battle of khe sanh casualties

[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. You could lose it and you really haven't lost a damn thing. Ten American soldiers were killed; the rest managed to escape down Route 9 to Khe Sanh. SOG Reconnaissance teams also reported finding tank tracks in the area surrounding Co Roc mountain. The low figure often cited for US casualties (205 killed in action, 443 wounded, 2 missing) does not take into account U.S. Army or Air Force casualties or those incurred during Operation Pegasus. Two days later, the PAVN 273rd Regiment attacked a Special Forces camp near the border town of Loc Ninh, in Bnh Long Province. I suspect he is also trying to draw everyone's attention away from the greatest area of threat, the northern part of I Corps. Of the 24 Americans at the camp, 10 had been killed and 11 wounded. [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. If that failed, and it did, they hoped to attack American reinforcements along Route 9 between Khe Sanh and Laos. However, even if Westmoreland believed his statement, his argument never moved on to the next logical level. The Pegasus force consisted of the Army 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) plus the 1st Marine Regiment. It reveals that the nuclear option was discounted because of terrain considerations that were unique to South Vietnam, which would have reduced the effectiveness of tactical nuclear weapons. By comparison, according to another Army general, a 10:1 ratio was considered average and 25:1 was considered very good. The village of Khe Sanh was the seat of government of Hng Hoa district, an area of Bru Montagnard villages and coffee plantations about 7 miles (11km) from the Laotian frontier on Route 9, the northernmost transverse road in South Vietnam. 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. Lownds feared that PAVN infiltrators were mixed up in the crowd of more than 6,000, and lacked sufficient resources to sustain them. [12], Following the closure of the base, a small force of Marines remained around Hill 689 carrying out mopping-up operations. By the middle of January 1968, some 6,000 Marines and Army troops occupied the Khe Sanh Combat Base and its surrounding positions. It was not sufficient to simply be an American military person killed in the fighting there during the winter and spring of 1967-68. Those 10 deaths were also left out of the official statistics. PAVN forces were driven out of the area around Khe Sanh after suffering 940 casualties. 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. 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 . 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. [142], Lownds and the 26th Marines departed Khe Sanh, leaving the defense of the base to the 1st Marine Regiment. [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. MACV therefore initiated an operation to open Route 9 to vehicle traffic. He gave the order for US Marines to take up positions around Khe Sanh. On Easter Sunday, April 14, the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines (3/26), assaulted Hill 881 North in order to clear the enemy firing positions. Since the Marines on board were not yet officially attached to the 26th Marine Regiment, their deaths were not included in the official Khe Sanh count, nor were the several other deaths associated with aircraft crashes. One of the first enemy shells set off an explosion in the main ammunition dump. 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. [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. This article was written by Peter Brush and originally published in the June 2007 issue of Vietnam Magazine. On April 20, Operation Prairie IV began, with heavy fighting between the Marines and NVA forces. The Marines knew that their withdrawal from Khe Sanh would present a propaganda victory for Hanoi. Home > Features > Battle of Khe Sanh > View All. 239240. [56], At positions west of Hill 881 South and north of Co Roc Ridge (163340N 1063755E / 16.561N 106.632E / 16.561; 106.632), across the border in Laos, the PAVN established artillery, rocket, and mortar positions from which to launch attacks by fire on the base and to support its ground operations. 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. At 1530 hours the first C-123, with 44 passengers and a crew of five, began to land. [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. When the weather later cleared in March, the amount was increased to 40 tons per day. On January 21 at Khe Sanh, 30,000 North Vietnamese troops attacked an air base held by just 6,000 United States Marines. [51] Other concerns raised included the assertion that the real danger to I Corps was from a direct threat to Qung Tr City and other urban areas, a defense would be pointless as a threat to infiltration since PAVN troops could easily bypass Khe Sanh, the base was too isolated, and the Marines "had neither the helicopter resources, the troops, nor the logistical bases for such operations." The Battle of Khe Sanh's initial action cost the Marines 12 killed, 17 wounded and two missing. [66] Hours after the bombardment ceased, the base was still in danger. Listen Now. If firepower determined the outcome of the fight, it was airlift that allowed the defenders to hold their positions. 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. They asked what had changed in six months so that American commanders were willing to abandon Khe Sanh in July. 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. The site linked to another microwave/tropo site in Hu manned by the 513th Signal Detachment. [143][144], On 15 April, the 3rd Marine Division resumed responsibility for KSCB, Operation Pegasus ended, and Operation Scotland II began with the Marines seeking out the PAVN in the surrounding area. [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. A closer look at the Khe Sanh body count, however, reveals anything but a straightforward matter of numbers. [138], On the following day, the 2nd Brigade captured the old French fort near Khe Sanh village after a three-day battle. "[155], According to military historian Ronald Spector, to reasonably record the fighting at Khe Sanh as an American victory is impossible. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. This is the battles end date from the North Vietnamese perspective. [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. [121] Casualties from the bombardment were 10 killed and 51 wounded. During this time, KSCB and the hilltop outposts around it were subjected to constant PAVN artillery, mortar, and rocket attacks, and several infantry assaults. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Battle of Khe Sanh The attack finally came on January 21, 1968, when PAVN forces began a massive artillery bombardment of Khe Sanh, hitting the base's main store of ammunition and destroying. [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. A 77 day battle, Khe Sanh had been the biggest single battle of the Vietnam War to that point. But only by checking my service record while writing this article did it become evident that I had participated in all three operations. The Marines pursued three enemy scouts, who led them into an ambush. Five Marines were killed on January 19 and 20, while on reconnaissance patrols. [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. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. The Marines were extremely reluctant to relinquish authority over their aircraft to an Air Force general. According to the official PAVN history, by December 1967 the North Vietnamese had in place, or within supporting distance: the 304th, 320th, 324th and 325th Infantry Divisions, the independent 270th infantry Regiment; five artillery regiments (the 16th, 45th, 84th, 204th, and 675th); three AAA regiments (the 208th, 214th, and 228th); four tank companies; one engineer regiment plus one independent engineer battalion; one signal battalion; and a number of local force units. This, however, did not prevent the Marine tanks within the perimeter from training their guns on the SOG camp. They produced a body count ratio in the range between 50:1 and 75:1. Let me caution everyone not to be confused. The new anchor base was established at Ca Lu, a few miles down Route 9 to the east. From the Hu site the communication signal was sent to Danang headquarters where it could be sent anywhere in the world. The PAVN claim that during the entire battle they "eliminated" 17,000 enemy troops, including 13,000 Americans and destroyed 480 aircraft. 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. Two further attacks later in the morning were halted before the PAVN finally withdrew. 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. "[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. [117][20] The PAVN acknowledged 2,500 men killed in action. Among the dead Marines was 18-year-old Pfc Curtis Bugger. Battle of la Drang Valley (26 October - 27 . 528 of them include images. 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. [152] The Marines occupied Hill 950 overlooking the Khe Sanh plateau from 1966 until September 1969 when control was handed to the Army who used the position as a SOG operations and support base until it was overrun by the PAVN in June 1971. [64], The main base was then subjected to an intense mortar and rocket barrage. [15], Unknown (1,602 bodies were counted, US official public estimated 10,00015,000 KIA,[19][20] but MACV's secret report estimated 5,550 killed as of 31 March 1968)[1]. 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. Less likely to be mentioned is the final high-casualty engagement between units of the U.S. infantry and the North Vietnamese Army. [24], The plateau camp was permanently manned by the US Marines in 1967, when they established an outpost next to the airstrip. The microwave/tropo site was located in an underground bunker next to the airstrip. 129131. The Marines and their allies at Khe Sanh engaged tens of thousands, and killed thousands, of NVA over a period of many weeks. These were pitted against two to three divisional-size elements of the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). [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. Dr. Chris McNab is the editor of AMERICAN BATTLES & CAMPAIGNS: A Chronicle, from 1622-Present and is an experienced specialist in wilderness and urban survival techniques. 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." It was the only time Americans abandoned a major combat base because of enemy pressure. [171] When Hanoi made the decision to move in around the base, Khe Sanh was held by only one or two American battalions. After its adoption, Marine helicopters flew in 465 tons of supplies during February. On April 6, a front-page story in The New York Times declared that the siege of Khe Sanh had been lifted. Marines remained around Hill 689, though, and fighting in the vicinity continued until 11 July until they were finally withdrawn, bringing the battle to a close. [150] On 31 December 1968, the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion was landed west of Khe Sanh to commence Operation Dawson River West, on 2 January 1969 the 9th Marines and 2nd ARVN Regiment were also deployed on the plateau supported by the newly established Fire Support Bases Geiger and Smith; the 3-week operation found no significant PAVN forces or supplies in the Khe Sanh area. On the following night, a massive wave of PAVN/VC attacks swept throughout South Vietnam, everywhere except Khe Sanh. January 30 marked the first day of the Vietnamese lunar new year celebration, called Tet. The latest microwave/tropospheric scatter technology enabled them to maintain communications at all times. 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 A group of 12 A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers provided flak suppression for massed flights of 1216 helicopters, which would resupply the hills simultaneously. For example, I served with a Marine heavy mortar battery at Khe Sanh during the siege. Westmoreland planned on Khe Sanh being relieved and then used as the jump-off point for a "hot pursuit" of enemy forces into Laos. The figures of 5,500 NVA dead and 1,000 U.S. dead yield a ratio of 5.5:1. 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. 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. Fighting around Khe Sanh was continuous. The badly-deteriorated Route 9 ran from the coastal region through the western highlands and crossed the border into Laos. However, the PAVN committed three regiments to the fighting from the Khe Sanh sector. 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. [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. [1] According to Brush, it was "the only occasion in which Americans abandoned a major combat base due to enemy pressure" and in the aftermath, the North Vietnamese began a strong propaganda campaign, seeking to exploit the US withdrawal and to promote the message that the withdrawal had not been by choice. The 26th Marine Regiment (26th Marines) is an inactivated infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. None of the deaths associated with Scotland II are included in the official count. Construction on the line was ultimately abandoned and resources were later diverted towards implementing a more mobile strategy. New material will be added to that page through the end of 2018. Ray Stubbe has published a translation of the North Vietnamese history of the siege at Khe Sanh. Site will be misbehaving during our migration to new (better!) "[73], Nevertheless, ultimately the nuclear option was discounted by military planners. 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. [1], The evacuation of Khe Sanh began on 19 June 1968 as Operation Charlie. Amid heavy shelling, the Marines attempted to salvage what they could before destroying what remained as they were evacuated. [57][58] They were assisted in their emplacement efforts by the continuing bad weather of the winter monsoon. Minor attacks continued before the base was officially closed on 5 July. 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. [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. The Marine defense of Khe Sanh, Operation Scotland, officially ended on March 31. 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 324th Division was located in the DMZ area 1015 miles (1624km) north of Khe Sanh while the 320th Division was within easy reinforcing distance to the northeast. [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. [12], General Creighton Abrams also suggested that the North Vietnamese may have been planning to emulate Dien Bien Phu. At 04:15 on 8 February under cover of fog and a mortar barrage, the PAVN penetrated the perimeter, overrunning most of the position and pushing the remaining 30 defenders into the southwestern portion of the defenses. The Marines suffered 155 killed in action and 425 wounded. Enemy artillery rounds slammed into the runway. [110], As more infantry units had been assigned to defend KSCB, artillery reinforcement kept pace. 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. The base was officially closed on July 5. Stubbe examined the command chronologies of the 1st and 2nd battalions, 26th Marines, plus the after-action reports of the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines; 1st Battalion, 9th Marines; 1st Battalion, 13th Marines; and more than one dozen other units, all present at Khe Sanh under 26th Marine operational control. [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. [128] Also, Marine Lieutenant General Victor Krulak seconded the notion that there was never a serious intention to take the base by arguing that neither the water supply nor the telephone land lines were ever cut by the PAVN. [45] In December and early January, numerous sightings of PAVN troops and activities were made in the Khe Sanh area, but the sector remained relatively quiet.[46]. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. 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 . History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. They too were left out of the official Khe Sanh casualty count. [63] Hills 881 South, 861, and the main base itself would be simultaneously attacked that same evening. For them, the battle started when the North Vietnamese attacks began in January. [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". [126], On 30 March, Bravo Company, 26th Marines, launched an attack toward the location of the ambush that had claimed so many of their comrades on 25 February. 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. [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. [58] The USAF delivered 14,356 tons of supplies to Khe Sanh by air (8,120 tons by paradrop). The relief of Khe Sanh, called Operation Pegasus, began . [67], At the same time as the artillery bombardment at KSCB, an attack was launched against Khe Sanh village, seat of Hng Ha District. . Khe Sanh is a village located near the Laotian border and just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separated North and South Vietnam. [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. [86] The command and control arrangement then in place in Southeast Asia went against Air Force doctrine, which was predicated on the single air manager concept. What is the 25th Infantry known for? The official statistics yield a KIA ratio of between 50:1 and 75:1 of North Vietnamese to U.S. military deaths. Johnson backed the Marine position due to his concern over protecting the Army's air assets from Air Force co-option. The US command in Saigon initially believed that combat operations around KSCB during 1967 were part of a series of minor PAVN offensives in the border regions. By early 1967, the Marine position was reinforced to regimental strength. The battalion was assaulted on the night of 23 January by three PAVN battalions supported by seven tanks. 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. The Tet Offensive was about to begin. The official North Vietnamese history claimed that 400 South Vietnamese troops had been killed and 253 captured. The fighting was heavy. [104] Ladd, back on the scene, reported that the Marines stated, "they couldn't trust any gooks in their damn camp. [125], By mid-March, Marine intelligence began to note an exodus of PAVN units from the Khe Sanh sector. Early in the war US forces had established a garrison at Khe Sanh in Quang Tri province, in the . Battlefield boundaries extended from eastern Laos eastward along both sides of Route 9 in Quang Tri province, Vietnam, to the coast. [157], Commencing in 1966, the US had attempted to establish a barrier system across the DMZ to prevent infiltration by North Vietnamese troops. American commanders considered the defense of Khe Sanh a success, but shortly after the siege was lifted, the decision was made to dismantle the base rather than risk similar battles in the future. Name State Date War Branch; 1: Steven Glenn Abbott . [33], The heaviest action took place near Dak To, in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum. [1] He goes on to state that a further 72 were killed as part Operation Scotland II throughout the remainder of the year, but that these deaths are not included in the official US casualty lists for the Battle of Khe Sanh. 6,000 men North Vietnamese Vo Nguyen Giap Tran Quy Hai Approx. Marine Khe Sanh veteran Peter Brush is Vietnam Magazines book review editor. [55] They were supported logistically from the nearby Ho Chi Minh Trail. He made his final appearance in the story of Khe Sanh on 23 May, when his regimental sergeant major and he stood before President Johnson and were presented with a Presidential Unit Citation on behalf of the 26th Marines. [27][28] The Marines' defensive system stretched below the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the coast, along Route 9, to Khe Sanh. Lima Company finally seized the hill after overcoming determined NVA resistance. 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 While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. On March 6, two U.S. Air Force C-123 cargo airplanes departed Da Nang Air Base en route to Khe Sanh. That did not mean, however, that battle was over. [111] The base could also depend on fire support from US Army 175-mm guns located at Camp Carroll, east of Khe Sanh. The Laotians were overrun, and many fled to the Special Forces camp at Lang Vei. [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. [98] The Marines continued to oppose the operation until Westmoreland actually had to issue an order to Cushman to allow the rescue operation to proceed.

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