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. 129131. The official assessment of the North Vietnamese Army dead is just over 1,600 killed, with two . Naval aircrews, many of whom were redirected from Operation Rolling Thunder strikes against North Vietnam, flew 5,337 sorties and dropped 7,941 tons of ordnance in the area. [79] On an average day, 350 tactical fighter-bombers, 60 B-52s, and 30 light observation or reconnaissance aircraft operated in the skies near the base. [75], Niagara I was completed during the third week of January, and the next phase, Niagara II, was launched on the 21st,[76] the day of the first PAVN artillery barrage. The September bombardments ranged from 100 to 150 rounds per day, with a maximum on 25 September of 1,190 rounds. [67], At the same time as the artillery bombardment at KSCB, an attack was launched against Khe Sanh village, seat of Hng Ha District. [43] Lieutenant General Robert E. Cushman Jr. relieved Walt as commander of III MAF in June. [81] The sensors were implanted by a special naval squadron, Observation Squadron Sixty-Seven (VO-67). Military History Institute of Vietnam, p. 222. Cushman, the new III MAF commander, supported Westmoreland perhaps because he wanted to mend Army/Marine relations after the departure of Walt. Battle of Khe Sanh : American Casualties We have 535 casualty profiles listed in our archive. It was a bad beginning to a long 77-day siege. "[160] That has led other observers to conclude that the siege served a wider PAVN strategy by diverting 30,000 US troops away from the cities that were the main targets of the Tet Offensive. For some unknown reason, the PAVN troops did not press their advantage and eliminate the pocket, instead throwing a steady stream of grenades at the Marines. [108] The most dramatic supply delivery system used at Khe Sanh was the Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System, in which palletized supplies were pulled out of the cargo bay of a low-flying transport aircraft by means of an attached parachute. Let me caution everyone not to be confused. The Marine garrison was also reinforced, and on November 1, 1967, Operation Scotland began. Operation Pegasus casualties included 59 U.S. Army and 51 Marine Corps dead. Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! However, the PAVN committed three regiments to the fighting from the Khe Sanh sector. The NVA surrounded Khe Sanh in an attempt to force the Marines to break out of their fighting positions, which would make it easier to engage and destroy them. [100][Note 6], Lownds infuriated the Special Forces personnel even further when the indigenous survivors of Lang Vei, their families, civilian refugees from the area, and Laotian survivors from the camp at Ban Houei Sane arrived at the gate of KSCB. It was a two-part battle which took place from November 14 to 18, 1965 at the la Drang Valley, South Vietnam. The Battle of Khe Sanh's initial action cost the Marines 12 killed, 17 wounded and two missing. None of the deaths associated with Scotland II are included in the official count. [9], The precise nature of Hanoi's strategic goal at Khe Sanh is regarded as one of the most intriguing unanswered questions of the Vietnam War. [117][20] The PAVN acknowledged 2,500 men killed in action. Mobile combat operations continued against the North Vietnamese. NVA casualties were more than 200. Fighting around Khe Sanh was continuous. [24], The plateau camp was permanently manned by the US Marines in 1967, when they established an outpost next to the airstrip. American logistical, aerial, and artillery support was provided to the operation. Khe Sanh had long been responsible for the defense of Lang Vei. According to Ray Stubbe, a U.S. Navy chaplain during the siege and since then the most significant Khe Sanh historian, the 205 figure is taken only from the records of the 26th Marine Regiment. The NVA continued shelling the base, and on July 1 launched a company-sized infantry attack against its perimeter. The Marines fought long, hard and well at Khe Sanh, but they sacrificed in much greater numbers than has been acknowledged by official sources. The Siege of Khe Sanh. The enemy by my count suffered at least 15,000 dead in the area.. For example, I served with a Marine heavy mortar battery at Khe Sanh during the siege. On April 15, Operation Pegasus ended and Operation Scotland II began. [20] These figures do not include casualties among Special Forces troops at Lang Vei, aircrews killed or missing in the area, or Marine replacements killed or wounded while entering or exiting the base aboard aircraft. The Marines found a solution to the problem in the "Super Gaggle" concept. [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. In the aftermath, the North Vietnamese proclaimed a victory at Khe Sanh, while US forces claimed that they had withdrawn, as the base was no longer required. 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. They too were left out of the official Khe Sanh casualty count. A secret memorandum reported by US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, sent to US President Lyndon B. Johnson on 19 February 1968, was declassified in 2005. The ground troops had been specially equipped for the attack with satchel charges, tear gas, and flame throwers. The NVAs main command post was located in Laos, at Sar Lit. [147] The official closure of the base came on 5 July after fighting, which had killed five more Marines. [134], Westmoreland's planned relief effort infuriated the Marines, who had not wanted to hold Khe Sanh in the first place and who had been roundly criticized for not defending it well. 1st Marine Aircraft Wing records claim that the unit delivered 4,661 tons of cargo into KSCB. [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". Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the war's most famous siege, a 77-day struggle for a rain-swept plateau in central Vietnam that riveted the U.S. in 1968, and opened a year of . [163] Other theories argued that the forces around Khe Sanh were simply a localized defensive measure in the DMZ area or that they were serving as a reserve in case of an offensive American end run in the mode of the American invasion at Inchon during the Korean War. The 26th Marine Regiment (26th Marines) is an inactivated infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. What is the 25th Infantry known for? [35], American intelligence analysts were quite baffled by the series of enemy actions. Amid heavy shelling, the Marines attempted to salvage what they could before destroying what remained as they were evacuated. Due to the nature of these activities, and the threat that they posed to KSCB, Westmoreland ordered Operation Niagara I, an intense intelligence collection effort on PAVN activities in the vicinity of the Khe Sanh Valley. Historian Ronald Spector, in the book After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam, noted that American casualties in the 10 weeks after the start of Operation Pegasus were more than twice those officially reported during the siege. 528 of them include images. It is difficult to support the claim of an overwhelming American victory at Khe Sanh based solely on the ratios derived from the official casualty count. One headquarters would allocate and coordinate all air assets, distributing them wherever they were considered most necessary, and then transferring them as the situation required. An airborne battlefield command and control center aboard a C-130 aircraft, directed incoming strike aircraft to forward air control (FAC) spotter planes, which, in turn directed them to targets either located by themselves or radioed in by ground units. In the course of the fighting, Allied forces fired 151,000 artillery rounds, flew 2,096 tactical air sorties, and conducted 257 B-52 Stratofortress strikes. [117], Cumulative friendly casualties for Operation Scotland, which began on 1 November 1967, were: 205 killed in action, 1,668 wounded, and 25 missing and presumed dead. Even so, Westmoreland insisted for it not only to be occupied by the Marines but also for it to be reinforced. 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. By early 1967, the Marine position was reinforced to regimental strength. Those 10 deaths were also left out of the official statistics. On the following night, a massive wave of PAVN/VC attacks swept throughout South Vietnam, everywhere except Khe Sanh. The Twenty-fifth United States Infantry Regiment was one of the racially segregated units of the United States Army known as Buffalo Soldiers.The 25th served from 1866 to 1957, seeing action in the American Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War and World War II. For seven weeks, American aircraft dropped from 35,000 to 40,000 tons of bombs in nearly 4,000 airstrikes. The heavy reliance on American airpower was an ominous sign for Vietnamization and . Of the 7877 officer casualties, 7595 or 96.4% were white, 147 or 1.8% were black; 24 or . They were not included in the official Khe Sanh counts. Soon after, another shell hit a cache of tear gas, which saturated the entire area. During this time, KSCB and the hilltop outposts around it were subjected to constant PAVN artillery, mortar, and rocket attacks, and several infantry assaults. [109], The resupply of the numerous, isolated hill outposts was fraught with the same difficulties and dangers. [30], In early October, the PAVN had intensified battalion-sized ground probes and sustained artillery fire against Con Thien, a hilltop stronghold in the center of the Marines' defensive line south of the DMZ, in northern Qung Tr Province. Seven miles west of Khe Sanh on Route 9, and about halfway to the Laotian border, sat the U.S. Army Special Forces camp at Lang Vei. However, North Vietnamese sources claim that the Americans did not win a victory at Khe Sanh but were forced to retreat to avoid destruction. The Marines knew that their withdrawal from Khe Sanh would present a propaganda victory for Hanoi. Five more attacks against their sector were launched during March. That was superseded by the smaller contingency plans. This marked the first time that all three battalions of the 26th Marine Regiment had operated together in combat since the Battle of Iwo Jima during the Second World War. To support the Marine base, a massive aerial bombardment campaign (Operation Niagara) was launched by the USAF. [125], By mid-March, Marine intelligence began to note an exodus of PAVN units from the Khe Sanh sector. [85] Westmoreland had given his deputy commander for air operations, Air Force General William W. Momyer, the responsibility for coordinating all air assets during the operation to support KSCB. 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. 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. A group of 12 A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers provided flak suppression for massed flights of 1216 helicopters, which would resupply the hills simultaneously. That action prematurely triggered a PAVN offensive aimed at taking Khe Sanh. [122] The majority of these were around the southern and southeastern corners of the perimeter, and formed part of a system that would be developed throughout the end of February and into March until they were ready to be used to launch an attack, providing cover for troops to advance to jumping-off points close to the perimeter. [145], Author Peter Brush details that an "additional 413 Marines were killed during Scotland II through the end of June 1968". [70] Regardless, the SOG reconnaissance teams kept patrolling, providing the only human intelligence available in the battle area. 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,. He believed that was proved by the PAVN's actions during Tet. "[103] The Bru were excluded from evacuation from the highlands by an order from the ARVN I Corps commander, who ruled that no Bru be allowed to move into the lowlands. The Marines withdrew all salvageable material and destroyed everything else. Battlefield boundaries extended from eastern Laos eastward along both sides of Route 9 in Quang Tri province, Vietnam, to the coast. Less likely to be mentioned is the final high-casualty engagement between units of the U.S. infantry and the North Vietnamese Army. The official statistics yield a KIA ratio of between 50:1 and 75:1 of North Vietnamese to U.S. military deaths. [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. Of the 24 Americans at the camp, 10 had been killed and 11 wounded. By comparison, according to another Army general, a 10:1 ratio was considered average and 25:1 was considered very good. 3% were Asian, 7 or . At least 852 PAVN soldiers were killed during the action, as opposed to 50 American and South Vietnamese. 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. 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. [94] Although the PAVN was known to possess two armored regiments, it had not yet fielded an armored unit in South Vietnam, and besides, the Americans considered it impossible for them to get one down to Khe Sanh without it being spotted by aerial reconnaissance. The monumental Battle of Khe Sanh had begun, but the January 21 starting date is essentially arbitrary in terms of casualty reporting. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. [171] When Hanoi made the decision to move in around the base, Khe Sanh was held by only one or two American battalions. According to Gordon Rottman, even the North Vietnamese official history, Victory in Vietnam, is largely silent on the issue. [39], On 24 April 1967, a patrol from Bravo Company became engaged with a PAVN force of an unknown size north of Hill 861. Telfer, Rogers, and Fleming, pp. 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. [156] Correspondent Michael Herr reported on the battle, and his account would inspire the surreal "Do Long Bridge" scene in the film Apocalypse Now, which emphasized the anarchy of the war. MN: 05-12-1968: Vietnam: Army: 2: "[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. Operational control of the Khe Sanh area was handed over to the US Army's 1st Air Cavalry Division for the duration of Operation Pegasus. [23][Note 2], James Marino wrote that in 1964, General William Westmoreland, the US commander in Vietnam, had determined, "Khe Sanh could serve as a patrol base blocking enemy infiltration from Laos; a base for operations to harass the enemy in Laos; an airstrip for reconnaissance to survey the Ho Chi Minh Trail; a western anchor for the defenses south of the DMZ; and an eventual jumping-off point for ground operations to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Hundreds of mortar rounds and 122-mm rockets slammed into the base, levelling most of the above-ground structures. Many American casualties were caused by the 10,908 rounds of rockets, artillery and mortars the North Vietnamese fired into the base and hill positions. Among the dead Marines was 18-year-old Pfc Curtis Bugger. Battle of Khe Sanh: American Casualties : Showing All Results. The Pegasus force consisted of the Army 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) plus the 1st Marine Regiment. The relief of Khe Sanh, called Operation Pegasus, began . [123][124], Nevertheless, the same day that the trenches were detected, 25 February, 3rd Platoon from Bravo Company 1st Battalion, 26th Marines was ambushed on a short patrol outside the base's perimeter to test the PAVN strength. Lownds feared that PAVN infiltrators were mixed up in the crowd of more than 6,000, and lacked sufficient resources to sustain them. [83] Westmoreland later wrote, "Washington so feared that some word of it might reach the press that I was told to desist, ironically answering what those consequences could be: a political disaster. A decision then had to be made by the American high command to commit more of the limited manpower in I Corps to the defense of Khe Sanh or to abandon the base. Casualties were heavy among the attacking PAVN, who lost over 200 killed, while the defending Marines lost two men.
What Medicine To Take For Omicron At Home,
Dubois Courier Express Police Reports,
Articles B
