During the 1968 Tet Offensive, as many as 30,000 Communist Vietnamese forces surrounded roughly 6,000 U.S. marines defending a combat base on .. Week of February 21 The official North Vietnamese history claimed that 400 South Vietnamese troops had been killed and 253 captured. After a ten-day battle, the attackers were pushed back into Cambodia. The distinctions between Operations Scotland, Pegasus and Scotland II, while important from the command perspective, were not necessarily apparent to individual Marines. 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. January 30 marked the first day of the Vietnamese lunar new year celebration, called Tet. Lima Company finally seized the hill after overcoming determined NVA resistance. Ten more Marines and 89 NVA died during this period. [42], In the wake of the hill fights, a lull in PAVN activity occurred around Khe Sanh. He gave the order for US Marines to take up positions around Khe Sanh. [172], On 30 January 1971, the ARVN and US forces launched Operation Dewey Canyon II, which involved the reopening of Route 9, securing the Khe Sanh area and reoccupying of KSCB as a forward supply base for Operation Lam Son 719. In the 43-day . Five Marines were killed on January 19 and 20, while on reconnaissance patrols. Free shipping for many products! The Pegasus force consisted of the Army 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) plus the 1st Marine Regiment. Strategically, however, the withdrawal meant little. Lownds feared that PAVN infiltrators were mixed up in the crowd of more than 6,000, and lacked sufficient resources to sustain them. It was later renamed "Dye Marker" by MACV in September 1967, just as the PAVN began the first phase of their offensive by launching attacks against Marine-held positions across the DMZ. [138] At 08:00 on 15 April, Operation Pegasus was officially terminated. [66] Hours after the bombardment ceased, the base was still in danger. [35], American intelligence analysts were quite baffled by the series of enemy actions. 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. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. The Marines at KSCB credited 40% of intelligence available to their fire-support coordination center to the sensors. Khe Sanh was situated on Route 9, the major east-west highway. [104] Ladd, back on the scene, reported that the Marines stated, "they couldn't trust any gooks in their damn camp. As the relief force made progress, the Marines at Khe Sanh moved out from their positions and began patrolling at greater distances from the base. Since late in 1967, Khe Sanh had depended on airlift for its survival. [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. The PAVN infantry, though bracketed by artillery fire, still managed to penetrate the perimeter of the defenses and were only driven back after severe close-quarters combat. Route 9, the only practical overland route from the east, was impassable due to its poor state of repair and the presence of PAVN troops. On the afternoon of 29 January, however, the 3rd Marine Division notified Khe Sanh that the truce had been cancelled. After failing to respond to a challenge, they were fired upon and five were killed outright while the sixth, although wounded, escaped. 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. [153][154] The gradual withdrawal of US forces began during 1969 and the adoption of Vietnamization meant that, by 1969, "although limited tactical offensives abounded, US military participation in the war would soon be relegated to a defensive stance. Consequently, and unknown at the time, Operation Scotland became the starting point of the Battle of Khe Sanh in terms of Marine casualty reporting. The relief of Khe Sanh, called Operation Pegasus, began . With Khe Sanh facing a full-scale. Due to severe losses, however, the NVA abandoned its plan for a massive ground attack. The official statistics yield a KIA ratio of between 50:1 and 75:1 of North Vietnamese to U.S. military deaths. This range overmatch was used by the PAVN to avoid counter-battery fire. [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. Operation Pegasus: ~20,000 (1st Air Cavalry and Marine units), U.S. losses:At Khe Sanh: 274 killed2,541 wounded (not including ARVN Ranger, RF/PF, Forward Operation Base 3 US Army and Royal Laotian Army losses)[15]Operation Scotland I and Operation Pegasus: 730 killed2,642 wounded,7 missing[15]Operation Scotland II (15 April 1968 July 1968):485 killed2,396 wounded[1]USAF:5 ~ 20 killed, wounded unknown[1]Operation Charlie for the final evacuation:At least 11 marines killed, wounded unknown[1] As early as 1962, the U.S. Military CommandVietnam (MACV) established an Army Special Forces camp near the village. On January 14, Marines from Company B, 3rd Recon Battalion, were moving up the north slope of Hill 881 North, a few miles northwest of Khe Sanh Combat Base. During the darkness of January 20-21, the NVA launched a series of coordinated attacks against American positions. [122], In late February, ground sensors detected the 66th Regiment, 304th Division preparing to mount an attack on the positions of the 37th ARVN Ranger Battalion on the eastern perimeter. Only nine US battalions were available from Hue/Phu Bai northward. To support the Marine base, a massive aerial bombardment campaign (Operation Niagara) was launched by the USAF. 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. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. With a view to gain the eventual approval for an advance through Laos to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail, he determined that "it was absolutely essential to hold the base." 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. [95], It still came as a shock to the Special Forces troopers at Lang Vei when 12 tanks attacked their camp. The Battle of Khe Sanh's initial action cost the Marines 12 killed, 17 wounded and two missing. 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. Had the plane been shot down departing Khe Sanh, the casualties would have been counted. They produced a body count ratio in the range between 50:1 and 75:1. server. [33] The PAVN fought for several days, took casualties, and fell back. Gordan L Rottman, Osprey Campaign 150: The Khe Sanh 1967-68, p. 51. [41], To prevent PAVN observation of the main base at the airfield and their possible use as firebases, the hills of the surrounding Khe Sanh Valley had to be continuously occupied and defended by separate Marine elements. The strike wounded two more Strike Force soldiers and damaged two bunkers. Amid heavy shelling, the Marines attempted to salvage what they could before destroying what remained as they were evacuated. WALKI NA WZGRZU: PIERWSZA BITWA KHE SANH Edwarda F. Murphy'ego - twarda okadka w bardzo dobrym stanie | Books & Magazines, Books | eBay! On the morning of 22 January Lownds decided to evacuate the remaining forces in the village with most of the Americans evacuated by helicopter while two advisers led the surviving local forces overland to the combat base. That proved to be the last overland attempt at resupply for Khe Sanh until the following March. 3% were Asian, 7 or . It was a two-part battle which took place from November 14 to 18, 1965 at the la Drang Valley, South Vietnam. Fighting around Khe Sanh was continuous. On March 6, two U.S. Air Force C-123 cargo airplanes departed Da Nang Air Base en route to Khe Sanh. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh by Murphy, Edward F. (mass_market) at the best online prices at eBay! Both sides suffered major casualties with both claiming victory of their own. Siege at Khe Sanh: ~17,200 (304th and 308th Division), Defense at Route 9: ~16,900 (320th and 324th Division), This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 15:52. The Marine garrison was also reinforced, and on November 1, 1967, Operation Scotland began. These were pitted against two to three divisional-size elements of the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). [142], Lownds and the 26th Marines departed Khe Sanh, leaving the defense of the base to the 1st Marine Regiment. The site linked to another microwave/tropo site in Hu manned by the 513th Signal Detachment. The Battle of Khe Sanh took place between January 21 and July 9, 1968; however, most of the official statistics provided pertain only to Operation Scotland, which ended on March 31, or to the 77-day period beginning what is classified as the Siege of Khe Sanh, where the 26th Marines were pinned down until Operations Niagara, and Pegasus freed The attack on Khe Sanh, however, proved to be a diversionary tactic for the larger Tet Offensive. "[159] In assessing North Vietnamese intentions, Peter Brush cites the claim of Vietnamese theater commander, V Nguyn Gip, "that Khe Sanh itself was not of importance, but only a diversion to draw U.S. forces away from the populated areas of South Vietnam. [10] Once the news of the closure of KSCB was announced, the American media immediately raised questions about the reasoning behind its abandonment. Upon closer analysis, the official figure does not accurately portray even what it purports to represent. When the weather later cleared in March, the amount was increased to 40 tons per day. The Tet Offensive was about to begin. No logic was apparent to them behind the sustained PAVN/VC offensives other than to inflict casualties on the allied forces. The Battle of Ban Houei Sane, not the attack three weeks later at Lang Vei, marked the first time that the PAVN had committed an armored unit to battle. [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". [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 Americans wanted a military presence there to block the infiltration of enemy forces from Laos, to provide a base for launching patrols into Laos to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and to serve as a western anchor for defense along the DMZ. [82], By the end of the battle, USAF assets had flown 9,691 tactical sorties and dropped 14,223tons of bombs on targets within the Khe Sanh area. [137] Opposition from the North Vietnamese was light and the primary problem that hampered the advance was continual heavy morning cloud cover that slowed the pace of helicopter operations. 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. Nevertheless, the US commander during the battle, General William Westmoreland, maintained that the true intention of Tet was to distract forces from 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. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. [48][Note 4], Not all leading Marine officers, however, had the same opinion. But only by checking my service record while writing this article did it become evident that I had participated in all three operations. [58] The USAF delivered 14,356 tons of supplies to Khe Sanh by air (8,120 tons by paradrop). [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. [59], During the rainy night of 2 January 1968, six men dressed in black uniforms were seen outside the defensive wire of the main base by members of a listening post. TBKQS / Trung tm TBKQS - BQP - H Ni: QND, 2004. The United States and its South Vietnamese allies pulled many huge offensive . [105], Lownds estimated that the logistical requirements of KSCB were 60 tons per day in mid-January and rose to 185 tons per day when all five battalions were in place. [135] The Marines had constantly argued that technically, Khe Sanh had never been under siege, since it had never truly been isolated from resupply or reinforcement. Dien Bien Phu would loom large for the rest of the war, especially during the Battle of Khe Sanh. [12], General Creighton Abrams also suggested that the North Vietnamese may have been planning to emulate Dien Bien Phu. The badly-deteriorated Route 9 ran from the coastal region through the western highlands and crossed the border into Laos. Scotland was a 26th Marine Regiment operation, so only the deaths of Marines assigned to the regiment, and attached supporting units, were counted. Setting out from Ca Lu, 10 miles east of Khe Sanh, Pegasus opened the highway, linked up with the Marines at Khe Sanh, and engaged NVA in the surrounding area. At the same time, the 304th Division withdrew to the southwest. The base was officially closed on July 5. [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. Several rounds also landed on Hill 881. [119] By 11:00, the battle was over, Company A had lost 24 dead and 27 wounded, while 150 PAVN bodies were found around the position, which was then abandoned. Among the dead Marines was 18-year-old Pfc Curtis Bugger. A limited attack was made by a PAVN company on 1 July, falling on a company from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, who were holding a position 3km to the southeast of the base. Of the 4953 Navy and Air Force casualties, both officer and enlisted, 4, 736 or 96% were white. [141] Because of the close proximity of the enemy and their high concentration, the massive B-52 bombings, tactical airstrikes, and vast use of artillery, PAVN casualties were estimated by MACV as being between 10,000 and 15,000 men. Throughout the battle, Marine artillerymen fired 158,891 mixed rounds. Five days later, the final reinforcements arrived in the form of the 37th ARVN Ranger Battalion, which was deployed more for political than tactical reasons. The Marines and their allies at Khe Sanh engaged tens of thousands, and killed thousands, of NVA over a period of many weeks. This time period does not particularly coincide with the fighting; rather, it dates from before the siege began and terminates before the siege (and the fighting) ended. The North Vietnamese lost as many as 15,000 casualties during the siege of Khe Sanh. This is also the position taken in the official PAVN history but offers no further explanation of the strategy. PAVN forces were driven out of the area around Khe Sanh after suffering 940 casualties. Those 10 deaths were also left out of the official statistics. 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. Taking place between March and July 1970, the Battle of Fire. While suffering less significant casualties (around 10,000 dead), ARVN units had only turned back the attacking PAVN forces with massive American air support. Westmoreland believed that the latter was the case, and his belief was the basis for his desire to stage "Dien Bien Phu in reverse. Operation Pegasus casualties included 59 U.S. Army and 51 Marine Corps dead. The advance would be supported by 102 pieces of artillery. [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. Later, the 1/1 Marines and 3rd ARVN Airborne Task Force (the 3rd, 6th, and 8th Airborne Battalions) would join the operation. Less likely to be mentioned is the final high-casualty engagement between units of the U.S. infantry and the North Vietnamese Army. If that failed, and it did, they hoped to attack American reinforcements along Route 9 between Khe Sanh and Laos. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. 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 . The PAVN claim that during the entire battle they "eliminated" 17,000 enemy troops, including 13,000 Americans and destroyed 480 aircraft. The Marines, fearing an ambush, did not attempt a relief, and after heavy fighting the camp was overrun. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. [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. For seven weeks, American aircraft dropped from 35,000 to 40,000 tons of bombs in nearly 4,000 airstrikes. 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. New material will be added to that page through the end of 2018. "[91][92], Not much activity (with the exception of patrolling) had occurred thus far during the battle for the Special Forces Detachment A-101 and their four companies of Bru CIDGs stationed at Lang Vei. [97] During a meeting at Da Nang at 07:00 the next morning, Westmoreland and Cushman accepted Lownds' decision. Following a rolling barrage fired by nine artillery batteries, the Marine attack advanced through two PAVN trenchlines, but the Marines failed to locate the remains of the men of the ambushed patrol. The PAVN, however, were not through with the ARVN troops. "[136], Regardless, on 1 April, Operation Pegasus began. A historian, General Dave Palmer, accepted that rationale: "General Giap never had any intention of capturing Khe Sanh [it] was a feint, a diversionary effort. 1st Marine Aircraft Wing records claim that the unit delivered 4,661 tons of cargo into KSCB. [53] Two divisions, the 304th and the 325th, were assigned to the operation: the 325th was given responsibility for the area around the north, while the 304th was given responsibility for the southern sector. 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. The most controversial statistic in Vietnam was the number of killed in action (KIA) claimed by each side. A myth has grown up around this incident. Not including ARVN Ranger, RF/PF, Forward Operation Base 3 U.S. Army, Royal Laotian Army and SOG commandos losses. [44], On 14 August, Colonel David E. Lownds took over as commander of the 26th Marine Regiment. U.S. Marines and their allies killed thousands of NVA, but to solve the riddle of Khe Sanh, you have to recount the numbers. [158] The question, known among American historians as the "riddle of Khe Sanh," has been summed up by John Prados and Ray Stubbe: "Either the Tet Offensive was a diversion intended to facilitate PAVN/VC preparations for a war-winning battle at Khe Sanh, or Khe Sanh was a diversion to mesmerize Westmoreland in the days before Tet. The plane, piloted by Lt. Col. Frederick J. Hampton, crashed in a huge fireball a few miles east of Khe Sanh, killing all aboard. 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. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. [64], The main base was then subjected to an intense mortar and rocket barrage. That was superseded by the smaller contingency plans. 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. [157], Commencing in 1966, the US had attempted to establish a barrier system across the DMZ to prevent infiltration by North Vietnamese troops. Operation Pegasus, begun the day after Scotland ended, lasted until April 15. The adoption of this concept at the end of February was the turning point in the resupply effort. today! [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. 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. On April 6, a front-page story in The New York Times declared that the siege of Khe Sanh had been lifted. Battle of Hamburger Hill The 29 th North Vietnam Army had entrenched themselves on Hamburger Hill in South Vietnam; a joint US-South Vietnamese force was ordered to remove them. All of the attacks were conducted by regimental-size PAVN/VC units, but unlike most of the previous usual hit-and-run tactics, they were sustained and bloody affairs. On April 20, Operation Prairie IV began, with heavy fighting between the Marines and NVA forces. [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. [31] Mortar rounds, artillery shells, and 122mm rockets fell randomly but incessantly upon the base. The 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh was the longest, deadliest and most controversial of the Vietnam War, pitting the U.S. Marines and their allies against the North Vietnamese Army. Once the aircraft touched down, it became the target of any number of PAVN artillery or mortar crews. McNamara wrote: "because of terrain and other conditions peculiar to our operations in South Vietnam, it is inconceivable that the use of nuclear weapons would be recommended there against either Viet Cong or North Vietnamese forces". [1], The evacuation of Khe Sanh began on 19 June 1968 as Operation Charlie. [161], Whether the PAVN actually planned to capture Khe Sanh or the battle was an attempt to replicate the Vit Minh triumph against the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu has long been a point of contention. Two further attacks later in the morning were halted before the PAVN finally withdrew. They asked what had changed in six months so that American commanders were willing to abandon Khe Sanh in July. The fighting was heavy. The NVAs main command post was located in Laos, at Sar Lit. 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. During the course of the siege, the U.S. Air Force dropped five tons of bombs for each of the estimated 20,000 attacking NVA troops. Background [ edit] [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. The 26th Marine Regiment (26th Marines) is an inactivated infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. The enemy by my count suffered at least 15,000 dead in the area.. [140] Operation Scotland II would continue until 28 February 1969 resulting in 435 Marines and 3304 PAVN killed. The exact number of casualties suffered by both sides during the Khe Sanh battle is very difficult to ascertain, given that in many cases the two warring factions provided their own disparate counts. The Marines were extremely reluctant to relinquish authority over their aircraft to an Air Force general. Construction on the line was ultimately abandoned and resources were later diverted towards implementing a more mobile strategy. On April 15, Operation Pegasus ended and Operation Scotland II began. The Laotians were overrun, and many fled to the Special Forces camp at Lang Vei. Journalist Richard Ehrlich writes that according to the report, "in late January, General Westmoreland had warned that if the situation near the DMZ and at Khe Sanh worsened drastically, nuclear or chemical weapons might have to be used." Two days later, the PAVN 273rd Regiment attacked a Special Forces camp near the border town of Loc Ninh, in Bnh Long Province. Two days later, US troops detected PAVN trenches running due north to within 25 m of the base perimeter. This caused problems for the Marine command, which possessed its own aviation squadrons that operated under their own close air support doctrine. In 1970, the Office of Air Force History published a then "top secret", but now declassified, 106-page report, titled The Air Force in Southeast Asia: Toward a Bombing Halt, 1968. The assault began on 10 May 1969 w ith the 101st Airborne Division and troops of the 9th M arine Regiment, the 5 th Cavalry Regiment, and the 3 rd ARVN Regiment. [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. A closer look at the Khe Sanh body count, however, reveals anything but a straightforward matter of numbers. [133] The Marines would be accompanied by their 11th Engineer Battalion, which would repair the road as the advance moved forward. [54] In attempting to determine PAVN intentions Marine intelligence confirmed that, within a period of just over a week, the 325th Division had moved into the vicinity of the base and two more divisions were within supporting distance. [125], By mid-March, Marine intelligence began to note an exodus of PAVN units from the Khe Sanh sector.