the morning from Nhà Bè Base using paravanes and chain drag sweeps to sever electrical wires that connected mines in the river with VC guerrillas ashore ready to trigger them. Heavy VC activity against U.S. merchant ships and river patrol forces on the Long Tau occurred during the period from December 1965 to February 1967. During that period the enemy made 18 attacks against allied vessels, including the 23 August 1966 attack on the SS Baton Rouge Victory. In August 1966 attackers sank an RVNN minesweeper, killing or wounding five Vietnamese sailors and wounding two American naval advisers. The VC sank another minesweeper in January 1967. On 15 February 1967 VC ambushers struck MSB-49 with 75mm recoilless-rifle and automatic-weapons fire that wounded all six crew members and devastated the boat. That same day, the VC sank MSB-45, killing two American sailors and wounding another 16. On 20 April 1967, while en route to Saigon, T-LST-550 came under 75mm recoilless-rifle fire that killed one Japanese crew member and wounded another five. On 18 November the VC attacked American President Lines' SS President Buchanan. A further five merchant ships were attacked during 1967. In 1968 the VC launched 44 attacks. In April two men on the tug Michael were killed. On 30 August the VC hit the roll-on/roll-off ship Transglobe with a 122mm rocket, mortally wounding one crewmember. The VC launched 51 assaults in the first half of 1969. In June an operation was launched against the VC sapper battalion operating from the Nhơn Trạch District north of the Rừng Sác. A force of U.S. and South Vietnamese riverine combatants; attack helicopters; and U.S., Australian and Thái infantry units swept through Nhơn Trạch and part of the Rừng Sác. The operation resulted in the destruction of four VC base camps and the death or capture of 53 VC. Afterward, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces kept applying pressure on the VC, frustrating their efforts to regroup. Army bulldozers and aerial-sprayed herbicides denuded much of the Rừng Sác’s foliage. The VC did not launch a single attack on the merchant ships transiting the Lòng Tàu well into 1970. On 1 November 1970 the VC carried out an attack on the American President Lines' SS President Coolidge, but the next attack did not occur until a year later when they struck SeaLand's Raphael Semmes. References External links Navy map of the Rung Sat Special Zone