Operation Crimp
Operation Crimp (8–14 January 1966), also known as the Battle of the Ho Bo Woods, was a joint US-Australian military operation during the Vietnam War, which took place 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Cu Chi in Binh Duong Province, South Vietnam. The operation targeted a key Viet Cong headquarters that was believed to be concealed underground, and involved two brigades of the US 1st Infantry Division including the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), which was attached to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade. Heavy fighting resulted in significant casualties on both sides, but the combined American and Australian force was able to uncover an extensive tunnel network covering more than 200 kilometres (120 mi).
The operation was the largest allied military action mounted during the war in South Vietnam to that point, and the first fought at division level. Despite some success, the allied force was only able to partially clear the area and it remained a key communist transit and supply base throughout the war. The tunnels were later used as a staging area for the attack on Saigon during the 1968 Tet offensive before they were largely destroyed by heavy bombing from American B-52 bombers in 1970, ending their utility. ThanksThank you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crimp for some of the info on this page
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Operation Crimp
The battle began at 09:30 on 8 January with heavy American preparatory fire from artillery, as well as napalm and airstrikes from B-52 bombers which resulted in significant defoliation. Soon after the airmobile operation commenced with the first American units being inserted by helicopter to the north, west and south. The US 3rd Infantry Brigade—under the command of Colonel William Brodbeck—was subsequently inserted by helicopter and by road. The brigade headquarters and command element departed Di An in convoy and reached Trung Lap on the western boundary of the brigade's area of operations by midday. Concurrently, two battalions were inserted by helicopter to the south-west, one blocking the south side of the Ho Bo Woods while the other conducted a sweep. The Americans were in contact almost immediately, although the engagements were generally small scale, or involving snipers. Meanwhile the brigade's third battalion moved by road to Trung Lap and then moved on foot to its assigned search area.
In the north, 1RAR was inserted into its new landing zone—LZ March—3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the south-west. With B Company securing the site, the battalion moved on foot to the line of departure but not before they were mistakenly engaged by US helicopter gunships and artillery fire. However, after the Australians established communications, the shelling was halted and they began their advance. No sooner had the lead elements—D Company under the command of Major Ian Fisher—emerged into the cleared area that was originally to have been used as the battalion's LZ, when the forward platoon came under fire from Viet Cong positions in the tree-line on the north-east corner. In the action which followed, six Australians from 12 Platoon were wounded, including platoon commander Lieutenant Jim Bourke, who was shot through the jaw but remained in command until he passed out from loss of blood. Meanwhile two medics who attempted to move forward to treat the casualties were themselves shot and killed. Preece moved to push his other companies around each flank of D Company, and towards the battalion's original blocking position. Soon they were also in contact with small groups of Viet Cong from positions behind trees and in bunkers, while others popped up from spider holes and tunnel entrances; it became apparent to the Australians that they had stumbled across a significant Viet Cong force in extensive fortifications, sufficient to hold a battalion. B Company, under the command of Major Ian McFarlane, also uncovered a small dug-in hospital with simple transfusion equipment, documents and bandages. Meanwhile, the remaining battalions of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade had also been inserted. The 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment flew into LZ April at 12:00, while 2/503rd Battalion arrived at LZ May at 14:30. With the insertion going largely according to plan, the brigades began their advance eastwards. Converging on the suspected location of the communist headquarters, a thorough search of the area yielded little, and it was believed that the Viet Cong had withdrawn earlier in response to the initial Australian advance. Amid strong resistance, the Australians were made to fight their way through the maze of bunkers, punji stakes and booby traps but they were eventually able to force a Viet Cong regional force company to withdraw as they continued their advance. The area was heavily seeded with trip wires connected to shells and grenades dangling from branches, one of which blew McFarlane and several of his men off their feet. The defenders subsequently withdrew, with 7th Cu Chi Battalion forced north and 3rd Quyet Thang Battalion to the east.Suspecting they were being drawn into a trap—as one of the American battalions of the brigade had been previously during Operation Hump—the Australians moved into a tightly defended perimeter before dark and waited for the communists to counter-attack.[28] As night fell, movement was detected along a trench on the C Company perimeter when a squad of Viet Cong attempted to infiltrate the Australian position. Initially believing the movement to be another Australian patrol that had just departed on a clearing patrol, the machine-gunner on sentry duty finally opened fire at the last safe moment, killing one of the infiltrators at point-blank range and wounding a number of others before they withdrew.[34] Minor actions continued into the night, with small groups of Viet Cong able to pop up undetected and then disappear at will from within the Australian defensive position. The searching units were unable to locate Viet Cong in large numbers but experienced a significant number of sudden engagements and ambushes throughout the day, and it became clear that the communists were using tunnels for movement and concealment. Preece suspected that the area was honeycombed with tunnels and that the communist headquarters that he had been tasked to destroy was in fact located beneath the feet of the battalion.[28] The Australians were the only battalion in the US 173rd Brigade to strike significant resistance, and by the end of the first day 1RAR had suffered a total of three killed and 15 wounded, while the artillery Forward Observer from 105 Field Battery had also been killed.[35] The battalion spent a sleepless night and in the early hours of the morning there were a number of short exchanges of fire as small groups of Viet Cong returned to the area. Not wanting to fire the machine-guns for fear of giving their positions away or hitting friendly troops, the Australians resorted to using grenades forward of the perimeter.[36] Meanwhile, in the US 3rd Infantry Brigade area of operations contact had been light, with only six Viet Cong killed.[37] |