st failed short of the crest; and on Thanksgiving Day, 23 November, the paratroopers and the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, took the summit after the defenders had withdrawn. The two airborne battalions lost about 115 killed and more than 250 wounded on the hill. Both sides claimed success: U.S. commanders pointed to the PAVN regiments' losses, PAVN accounts to the Americans' and the delay to U.S. plans before Tet.
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In early November 1967 the PAVN 1st Division - the 24th, 32nd, 66th and 174th Regiments, about 6,000 men by one count and 7,000 by another - moved into the jungled ridges around Dak To, in Kontum Province near the Cambodian and Lao borders. A defector's report on 3 November confirmed their positions. The 4th Infantry Division and the 173d Airborne Brigade fought for one hilltop after another: the 3d Battalion, 12th Infantry on Hill 1338, the 3d Battalion, 8th Infantry on Hill 724 (18 killed and 118 wounded on 11 November), and the 173d's battalions south of the Ben Het camp around Hill 823, where Company B, 4/503d, and then the 1st Battalion, 503d, fought the 66th Regiment. On 15 November mortar fire destroyed two C-130s on the Dak To airstrip and set off the ammunition dump. As the battered 66th and 32nd Regiments fell back toward Cambodia, the fresh 174th Regiment covered them from a prepared bunker complex on Hill 875. On 18 November a Mike Force company ran into it on the hill's east slope; the 2nd Battalion, 503d, laagered at the hill's northern foot was ordered to take it.
At 09:43 about 330 men of the 2nd Battalion, 503d, in three companies started up the north side of Hill 875, Companies C and D leading and two platoons of Company A following; Company A's weapons platoon stayed at the base to cut a landing zone. The hill had been bombed and shelled, but the bunkers - three lines of them, linked by tunnels and roofed with logs and earth, built months earlier and grown over - were intact. At about 10:30, with the lead companies some 300 meters from the crest, machine guns, B-40 rockets and recoilless rifles opened fire and pinned them down.
In mid-afternoon PAVN troops, reportedly from the 174th's 3rd Battalion, struck Company A from behind and below. The weapons platoon at the landing zone and the company command group were overrun, and the survivors fell back up the slope into a tight perimeter with Companies C and D; the battalion was now cut off. Pfc. Carlos Lozada, a machine gunner of Company A at an outpost on the trail, held his position to cover his comrades' withdrawal until he was mortally wounded; he received the Medal of Honor (his citation dates the action 20 November). Six UH-1 helicopters of the 335th Assault Helicopter Company were shot down or badly damaged trying to bring in ammunition and take out the wounded; air strikes hit as close as 50 meters from the perimeter.
At dusk a U.S. Marine Corps fighter-bomber supporting the perimeter dropped two 500-pound bombs short. One fell outside the lines; the other burst in a tree over the center of the perimeter, where the command group, the aid station and the wounded were gathered. By the most-cited count 42 men were killed and 45 wounded (other accounts give different figures), among them Capt. Harold Kaufman, the senior officer on the hill. Chaplain (Maj.) Charles Watters, who had spent the day carrying wounded men in from beyond the lines and giving last rites, was killed; he received the Medal of Honor. It was one of the worst friendly-fire incidents of the war. The survivors held through the night.
The 4th Battalion, 503d - fewer than 280 men, already worn down by the fighting near Ben Het - was sent to break through. Snipers and the steep, cratered spur slowed the climb; accounts differ on the hour of the link-up (Stanton gives 10:00; other accounts say Company B reached the perimeter at dusk, with two more companies after dark, bringing food and water). The relieving troops passed many of the 2nd Battalion's dead on the way up. Wounded could still not be evacuated: there was no usable landing zone in the perimeter.
After hours of artillery and air strikes, the 4th Battalion attacked at 15:00 with Company B in the center, A on the left and C on the right, the 2nd Battalion's survivors in support. The bunkers, roofed with up to 14 feet of earth and logs by Stanton's account, shrugged off grenades and rockets; satchel charges and napalm poured into the openings worked better. The paratroopers cleared two trenchlines and got within about 250 feet of the summit before darkness and counterattacks on their flanks forced them back. That night the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, was pulled from operations farther south and flown to Dak To.
The paratroopers pulled back to open a buffer of about 100 meters, and the hilltop was hammered all day by air strikes, napalm and artillery until it was stripped bare. A one-ship landing zone, cut about two-thirds of the way up, finally let helicopters take out the dead and wounded and bring in supplies. The 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, moved in south of the hill. During the night of 22-23 November the 174th Regiment slipped away, reportedly through escape tunnels, toward the Cambodian border.
On Thanksgiving morning the two battalions of the 503d attacked again from the north while the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, came up the south slope. PAVN mortars on nearby hills shelled the crest, but the trenches were nearly empty; the paratroopers reached the summit around midday (one account gives 11:55), and the 4th Division battalion joined them in the afternoon. They found abandoned bunkers, weapons and a few dozen bodies. Hot Thanksgiving dinners were flown up to the survivors. The battle for Hill 875 cost the 2nd Battalion 87 killed, 130 wounded and 3 missing and the 4th Battalion 28 killed, 123 wounded and 4 missing, by Murphy's count; PAVN losses on the hill are not reliably known. The 173d Airborne Brigade received the Presidential Unit Citation for Dak To.
Two understrength U.S. airborne battalions (about 570 men in all) and later a 4th Infantry Division battalion attacked one PAVN regiment dug into a prepared bunker complex; the PAVN 1st Division around Dak To numbered about 6,000-7,000, the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces about 16,000. Hill-level PAVN figures are not documented.
| PAVN 1st Division around Dak ToAbout 6,000 in four regiments (Murphy, via the Wikipedia narrative); about 7,000 for the 24th, 32nd, 66th and 174th Regiments (VFW Magazine), with the 40th Artillery Regiment in support (Scott). VFW Magazine, 'Violent Clash at Dak To' (Nov 2017); L. B. Scott, The Battle for Hill 875 (USAWC, 1988) | about 6,000-7,000 (6,000-7,000) |
| On Hill 875The regiment's 2nd Battalion and headquarters held the bunker complex and its 3rd Battalion made the flank and rear attacks (Scott); no reliable headcount is published. L. B. Scott (USAWC, 1988) | 174th Regiment (strength unknown) |
| Attacked Hill 875 (2/503 and 4/503)Army figure (DVIDS, 2025) for the two airborne battalions together. DVIDS, '1,790 Sky Soldiers' (2025) | about 570 |
| 173d Airborne Brigade at Dak ToMurphy, as cited by VFW Magazine. VFW Magazine (Nov 2017) | about 3,200 |
| U.S. and South Vietnamese forces, whole battleUnder Maj. Gen. William R. Peers (Scott); three 173d battalions plus 4th Infantry Division brigades and six ARVN battalions. L. B. Scott (USAWC, 1988) | about 16,000 |
Hill 875 cost the two airborne battalions about 115 killed and more than 250 wounded by Murphy's count, dozens of them from a single misdirected U.S. bomb; PAVN losses on the hill are uncertain, from about 200 dead (a Vietnamese figure for the 174th Regiment) to much higher U.S. estimates. Certainty: fair.
| Killed, 174th Regiment (Hill 875 area)A 2021 Vietnamese report on the memorial to the 174th Regiment says about 200 of its men died on Hills 875, 882 and 823 in 1967. Captured documents cited by Scott (U.S. Army War College, 1988) are said to show the regiment lost more than half its strength. Bao Van Hoa (2021), memorial to the 174th Regiment; L. B. Scott, The Battle for Hill 875 (USAWC, 1988) | about 200 |
| Killed, whole Dak To battle (U.S. estimates)Maj. Gen. W. R. Rosson estimated about 1,000 PAVN dead; LIFE (8 Dec 1967) reported 1,641 and a later account 1,000-1,445; U.S. body counts at the time are widely regarded as inflated. VFW Magazine, 'Violent Clash at Dak To' (Nov 2017); 173d Airborne Brigade history (corregidor.org), quoting LIFE; 2/503 Vietnam Newsletter, Issue 47 | about 1,000 to 1,644 (1,000-1,644) |
| Bodies found on the summit, 23 NovThe defenders withdrew in the night of 22-23 November; the attackers found abandoned bunkers, weapons and a few dozen bodies (Murphy, as summarized in the Wikipedia narrative). Military Wiki copy of the Wikipedia article (citing E. F. Murphy, Dak To) | a few dozen |
| 2nd Battalion, 503d Infantry (Hill 875)Figures from E. F. Murphy, Dak To, repeated by the Army (DVIDS, 2025); a separate memorial count names 89 men of 2/503 among the dead. DVIDS, '1,790 Sky Soldiers' (2025); The Virtual Wall, Hill 875 | 87 killed, 130 wounded, 3 missing |
| 4th Battalion, 503d Infantry (Hill 875)Murphy's figures via DVIDS; the Virtual Wall names 26 men of 4/503. Of about 570 men who attacked the hill, about 340 became casualties (DVIDS). DVIDS, '1,790 Sky Soldiers' (2025); The Virtual Wall, Hill 875 | 28 killed, 123 wounded, 4 missing |
| Killed by the misdirected bomb, 19 Nov42 killed and 45 wounded is the most-cited figure (Murphy; VFW Magazine); Stanton, as quoted by the VHPA, gives 20 killed and 30 wounded. VFW Magazine (Nov 2017); VHPA, citing Stanton p. 164 | 42 killed, 45 wounded (20-42 killed) |
| Dead named for Hill 875 (all units)The Virtual Wall names 125 dead connected with the battle (including 1/503, engineers, artillery and one U.S. Air Force man); four were never recovered. The Virtual Wall, Hill 875 | 125 |
| Whole Dak To battle (2 Nov-1 Dec)The official after-action report counted 242 killed and 876 wounded; Murphy counts 376 killed and 1,441 wounded. The 173d Airborne Brigade alone lost 208 killed and 645 wounded by Murphy's count. VFW Magazine (Nov 2017) | 242-376 killed (242-376 killed; 876-1,441 wounded) |
| Helicopters (U.S.), 19-20 NovAircraft of the 335th Assault Helicopter Company lost trying to resupply the 2/503 perimeter (Stanton via VHPA; VFW Magazine). VHPA, citing Stanton p. 164; VFW Magazine (Nov 2017) | six UH-1s shot down or badly damaged |
| C-130 transports (U.S.), Dak To airstrip, 15 NovDestroyed by mortar fire, which also set off the ammunition and fuel dumps (more than 1,100 tons of ordnance lost, by one account). Military Wiki copy of the Wikipedia article (citing Murphy) | 2 destroyed |
| Aircraft claimed by the 174th RegimentVietnamese claim for the regiment's whole campaign; not independently confirmed. Bao Van Hoa (2021) | 13 (PAVN claim) |
The triple-canopy jungle of 1967 is largely gone: Hill 875's slopes, stripped bare by the November 1967 bombing, have been replanted with pines for pulp and a clay road now reaches the summit, while the Dak To and Ben Het bases have been turned over to farmland and housing.
The interactive map can show the period landscape (3 shapes: Jungle on Hill 875 in 1967 (now pine plantation), Dak To base, now farmland and housing, Ben Het camp, now farmland and housing) under the units. Open the map.
At Dak To (Hill 875): PAVN infantry rifle.
Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47 became the world's most widespread military rifle thanks to its simplicity and reliability in mud, heat and rain. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops carried both Soviet AKs and the Chinese-made copy, the Type 56.
At Dak To (Hill 875): PAVN light machine gun.
The belt-fed RPD shared its cartridge with the AK-47 and SKS, simplifying supply for a rifle squad. It was light enough to be carried and fired by one soldier, and China built copies as the Type 56 light machine gun.
At Dak To (Hill 875): The paratroopers' rifle.
Developed from Eugene Stoner's AR-15, the lightweight M16 replaced the M14 in Vietnam. Early rifles gained a reputation for jamming, linked to ammunition changes, a lack of cleaning kits and training; the improved M16A1 followed in 1967.
At Dak To (Hill 875): Squad machine gun.
The belt-fed M60 was the standard US infantry machine gun of the Vietnam War, nicknamed "the Pig" for its weight and appetite for ammunition. It drew on design ideas from the German MG 42 and FG 42.
At Dak To (Hill 875): Resupply and medevac under fire.
The turbine-powered Huey became the symbol of the Vietnam War. It made "air mobility" practical, carrying troops into battle, bringing in supplies and evacuating wounded from landing zones that roads could not reach.
Links go to the official records: the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and, where they exist, the service's own pages.
Free for everyone every year on its anniversary: November 19–23.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade after-action report, an Army War College study (Scott), Stanton via VHPA, Medal of Honor citations, DVIDS.
Summit from the after-action report grid, matched to the summit in the terrain model; Ben Het and the Dak To base from published coordinates.
The perimeter and attack sectors are interpretive.
Times and the friendly-fire death toll differ between accounts.
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