Book Review of Courage Under Fire: The 101^st Airborne Hidden Battle at Tam Ky by Ed Sherwood, LTC US Army (Retired). 360 pages. Casemate, 2021. $34.95.

By Patrick S. Baker

Recently, publishers have loaded the book shelves with titles touting the “hidden”, or “forgotten”, or “secret”, history of some event. The worst of these so-called “hidden history” books are pseudo-historical bilge, but the best of these books actually tell previously untold stories.

LTC Sherwood’s Courage Under Fire is certainly among the later as it relates the long ignored story of the First Brigade, 101^st Airborne Division’s bloody struggle at the Battle of Tam Ky, also known as Operation Lamar Plain, May through August, 1969.

A highly adept researcher and skilled writer, Sherwood has crafted one of the best and most complete narratives of combat in Vietnam ever published. A young lieutenant leading the 3rd Platoon, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry during the first part of the battle, Sherwood also writes with that precious firsthand knowledge most historians lack.

Yet the narrative rises far above mere personal account, as Sherwood takes care to put the fighting within the context of the tactical, operational and strategic climate of post-Tet Offensive Vietnam.  Valuable context is also provided by the multiple maps, nine appendixes and a glossary.

Sherwood portrays the American soldiers, young enlistees or draftees, as well-trained, physically fit and mentally resilient, but who were deficient in combat experience against the North Vietnam Army (NVA). Attrition soon cut the line companies to two platoons, with junior NCOs heading shorthanded squads, yet the troops soldiered on. Sherwood implies that the odds favored the NVA, who had extensive knowledge of the ground, the support of the locals and well-prepared fighting positions. While the Americans depended on the massive firepower provided by artillery and air support, which ultimately made the difference at Tam Ky.

The book concentrates on the lead-up operations and the key battle of Hill 376. The 501st Battalion made the first helicopter combat assault of Lamar Plain on 16 May.  Like most such actions in the Vietnam War, Tam Ky involved days and weeks of vicious and intense small-unit actions. Day to day, the casualty numbers seemed small compared to those World War Two, but the numbers gradually and relentlessly grew into the hundreds and then thousands. For each month of combat, Sherwood chronicles what was going on back in the US, or “The World” in soldiers’ slang. Each chapter ends with a table of casualties and medals awarded.

In the decisive action of the operation, the Americans launched a frontal assault on Hill 376. For nine brutal days the Americans made a bloody trudge through the rain and mud and enemy ambushes to the top of the hill. After reaching the hilltop, the men raised an American flag on the peak and then walked away, victorious, but also downcast.

The rationale behind the fact that the sacrifice and valor of the men of the 1st Brigade of the “Screaming Eagles” at Tam Ky was intentionally hidden for decades is simple. As Operation Lamar Plain started, headlines back in “the World” were trumpeting the 3rd Brigade’s “meat-grinder” fight at the Battle of Hamburger Hill some 100 miles northwest of Tam Ky. Hamburger Hill left more than six hundred American soldiers killed or wounded.

The politically beleaguered President Nixon and the new American commander in Vietnam, General Creighton Abrams, could not afford to openly acknowledge that another 525 Americans soldiers had become casualties in the Battle of Tam Ky; Not directly on the heels of the carnage of Hamburger Hill. The Battle of Tam Ky had to remain official “hidden” for political reasons.

Summing up: I recommend Courage Under Fire in the strongest terms possible. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Vietnam War, or anyone interested in stories of the courage and camaraderie of men in combat.

Patrick S. Baker is a U.S. Army Veteran, and a retired Department of Defense employee. He holds Bachelor degrees in History and Political Science and a Masters in European History. His history articles have appeared in Military History, Strategy and Tactics, Modern War, Medieval Warfare and Ancient Warfare Magazines.

By Troy Hill

One of the joys of moving to a new city, and finding a new group to game with is diving into the games they play locally. Here in North-East Indiana, the game that is second most popular in the group I game with is .

When I first encountered Saga, back in California, I was warned that I wouldn’t like it, for the same reasons I left another game behind. Too low of a point system, too many special powers and abilities. So I avoided it.

But then, after moving back to the midwest (of the USA), I found myself in a When in Rome, do as the Romans do… situation.

By Tom “Cap’n Chairborne” Mullane

A lot has been happening on the many battlegrounds of the Caribbean this past month. The folks at Firelock, and Blood and Pigment, have been helping to host a global campaign.  Guy Rhueark and Joseph Forester as well as the many other commanders of the varied factions vying for supremacy have been busy.

This article will give you the rundown on where we stand, how to submit your own reports, What secret objectives may still be available for intrepid players, and also a full Battle Report from the frontlines. Read on to get the full story!

By Richard Steer

Panzerschreck is an annual Flames of War tournament in New Zealand, hosted by the Manawatu Duellists club in the city of Palmerston North. It has the honor of being the longest-running FOW event on the NZ wargaming calendar, having first been held in 2001 when the game was still in open beta.

The format of the 2021 tournament was 160pt Late War doubles, with 2.5 hour rounds played on 8’x4′ tables. Teams were required to field a valid force with a minimum of one formation per player, with the points able to be split between players however they wanted.

By David Garvin

In the many wargames I’ve played, most countries’ soldiers were treated fairly equally. Some units were stronger than others, and some were faster than others, but in , units do not only differ by nation, but also by class and type. Section 25 of Chapter A of the rule book is dedicated to the various nations; however, there are other parts of the rule book that lay out the various characteristics of the many countries that fought in the Second World War and the Korean War.

Chapter A covers the nationalities that fought in Europe, Chapter G expands into the Pacific and Chapter W covers Korea. In order to maximize your forces in ASL, a complete understanding of your national characteristics is vital. Before getting into the meat of the characteristics and traits, a note from the authors of the rule book is in order. As they say, “Nationality Distinctions vary troop capabilities from one nation to  another, and while patently unfair in their application of stereotyped and over-simplified traits to all troops of a country without exception, nonetheless do serve to give the game much of its flavor.”

By Patrick S. Baker

X-COM: Terror from the Deep

With copies of the first X-COM game flying off the shelves, MicroProse, now merged with Spectrum Holobyte to form MicroProse, Inc., wanted a sequel to the game in just six months. The Gollop brothers hesitated at this proposal, declaring that all could be done in this timeframe was changing sprites and re-using the original code.

So, instead of developing the sequel the Gollops licensed the game code to MicroProse, that would produce the sequel, named X-COM: Terror from the Deep, in-house. Meanwhile, the Gollops went to work on what would become the third game in the series.

Terror was released on 1 June 1995 for DOS PCs and then ported to the PlayStation the next year. The game tells the story of the Second Alien War, some forty years after the First Alien War. Following the destruction of the Alien Brain on Mars, extraterrestrials under the Earth’s seas awaken after millions of years. These new aliens begin to terrorize ships and ports, and abducting humans. The X-COM organization is revived to fight this new alien menace from the deep.

By Howard West

Team Yankee 2021 Masters was held at located on 8796 Michigan Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46268 on June 26th and 27th, 2021. Family Time Games is a really nice gaming store and has a nice stock of both Flames of War and Team Yankee products. They also stock many other Boardgames, RPG’s, Miniatures, Cards, and other Gaming supplies. Stop and visit the store if you are in the greater Indianapolis area.

Team Yankee Masters is an invitation-only event hosted by each year in June for the top sixteen players as ranked by Battle Rankings in the United States and Canada.  The rankings are based on players placements in various Team Yankee Tournaments across the country during that years season. The Team Yankee tournament season runs from May 1st previous year to April 31 of the current year.  Formal invitations where mailed out to the qualifiers in early May. The 2021 Team Yankee Masters Tournament was sponsored by , Family Time Games, and

By Kreighton Long

While window shopping for light artillery models for my WW2 Romanian army I found limited options to choose from. While Great Escape Games makes a fine looking Romanian light artillery piece (one will make its way into my arsenal eventually) I wanted to challenge myself with a bit of conversion work to add variety to my three-light artillery Romanian list for Bolt Action.

For my conversion attempt I began with the wooden spoked wheel variant of the WWI French style 75mm gun as found in the Warlord Games . The crew themselves needed a little customization to make them more Romanian which is where the conversion work was done for this piece. I did attempt to find a way to modify German, Soviet, and American helmets to the point where they would pass as Romanian but the solution alluded me.

This marks the 100th podcast of the NDNG crew!  The founders reunite to talk about the past and where we plan to go!

By Tyler Stone

Firelock recently announced their , the gun-toting women ‘Boucaniere’. The project “funded” in record time, and digital modeling is underway for a full release of the ladies. We’ll be seeing them in live metal soon, but where do these women come from, and how do they fit into Blood & Plunder?

The only lists that Boucaniere appear in are the French ‘Chasseurs’ and ‘Caribbean Militia’ subfactions. These factions reflect the early 17th century French settlements in the Spanish Main. Despite their reputation, these settlers were not adventurers, but refugees of religious persecution.