The men in Bravo Company are taken by the helicopters to where the reconnaissance unit, Sweet Alice, has engaged the NVA. Mellas is with the last group of Marines to be transported into the bush. A soldier breaks his leg leaping from the departing helicopter, and Mellas goes to the front to meet Fitch. Fitch tells him that they have had some men shot but none killed. The enemy appears to have retreated. Suddenly, mortars and artillery begin firing in their direction. Mellas, Fitch, and the other commanders dig in and radio back to VCB for further directions. Medevac helicopters come in to take the wounded back to base, and the company moves into the dense jungle for protection.

Back at VCB, Simpson feels flushed with success and pride. It’s clear from the work of Sweet Alice and Bravo Company that a significant number of NVA troops are dug in atop two hills in the vicinity, Matterhorn and Helicopter Hill. Blakely and Simpson feel that this is a perfect opportunity for their company to make an attack and inflict serious casualties on the enemy. Retiring to Simpson’s tent, where the colonel sips from a bottle of bourbon, the two commanders decide to send in the company to attack the NVA positioned on Helicopter Hill.

After Mellas and Fitch receive the order to take Helicopter Hill, they spend the night trying to come up with a suitable strategy that will not lead to too many casualties. However, because of the elevated artillery positions of the NVA, and the probable lack of air support because of the cloud cover, they realize that no matter how they decide to proceed, the mission is likely to be highly dangerous. In the end, they decide to send two platoons, led by Fracasso and Kendall up one side of the hill and Goodwin up the other side.

Just after midnight, the Marines start their assault, moving slowly and quietly until it is nearly dawn. Finally, they come into contact with the enemy, and the battle is on. The firefight is vicious and bloody, as the platoons of Bravo Company move against entrenched NVA machine guns. One marine after another goes down. When Pollini, the oft-ridiculed marine known as Shortround, is shot, Mellas makes a valiant effort to rescue him, but when he brings him back to safety, he is already dead.

The platoons led by Kendall and Fracasso seem to be stuck until a heroic single assault by Jancowitz breaks the NVA line. Jancowitz flanks an NVA machine gunner and tosses a grenade at the gunner, but not before he is shot and killed by a tremendous volley of machine gun fire. The Marines barge through the hole opened by Jancowitz’s sacrifice and push the NVA from the fortifications on Helicopter Hill. It has been a successful, if costly, assault.