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Archive for the ‘Battles’ Category

Battles

29 August, 2010

Operation Crimp (Vietnam)

Operation Crimp was a military operation of the Vietnam War which was conducted by American and Australian forces in Binh Duong Province, in South Vietnam, from January 8 to January 14, 1966. Under the overall command of Major General Jonathan O. Seaman, about 8,000 troops of the US 1st Infantry Division, which included the US 173rd Airborne Brigade and the US 3rd Infantry Brigade, participated in Operation Crimp. Attached to the US 173rd Brigade was one Australian battalion from the 1st Royal Australian Regiment.

The main objective of Operation Crimp was to destroy the Viet Cong headquarters which lay in concealment underground in Cu Chi, in the Province of Binh Duong. There was a system of tunnels which led to the main headquarters. They covered more than 120 miles. During the battle, specialized sappers, called tunnel rats, were sent in on search and destroy missions to anihialate any hiding enemy soldiers and to plant explosives to destroy the tunnels.

Preceded by artillery fire and napalm and airstrikes, Operation Crimp was initiated at 09:30 hours on January 8. Airmobile operation began with the first American units being inserted by helicopter to the north, west and south. The US 3rd Infantry Brigade, commanded by Colonel William Brodbeck, was inserted by helicopter and by road. In the north, 1st Royal Australian Regiment was inserted into its landing zone (LZ March) 1.9 miles to the south-west. Amid strong resistance, the Australians fought their way through the maze of bunkers, punji stakes and booby traps but they were eventually able to force a Viet Cong regional force company to withdraw as they continued their advance. This area was heavily seeded with trip wires connected to shells and grenades dangling from branches.

The task of breaking into and exploring the communist tunnels started on January 9, with the objective now switching to the location, clearance and destruction of the tunnel complexes. Whereas standard US Army practice was to seal, blow up or otherwise attempt to render tunnel systems unusable with smoke, tear gas and explosives before quickly moving on, the Australians spent the next few days laboriously searching and mapping the complexes they found using military engineers. Led by Captain Sandy MacGregor, the Australian sappers from 3 Field Troop systematically tackled the tunnels, using telephone line and compasses to plot the subterranean passages. Small-scale contacts between the communists and the Australians continued and MacGregor was later awarded the Military Cross for his leadership.

The Australians kept on searching the tunnels, finding a large quantity of documents and equipment, and by January 10 they had seized 59 weapons, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, 100 fragmentation grenades, one 57-mm recoilless rifle, explosives, clothing and medical supplies. At least 11 Viet Cong had also been killed in the fighting. Contact also continued, and overnight the Australians killed another five Viet Cong outside their perimeter, while numerous actions occurred during the day as the US 173rd Brigade maintained its sweep. The US 3rd Brigade subsequently uncovered a significant tunnel complex themselves; while they attempted to clear the tunnels, heavy hand-to-hand fighting broke out above ground and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Haldane was later awarded the Silver Star for his actions when he rushed a bunker while under fire armed only with a pistol, in order to give first aid to a number of wounded soldiers. His courage inspired his men to complete the assault, and ultimately helped ensure the successful evacuation of the casualties and the capture of their objective.

More than 11 miles of tunnels had been uncovered and searched by the Australians. A large quantity of documents had been recovered, including more than 100,000 pages detailing operational structure as well as the name of agents operating in Saigon. 90 weapons were also captured, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition and enough equipment. During Operation Crimp the brave Australians had faced stiff resistance, suffering 8 killed and 29 wounded, while claiming 27 Viet Cong killed and a further 30 probably killed. The Americans had also been involved in heavy fighting and their casualties included 14 killed and 76 wounded. Total communist casualties included 128 confirmed killed, and another 190 probably killed, as well as 92 captured and another 509 suspects detained. Half of the American and Australian troops that were killed in this battle were lost to booby traps rather than to enemy gun fire.

Battles

27 August, 2010

Operation Junction City

Operation Junction City was a Vietnam War airborne operation carried out by a combined force of US Army units and South Vietnamese elements in the province of Tay Ninh, South Vietnam, from February 22 to May 14, 1967. Operation Junction City was the largest airborne operation conducted by the US Army in the Vietnam War, and the second largest in its history, surpassed only by Market Garden during World War II.

Operation Junction City was an extensive seek and destroy campaign aimed at routing North Veitnamese and Viet Cong units from War Zone C area, which lay northwest of Saigon. A second objective was the destruction of the Viet Cong Central Office for South Vietnam (COSVN), which controlled all enemy activities south of the triborder region of Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam.

Although Junction City was a successful military operation, destroying many communist camps and killing 1.728 enemy troops, the Viet Cong Central Office for South Vietnam fled into Cambodian territory, where it remained for the rest of the US commitment to the Southeast Asian conflict. The lack of success in completely destroying the Viet Cong Central Office was due to three main factors. They included the proximity of a sancutuary to reported COSVN locations, difficulty in achieving sufficient troop density to infiltrate the Viet Cong and the failure to gain complete surprise through the repositioning of US troops.

Operation Junction City Video

Battles

26 August, 2010

Operation Masher (White Wing)

Operation Masher was a military operation conducted by United States and South Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War. It took place in the Kim Son and An Lao valleys in South Vietnam, from January 28 to March 6, 1966. Although it was codenamed "Operation Masher," the operation name was changed to "Operation White Wing." Divided in four phases, the objective was to search and destroy communist camps from which Viet Cong guerrilla troops launched attacks on US and South Vietnamese bases, threatening and forcing the peasants to hide weapons in their villages.

Operation Masher (White Wing) successfully ended on March 6, 1966. More than 1,340 communist soldiers had been killed by the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) at the cost of 250 United States’ troops killed and 990 wounded. The South Vietnamese forces killed an additional 808 enemy soldiers. The 3rd North Vietnamese Army Division was completely mauled.

The amount of firepower deployed during Operation Masher was 1,352 strikes coupled with 1,126 fighter sorties unloaded 1.5 million pounds of bombs; 292,000 pounds of Napalm was also used and Operation Masher left over 1884 refugees. By 1967, the amount of Communists captured in Vietnam numbered 17,000 but there were over 1.2 million civilian refugees.

Battles

25 August, 2010

Easter Offensive (Vietnam)

The Easter Offensive, also known as the Nguyen Hue Offensive, was a military operation carried out by North Vietnamese forces against South Vietnam and the United States military from March 30 to October 22, 1972, during the Vietnam War. It was the largest offensive launched by the North Vietnamese Army since the beginning of the war and a radical departure from previous communist offensives.

The Easter Offensive objective was to gain territory and destroy South Vietnamese units in order to improve the North’s negotiating position as the Paris Peace Accords drew toward a conclusion. Although the US high command had been expecting such an attack in 1972, the strength of the communist assault caught the defenders by surprise since the attackers struck on three fronts simultaneously with the bulk of the North Vietnamese army. This first attempt by the North Vietnamese Army to invade the south since the Tet Offensive of 1968 became characterized by conventional infantry/armor assaults backed by heavy artillery, with both sides fielding the latest in technological advances in weapons systems.

The Easter Offensive was initiated at 12:00 hours on March 30, 1972, when an intense artillery barrage rained down on the northernmost South Vietnamese outposts in Quang Tri Province. In the I Corps Tactical Zone, North Vietnamese forces overran South Vietnamese defensive positions in a month-long battle and captured Quang Tri city before moving south in an attempt to seize Hue. The communists similarly destroyed frontier defense forces in II Corps and advanced to seize the provincial capital of Kon Tum, which would have opened the way to the sea, splitting South Vietnam in two. Northeast of Saigon in III Corps, the communists overran Loc Ninh and advanced to assault the capital of Binh Long Province at An Loc. The campaign was conducted in three distinct phases: April was a month of communist advances and capitalist withdrawals; May became a period of equilibrium; in June and July the South Vietnamese forces counterattacked, culminating in the recapture of Quang Tri City in September.

The initial North Vietnamese successes were hampered by high casualties, inept tactics, and the increasing application of US and South Vietnamese air power. One result of the offensive was the launching of Operation Linebacker, the first sustained bombing of North Vietnam by the United States since November 1968. Although South Vietnamese forces withstood their greatest trial thus far in the conflict, the North Vietnamese accomplished two important goals: they had gained valuable territory within South Vietnam from which to launch any future offensives, and they had obtained a better bargaining position at the peace negotiations being conducted in Paris.

Battles

24 August, 2010

Operation Commando Hunt

Operation Commando Hunt was an air bombing campaign conducted undercover by the US 7th Air Force and US Navy Task Force 77, in southeastern Laos, from November 15, 1968, to March 29, 1972, during the Vietnam War. Operation Commando Hunt objective was the interdiction of men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.

Background

Although American and South Vietnamese forces had routed the communist forces that had massively attacked South Vietnam and Saigon during the Tet Offensive, the American press made a completely distorted and negative report of the military actions. So, the American public were stunned by the apparent size and ferocity of the offensive, but they did not see the failure of such offensive. For them the light at the end of the tunnel had been extinguished. As a result, President Lyndon B Johnson, in an attempt to nudge Hanoi to the negotiating table, decreed an end to bombing operations in North Vietnam north of the 20th parallel, effectively ending Rolling Thunder on November 11, 1968. Nevertheless, the Johnson Administration secretly shifted the bombing campaign southwestward to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, in Southeastern Laos, authorizing a new bombing campaign, Operation Commando Hunt.

Summary of Operation Commando Hunt

The freeing of aircraft, which had previously been taking part in Rolling Thunder, promised to create an interdiction campaign of unprecedented scale. The new effort would see, for the first time, continuous round-the-clock bombing of the communist logistical system. During daylight, the missions would be performed by propeller-driven and jet fighter-bombers and B-52s. At night, fixed-wing gunships would prowl for prey. The new effort would also be supported by aerial defoliation missions (Operation Ranch Hand).

Operation Commando Hunt was carried out in numerically designated phases which reflected the seasonal weather patterns in southern Laos. Even numbered campaigns took place during the more dormant wet season (June-October). These phases were to have two objectives: first, to reduce the enemy’s logistical flow by substantially increasing the time needed to move supplies from North Vietnam to the south; second, to destroy trucks and supply caches along the roads, pathways, and streams and in the truck parks and storage areas along the Trail.

By the end of the operation, 3 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos, considerably slowing, yet not totally disrupting the flow of communist men and logistical supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Battles

23 August, 2010

Operation Linebacker

Operation Linebacker was a bombing campaign carried out by the US 7th Air Force and US Navy Task Force 77 against the North Vietnamese Army from May 9 to October 23, 1972, during the Vietnam War.

The main rationale of Operation Linebacker was to stem the flow of military supplies for the Nguyen Hue Offensive (known in the West as the Easter Offensive), which was an invasion of South Vietnam, by forces of the communist People’s Army of Vietnam (North Vietnamese Army), that had been launched on March 30, 1972. Linebacker was the first continuous air interdiction campaign conducted against North Vietnam since the bombing halt established by President Lyndon B. Johnson in November 1968.

On the first day of Operation Linebacker, Navy Lieutenant Randall H. Cunningham and his radar intercept officer, Lieutenant William P. Driscoll became the first U.S. air aces of the Vietnam Conflict when they shot down their fifth MiG. On August 28, the Air Force gained its first ace when Captain Richard S. Ritchie downed his fifth enemy aircraft. Twelve days later, Captain Charles B. DeBellevue, who had been Ritchie’s backseater during four of his five victories, shot down two more MiGs, bringing his total to six. On October 13, another weapons officer, Captain Jeffrey S. Feinstein, was credited with his fifth MiG, making him the final Air Force ace.

Battles

22 August, 2010

Battle of Khe Sanh

The Battle of Khe Sanh was a battle of the Vietnam War, fought by the III Marine Amphibious Force and South Vietnamese Army units against three divisions of the North Vietnamese Army, from January 21 to April 8, 1968. It took place in Khe Sanh, in Quang Tri Province (northwest), South Vietnam. The outcome was a tactical victory for the American forces.

Lying in a valley and surrounded by a series of hills, Khe Sanh was a United States Marine Corps outpost close to an airstrip built in September 1962. In 1964, before the Marine Corps base had been established, Khe Sanh became the location of a launch site for the highly-classified Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group; From there, reconnaissance teams were launched into Laos to explore and gather intelligence on the North Vietnamese logistical system known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The American command in Saigon initially believed that combat operations around Khe Sanh during the summer of 1967 were just part of a series of minor North Vietnamese offensives in the border regions. Nevertheless, that assessment was altered when it was discovered that the North Vietnamese Army was moving major forces into the area during the fall and winter. As a result, a build-up of Marine forces took place and actions around Khe Sanh started when the Marine base was isolated.

The Battle of Khe Sanh began at 00:30 hours on January 21, 1968, when Hill 861, which was close to the outpost, was attacked by approximately 300 North Vietnamese troops. Nevertheless, the Marines were prepared. The North Vietnamese infantry still managed to breach the perimeter of the defenses and were only driven back after severe close-quarters fighting. The main base was then subjected to an intense mortar and rocket barrage. Hundreds of mortar rounds and 122mm rockets slammed into the base, leveling most of the above-ground structures. One of the first enemy shells set off an explosion in the main ammunition dump.

A massive air bombing campaign was launched by the US Air Force to support the Marine base during the Battle of Khe Sanh. The US bombing used the latest technological advances in order to locate the communist forces for targeting. The logistical effort to support KSCB, once it was isolated overland, demanded the implementation of other tactical innovations in order to keep the Marines supplied. Thus, in March 1968, an overland relief expedition (Operation Pegasus) was launched by a combined Marine/Army/South Vietnamese task force that eventually broke through to the Marines at Khe Sanh. The battle was a tactical victory for the Marines as the communist attacks were succesfully repelled.

Battle of Khe Sanh (Documentary Video)

Battles

21 August, 2010

Operation Apache Snow

Operation Apache Snow was a military operation carried out by ten battalions from the US 101st Airborne Division, 501st, 506th, the 187th Infantry Divisions, in the A Shau Valley from May 10 to June 7, 1969, during the Vietnam War. The A Shau Valley was a logistic corridor used by the North Vietnamese Army to transport military supplies into South Vietnam. Until May 1969, two operations had been conducted in the area (Operation Delaware and Operation Dewey Canyon), but the US forces had not been able to stop the flow of material through the trails in the valley.

Operation Apache Snow had been planned to block escape routes into Laos, destroy moving enemy formations, and launch assaults on fixed communist strongholds. One of the main targets became Hill 937, which triggered a fierce battle which became known as the Battle of Hamburger Hill. After ten days of fighting and at the cost of heavy losses, US forces managed to capture the hill, only to abandon it two weeks later.

Operation Apache Snow raged on until June 7, 1969. Although more than 900 enemy soldiers were killed and several fortified positions destroyed, it failed to prevent North Vietnamese forces from pouring into the valley as the flow of supplies continued. The A Shau Valley remained as a springboard from which communist attacks were launched into northern South Vietnam. Probably the solution to this problem would have been to launch a total and massive attack against North Vietnam to completely destroy the enemy where they came from. Doing that would have provoked the direct involvement of communist China, and perhaps Russia, but the American government wanted to avoid a direct confrontation with super powers which also had nuclear arsenal. That was the cold war.

Battles

20 August, 2010

Battle of Hamburger Hill

Also known as Hill 937, the Battle of Hamburger Hill took place in the A Shau valley, Thua Thien province, South Vietnam, from May 10 to May 20, 1969, during the Vietnam War. It was fought by a combined force of US units and South Vietnamese troops against North Vietnamese forces. The battle was part of Operation Apache Snow, a three-phase military operation carried out in May 1969 in the A Shau Valley by the US troops with the objective of flushing the communist forces out of the valley. It ended with a US/South Vietnamese victory as 700 communist troops got killed when the US forces stormed the Hill 937.

Summary

The Vietnamese name on which the Battle of Hamburger Hill was fought was Ap Bia, but it was known to the Americans as Hill 937, simply because this rugged, jungle-covered mountain was 937 m high. The battle was mainly an infantry engagement, with the US Airborne troops moving up the steep-sided hill against well entrenched communist troops. The struggle involved close quarters jungle fighting and several friendly fire incidents. However, after five days of ferocious fighting, the troops from the 101st Airborne Division took the hill through direct assault, causing extensive casualties to the North Vietanamese forces.

US Units that participated in the Battle of Hamburger Hill

The 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division ( comanded by Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt); 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry (Lt. Col. Robert German); and the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry (Lt. Col. John Bowers). Two battalions of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam’s (ARVN) 1st Division (the 2/1st and 4/1st) had been temporarily assigned to the 3rd Brigade in support.

101st Division in the A Shau Valley, Vietnam (Video)

Battles

18 August, 2010

Battle of Prey Veng

The Battle of Prey Veng was a battle fought between a combined force of South Vietnamese troops and Cambodian Army units, and the North Vietnamese  forces. It took place in Prey Veng, Cambodia, on June 15, 1970, during the Vietnam War.

The Battle of Prey Veng was part of the South Vietnamese Army military campaign in Cambodia. The Cambodian President General Lon Nol had authorized South Vietnamese and American units to conduct undercover operations in a jungle-covered strip of land which was used by communist forces (Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops) as a sanctuary from which they launched attacks against American and South Vietnamese bases in South Vietnam.

With the air support of the United States forces, the South Vietnamese and the Cambodian Armies launched in early June a combined operation against the communist forces which had camps in the area. The Battle of Prey Veng was one of the several military engagements that took place during this campaign and ended with a communist defeat as 120 enemy troops were killed and an important amount of weapons, such as machine guns, mortars, and rocket launchers were captured by the Cambodian Army.

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