The microwave/tropo site was located in an underground bunker next to the airstrip. At about 0640 hours the NVA 7th Battalion, 66th Regiment, 304th Division, attacked the Huong Hoa District headquarters in Khe Sanh village. The fire of PAVN antiaircraft units took its toll of helicopters that made the attempt. [107] The greatest impediments to the delivery of supplies to the base were the closure of Route 9 and the winter monsoon weather. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Unlike the Marines killed in the same place in January, since Operation Scotland had ended, the four Lima Company Marines who died in this attack on Hill 881 North were excluded from the official statistics. Additionally, Shore argued that the "weather was another critical factor because the poor visibility and low overcasts attendant to the monsoon season made such operations hazardous. [26] From there, reconnaissance teams were launched into Laos to explore and gather intelligence on the PAVN logistical system known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, also known as "Truong Son Strategic Supply Route" to the North Vietnamese soldiers. [25], In the winter of 1964, Khe Sanh became the location of a launch site for the highly-classified Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group. The attack on Khe Sanh, however, proved to be a diversionary tactic for the larger Tet Offensive. Key Battles | Vietnam War - Pritzker Military Museum & Library The official assessment of the North Vietnamese Army dead is just over 1,600 killed, with two . You could lose it and you really haven't lost a damn thing. 216217. The deaths of U.S. Air Force personnel, estimated between five and 20, are also omitted. [22] The camp then became a Special Forces outpost of the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups, which were to keep watch on PAVN infiltration along the border and to protect the local population. 20,000-30,000 men Battle of Khe Sanh Overview Known as the McNamara Line, it was initially codenamed "Project Nine". This fighting was heavy, involving South Vietnamese militia as well as U.S. Army MACV advisers and Marines attached to a Combined Action Company platoon. Enemy artillery rounds slammed into the runway. Both sides suffered major casualties with both claiming victory of their own. [62], On 20 January, La Thanh Ton, a PAVN lieutenant from the 325th Division, defected and laid out the plans for an entire series of PAVN attacks. The presence of the PAVN 1st Division prompted a 22-day battle there and had some of the most intense close-quarters fighting of the entire conflict. The launching of the largest enemy offensive thus far in the conflict did not shift Westmoreland's focus away from Khe Sanh. On April 6, a front-page story in The New York Times declared that the siege of Khe Sanh had been lifted. Things heated up for the air cavalrymen on 6 April, when the 3rd Brigade encountered a PAVN blocking force and fought a day-long engagement. About two hours later, an NVA artillery barrage scored a hit on the main ammunition dump at Khe Sanh Combat Base, killing Lance Corp. Jerry Stenberg and other Marines. How many American soldiers died in the Battle of Ia Drang? [95], It still came as a shock to the Special Forces troopers at Lang Vei when 12 tanks attacked their camp. As a result, "B-52 Arc Light strikes originating in Guam, Okinawa, and Thailand bombed the jungles surrounding Khe Sanh into stubble fields" and Khe Sanh became the major news headline coming out of Vietnam in late March 1968. Scotland was a 26th Marine Regiment operation, so only the deaths of Marines assigned to the regiment, and attached supporting units, were counted. Two further attacks later in the morning were halted before the PAVN finally withdrew. The strike wounded two more Strike Force soldiers and damaged two bunkers. [129][130] Nevertheless, according to Tom Johnson, President Johnson was "determined that Khe Sanh [would not] be an 'American Dien Bien Phu'". Telfer, Rogers, and Fleming, pp. How Many Were Really Killed at Khe Sanh? | RealClearHistory Khe Sanh was situated on Route 9, the major east-west highway. For most of the battle, low-lying clouds and fog enclosed the area from early morning until around noon, and poor visibility severely hampered aerial resupply. "[105] There had been a history of distrust between the Special Forces personnel and the Marines, and General Rathvon M. Tompkins, commander of the 3rd Marine Division, described the Special Forces soldiers as "hopped up wretches [who] were a law unto themselves. This is also the position taken in the official PAVN history but offers no further explanation of the strategy. The Marines and their allies at Khe Sanh engaged tens of thousands, and killed thousands, of NVA over a period of many weeks. [139] The 11th Engineers proclaimed Route 9 open to traffic on 11 April. The Khe Sanh battlefield was considerably more extensive from the North Vietnamese perspective than from that of the U.S. Marine Corps, both geographically and chronologically. I suspect he is also trying to draw everyone's attention away from the greatest area of threat, the northern part of I Corps. The 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment (2/1 Marines) and the 2/3 Marines would launch a ground assault from Ca Lu Combat Base (16km east of Khe Sanh) and head west on Route 9 while the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Brigades of the 1st Cavalry Division, would air-assault key terrain features along Route 9 to establish fire support bases and cover the Marine advance. On January 21 at Khe Sanh, 30,000 North Vietnamese troops attacked an air base held by just 6,000 United States Marines. [164] He cited the fact that it would have taken longer to dislodge the North Vietnamese at Hue if the PAVN had committed the three divisions at Khe Sanh to the battle there instead of dividing its forces. [1], The PAVN claim that they began attacking the withdrawing Americans on 26 June 1968 prolonging the withdrawal, killing 1,300 Americans and shooting down 34 aircraft before "liberating" Khe Sanh on 15 July. Minor attacks continued before the base was officially closed on 5 July. [38], Westmoreland won out, however, and the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment (1/3 Marines) was dispatched to occupy the camp and airstrip on 29 September. On the afternoon of 29 January, however, the 3rd Marine Division notified Khe Sanh that the truce had been cancelled. [25], Marino stated that "by 1966, Westmoreland had begun to consider Khe Sanh as part of a larger strategy." Time magazine, in an April 12, 1968, article titled Victory at Khe Sanh, reported General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, after flying into Khe Sanh by helicopter, declaring: We took 220 killed at Khe Sanh and about 800 wounded and evacuated. The figures of 5,500 NVA dead and 1,000 U.S. dead yield a ratio of 5.5:1. Major Battles Of The Vietnam War - WorldAtlas A closer look at the Khe Sanh body count, however, reveals anything but a straightforward matter of numbers. The Marine garrison was also reinforced, and on November 1, 1967, Operation Scotland began. McNamara's thinking may have also been affected by his aide David Morrisroe, whose brother Michael Morrisroe was serving at the base. "[28], As far as Westmoreland was concerned, however, all that he needed to know was that the PAVN had massed large numbers of troops for a set-piece battle. The Battle of Khe Sanh: The Vietnam War - WorldAtlas The ground troops had been specially equipped for the attack with satchel charges, tear gas, and flame throwers. The main US forces defending Khe Sanh Combat Base (KSCB) were two regiments of the United States Marine Corps supported by elements from the United States Army and the United States Air Force (USAF), as well as a small number of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops. The link-up between the relief force and the Marines at KSCB took place at 08:00 on 8 April, when the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment entered the camp. [117], Communications with military command outside of Khe Sanh was maintained by an U.S. Army Signal Corps team, the 544th Signal Detachment from the 337th Signal Company, 37th Signal Brigade in Danang. [96], The Marines at Khe Sanh had a plan in place for providing a ground relief force in just such a contingency, but Lownds, fearing a PAVN ambush, refused to implement it. He believed that was proved by the PAVN's actions during Tet. [109], The resupply of the numerous, isolated hill outposts was fraught with the same difficulties and dangers. Its mission was to destroy the Special Forces and their Vietnamese allies and to ambush any reinforcements coming from Khe Sanh. [120], On 23 February, KSCB received its worst bombardment of the entire battle. On July 10, Pfc Robert Hernandez of Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, was manning an M-60 machine gun position when it took a direct hit from NVA mortars. Operation Pegasus forces, however, were highly mobile and did not attack en masse down Route 9 far enough west of Khe Sanh for the NVA, by then dispersed, to implement their plan. The Armys 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), with more than 400 helicopters under its control, conducted airmobile operations deeper into enemy-controlled areas. The Marines, whose aircraft and doctrine were integral to their operations, were under no such centralized control. This base was to serve as the western anchor of Marine Corps forces, which had tactical responsibility for the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam known as I Corps. On March 6, two U.S. Air Force C-123 cargo airplanes departed Da Nang Air Base en route to Khe Sanh. They attacked 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 64 district capitals, five of the six major cities, and more than two dozen airfields and bases. [57][58] They were assisted in their emplacement efforts by the continuing bad weather of the winter monsoon. [42], In the wake of the hill fights, a lull in PAVN activity occurred around Khe Sanh. During the 66-day siege, U.S. planes, dropping 5,000 bombs daily, exploded the equivalent of five Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs in the area. Although the camp's main defenses were overrun in only 13 minutes, the fighting lasted for several hours, during which the Special Forces men and Bru CIDGs managed to knock out at least five of the tanks. That did not mean, however, that battle was over. [27][28] The Marines' defensive system stretched below the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the coast, along Route 9, to Khe Sanh. [105] At 07:40, a relief force from Company A, 2nd Platoon set out from the main base and attacked through the PAVN, pushing them into supporting tank and artillery fire. [104] Ladd, back on the scene, reported that the Marines stated, "they couldn't trust any gooks in their damn camp. Name State Date War Branch; 1: Steven Glenn Abbott . The Marines at Khe Sanh Combat Base broke out of their perimeter and began attacking the North Vietnamese in the surrounding area. At least 852 PAVN soldiers were killed during the action, as opposed to 50 American and South Vietnamese. How many white soldiers died in Vietnam? - 2023 [12], General Creighton Abrams also suggested that the North Vietnamese may have been planning to emulate Dien Bien Phu. The American military presence at Khe Sanh consisted not only of the Marine Corps Khe Sanh Combat Base, but also Forward Operating Base 3, U.S. Army (FOB-3). Lima Company finally seized the hill after overcoming determined NVA resistance. They fixed the attention of the American command on the border regions, and they drew American and ARVN forces away from the coastal lowlands and cities in preparation for the Tet Offensive. Less likely to be mentioned is the final high-casualty engagement between units of the U.S. infantry and the North Vietnamese Army. The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh by Murphy, Edward F . If a battle tallied a sufficiently favorable body count ratio, American commanders declared victory, as they did after Khe Sanh. [112][113][114] In addition, over 100,000 tons of bombs were dropped until mid-April by aircraft of the USAF, US Navy and Marines onto the area surrounding Khe Sanh. First had been Operation Full Cry, the original three-division invasion plan. It was not sufficient to simply be an American military person killed in the fighting there during the winter and spring of 1967-68. In the coming days, a campaign headquarters was established around Sap Lit. The legendary siege at Khe Sanh occurred in 1968, but during the spring of 1967, the United States Marines fought in northwestern Quang Tri Province in what became the first stage of the Khe Sanh battles. The Battle of Khe Sanh and Its Retellings - The Atlantic Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Site will be misbehaving during our migration to new (better!) ~45,000 in total[11]~6,000 Marines at the Combat Base of Khe Sanh[12] As a result of this intelligence, KSCB was reinforced on 22 January 1968 by the 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment. "[52], Brigadier General Lowell English (assistant commander 3rd Marine Division) complained that the defense of the isolated outpost was ludicrous: "When you're at Khe Sanh, you're not really anywhere. Click to View Online Archive The Battle of Khe Sanh was conducted northwestern Quaag Tri Province, South Vietnam, between January 21 and July 9, 1968 during the Vietnam War. Gordan L Rottman, Osprey Campaign 150: The Khe Sanh 1967-68, p. 51. [74], During January, the recently installed electronic sensors of Operation Muscle Shoals (later renamed "Igloo White"), which were undergoing test and evaluation in southeastern Laos, were alerted by a flurry of PAVN activity along the Ho Chi Minh Trail opposite the northwestern corner of South Vietnam. According to the official Marine Corps history of the battle, total fatalities for Operation Scotland were 205 friendly KIA. The Marines recorded an actual body count of 1,602 NVA killed but estimated the total NVA dead at between 10,000 and 15,000. By the end of January 1968, he had moved half of all US combat troops, nearly 50 maneuver battalions, to I Corps. The explanations given out by the Saigon command were that "the enemy had changed his tactics and reduced his forces; that PAVN had carved out new infiltration routes; that the Marines now had enough troops and helicopters to carry out mobile operations; that a fixed base was no longer necessary. When an enemy rocket-propelled grenade killed 2nd Lt. Randall Yeary and Corporal Richard John, although these Marines died before the beginning of the siege, their deaths were included in the official statistics. Making the prospect even more enticing was that the base was in an unpopulated area in which American firepower could be fully employed without civilian casualties. Johnson backed the Marine position due to his concern over protecting the Army's air assets from Air Force co-option. [165], Another interpretation was that the North Vietnamese were planning to work both ends against the middle, a strategy that has come to be known as the Option Play. Only those killed in action during Operation Scotland, which began on November 1, 1967, and ended on March 31, 1968, were included in the official casualty count. WALKI NA WZGRZU: PIERWSZA BITWA KHE SANH Edwarda F. Murphy'ego - twarda okadka w bardzo dobrym stanie | Books & Magazines, Books | eBay! [59], Making matters worse for the defenders, any aircraft that braved the weather and attempted to land was subject to PAVN antiaircraft fire on its way in for a landing. Among the dead Marines was 18-year-old Pfc Curtis Bugger. The heavy reliance on American airpower was an ominous sign for Vietnamization and . The September bombardments ranged from 100 to 150 rounds per day, with a maximum on 25 September of 1,190 rounds. At 21:30, the attack came on, but it was stifled by the small arms of the Rangers, who were supported by thousands of artillery rounds and air strikes. The attacks hindered the advancement of the McNamara Line, and as the fighting around Khe Sanh intensified, vital equipment including sensors and other hardware had to be diverted from elsewhere to meet the needs of the US garrison at Khe Sanh. The report continues to state, "this prompted Air Force chief of staff, General John McConnell, to press, although unsuccessfully, for JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff) authority to request Pacific Command to prepare a plan for using low-yield nuclear weapons to prevent a catastrophic loss of the U.S. Marine base. The PAVN 130mm and 152mm artillery pieces, and 122mm rockets, had a longer range than the Marine artillery support which consisted of 105mm and 155mm howitzers. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. On the following night, a massive wave of PAVN/VC attacks swept throughout South Vietnam, everywhere except Khe Sanh. This range overmatch was used by the PAVN to avoid counter-battery fire. On April 5, 1968, MACV prepared an Analysis of the Khe Sanh Battle for General Westmoreland. [71][72], Nine days before the Tet Offensive broke out, the PAVN opened the battle of Khe Sanh and attacked the US forces just south of the DMZ. "[136], Regardless, on 1 April, Operation Pegasus began. On the first day of battle, a big Communist rocket scored a direct hit on the main Marine ammunition dump, destroying 1,500 tons of high explosives, 98 percent of available ammunition. At around 10:00, the fire ignited a large quantity of explosives, rocking the base with another series of detonations. The lossesindicating that the enemy suffered a major defeatwere estimated at 3,550 KIA inflicted by delivered fires (i.e., aerial and artillery bombardment) and 2,000 KIA from ground action, for a total of 5,550 estimated North Vietnamese killed in action as of March 31. [115] This equates to roughly 1,300 tons of bombs dropped daily 5 tons for every one of the 20,000 PAVN soldiers initially estimated to have been committed to the fighting at Khe Sanh. These Are Some of the Most Iconic Battles the US Marines Ever Fought The battle of Khe Sanh: A history of the Vietnam War - Washington Post Even so, Westmoreland insisted for it not only to be occupied by the Marines but also for it to be reinforced. The Hill Fights (also known as the First Battle of Khe Sanh) was a battle during the Vietnam War between the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 325C Division and United States Marines on several hill masses north of the Khe Sanh Combat Base in northwest Qung Tr Province . The relief of Khe Sanh, called Operation Pegasus, began . SOG Reconnaissance teams also reported finding tank tracks in the area surrounding Co Roc mountain. On 18 January, Westmoreland passed his request for Air Force control up the chain of command to CINCPAC in Honolulu. January 30 marked the first day of the Vietnamese lunar new year celebration, called Tet. As a result, 65% of all supplies were delivered by paradrops delivered by C-130 aircraft, mostly by the USAF, whose crews had significantly more experience in airdrop tactics than Marine air crews. [32], Westmoreland responded by launching Operation Neutralize, an aerial and naval bombardment campaign designed to break the siege. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. The new anchor base was established at Ca Lu, a few miles down Route 9 to the east. [131], Planning for the overland relief of Khe Sanh had begun as early as 25 January 1968, when Westmoreland ordered General John J. Tolson, commander, First Cavalry Division, to prepare a contingency plan. The 26th Marines were activated in 1944 and fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II and were activated again on 1 March 1966, and fought in the Battle of Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War . The official North Vietnamese history claimed that 400 South Vietnamese troops had been killed and 253 captured. [99] The relief effort was not launched until 15:00, and it was successful. [43] Lieutenant General Robert E. Cushman Jr. relieved Walt as commander of III MAF in June. The PAVN claimed that Khe Sanh was "a stinging defeat from both the military and political points of view." The withdrawal of the last Marines under the cover of darkness was hampered by the shelling of a bridge along Route 9, which had to be repaired before the withdrawal could be completed. Battlefield boundaries extended from eastern Laos eastward along both sides of Route 9 in Quang Tri province, Vietnam, to the coast. This caused problems for the Marine command, which possessed its own aviation squadrons that operated under their own close air support doctrine. On April 20, Operation Prairie IV began, with heavy fighting between the Marines and NVA forces. Once the aircraft touched down, it became the target of any number of PAVN artillery or mortar crews. An additional 413 Marines were killed during Scotland II as of the end of June 1968. The PAVN claim that during the entire battle they "eliminated" 17,000 enemy troops, including 13,000 Americans and destroyed 480 aircraft. Westmoreland believed that the latter was the case, and his belief was the basis for his desire to stage "Dien Bien Phu in reverse. [80] Westmoreland insisted for several months that the entire Tet Offensive was a diversion, including, famously, attacks on downtown Saigon and obsessively affirming that the true objective of the North Vietnamese was Khe Sanh. Besieged, Khe Sanh could only be resupplied by air. Taking a larger but more realistic view, the Khe Sanh campaign resulted in a death toll of American military personnel that approached 1,000. [34] The heaviest action took place near Dak To, in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum. That afternoon, as a rescue force was dispatched to the village, Army Lt. Col. Joseph Seymoe and other soldiers died when their helicopter was attacked. Military History Institute of Vietnam, p. 222. [12] With the abandonment of the base, according to Thomas Ricks, "Khe Sanh became etched in the minds of many Americans as a symbol of the pointless sacrifice and muddled tactics that permeated a doomed U.S. war effort in Vietnam". Consequently, and unknown at the time, Operation Scotland became the starting point of the Battle of Khe Sanh in terms of Marine casualty reporting. [89] As a result, on 7 March, for the first time during the Vietnam War, air operations were placed under the control of a single manager. There are still debates about the true number of casualties, but estimates range that 1,000 to 3,500 US soldiers died, and a secret report from the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam,. Two days later, the PAVN 273rd Regiment attacked a Special Forces camp near the border town of Loc Ninh, in Bnh Long Province. For additional reading, see: Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh, by John Prados and Ray W. Stubbe; and the official Marine Corps history, The Battle for Khe Sanh, by Moyers S. Shore II. The Marines were extremely reluctant to relinquish authority over their aircraft to an Air Force general. [31] Mortar rounds, artillery shells, and 122mm rockets fell randomly but incessantly upon the base. Thirty-three ARVN troops were also killed and 187 were wounded. The Soviet-built PT-76 amphibious tanks of the 203rd Armored Regiment churned over the defenses, backed up by an infantry assault by the 7th Battalion, 66th Regiment and the 4th Battalion of the 24th Regiment, both elements of the 304th Division. The latest microwave/tropospheric scatter technology enabled them to maintain communications at all times. These combined sources report a total of 354 KIA.
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