Vietnam Studies: Mounted Combat in Vietnam (£2.99)

This monograph is an account of the operations of armored units of the United States Army in the Republic of Vietnam. The term armored units is generic and includes tank and mechanized infantry battalions and companies, armored cavalry squadrons and troops, and air cavalry squadrons and troops - all forces whose primary modus operandi was to fight mounted.

The story begins not with the arrival of the first U.S. armored units in Vietnam in 1965 but with armor in Vietnam during the years immediately after World War II. The generally unsuccessful experience of French armored forces in Southeast Asia from the end of World War II to 1954 convinced American military men that armored units could not be employed in Vietnam. It was widely believed that Vietnam's monsoon climate together with its jungle and rice paddies constituted an environment too hostile for mechanized equipment; it was further agreed that armored forces could not cope with an elusive enemy that operated from jungle ambush. Thus at the outset of American participation in the conflict and for some time thereafter, Army planners saw little or no need for armored units in the U.S. force structure in Vietnam. At the same time, however, extensive American aid that flowed into Vietnam after the French left the country was directed in part to developing an armored force for the newly created Army of the Republic of Vietnam.

It was not until 1967, however, when a study titled Mechanized and Armor Combat Operations Vietnam, was sent to the Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Army, that the potential of armored forces was fully described to the Army's top leaders. Despite the study's findings that armored cavalry was probably the most cost-effective force on the Vietnam battlefield, there was little that could be done to alter significantly either the structure of forces already sent to Vietnam or those earmarked for deployment.

From early March 1965 until the cease-fire in January 1973, U.S. armored units participated in virtually every large-scale offensive operation and worked closely with South Vietnamese Army and other free world forces. After eight years of fighting over land on which tanks were once thought to be incapable of moving, in weather that was supposed to prohibit armored operations, and dealing with an elusive enemy against whom armored units were thought to be at a considerable disadvantage, armored forces emerged as powerful, flexible, and essential battle forces.

The monograph makes no attempt to document every armored unit in every battle. Nor does it list in detail the lessons that may be learned from the Vietnam conflict, although it does call attention to some. The reader should keep in mind that the author's intent is to tell the story of mounted units, and not to describe battles in their entirety.

This monograph is an accounting of the stewardship of the tank crewmen, mechanized infantrymen, armored cavalrymen, and air cavalrymen who had a hand in some of the more significant events in the Vietnam War.

Detailed Table of Contents:

I. INTRODUCTION

• Influence of French Use of Armor; US Armored Forces After 1945; Vietnam as a Field for Armor; The Enemy in Vietnam.

II. ARMOR IN THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE ARMY

• US Advisers; M113's in the Mekong Delta; Reorganization and Retrenchment; Expansion of Armor in the South Vietnamese Army; Cuu Long 15; Time for Corrective Analysis; Improvements in Equipment; Enemy Reaction to Armored Vehicles; "Coup Troops".

III. GROWTH OF US ARMORED FORCES IN VIETNAM

• The Marines Land; Decision Making; Scouts Out; Ap Bau Bang; Deployments and Employments; Task Force Spur; Battles on the Minh Thanh Road; The Blackhorse Regiment; Mine and Countermine.

IV. COMBINED ARMS OPERATIONS

• The MACOV Study; Cedar Falls-Junction City; Mechanized Operations in the Mekong Delta; Route Security and Convoy Escort; Air Cavalry Operations; Other Free World Armor.

V. THREE ENEMY OFFENSIVES

• Enemy Buildup; First Offensive: Tet 1968; Battle of Tan Son Nhut; Battle of Long Binh and Bien Hoa Area; Battles in Vinh Long Province; Second Offensive; Third Offensive; Aftermath.

VI. THE FIGHT FOR THE BORDERS

• Changing Strategy; Armored Forces Along the Demilitarized Zone; The Sheridan; "Pile-on"; Rome Plows; Tank Versus Tank; Invading the Enemy's Sanctuaries; Securing the Borders; Pacification Efforts; Vietnamese Forces Take Over the War.

VII. ACROSS THE BORDER: SANCTUARIES IN CAMBODIA AND LAOS

• Early Operations Into Cambodia; The Main Attack Into Cambodia; South Vietnamese Army Attacks Continue; Secondary Attacks Across the Border; Cambodia in Perspective; Maintenance and Supply; Lam Son 719; The South Vietnamese Army Attack; Air Cavalry and Tanks; The Withdrawal; Cuu Long 44-02.

VIII. THE ENEMY SPRING OFFENSIVE OF 1972

• Point and Counterpoint; The 20th Tank Regiment; Attack Across the Demilitarized Zone; The Rock of Dong Ha; The Enemy Attack in Military Region 2; The Aftermath.

IX. REFLECTIONS

APPENDIX A VIETNAM UNIT COMMANDERS

APPENDIX B ARMOR RECIPIENTS OF THE MEDAL OF HONOR

GLOSSARY