Operation Muscatine

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Operation Muscatine
Part of the
Quảng Ngãi Province, South Vietnam
Result US claims operational success
Belligerents  United States Viet CongUnits involved 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division
196th Infantry Brigade
198th Infantry Brigade
11th Infantry Brigade 406th Sapper Battalion
83rd Local Force Battalion
48th Local Force BattalionCasualties and losses 25 killed US body count: 645+ killed
7 captured 347-504 civilians killed in the
My Lai Massacre

Operation Muscatine was a security operation conducted during the

My Lai Massacre
.

Background

Operation Muscatine was a security mission to protect

Quảng Tín–Quảng Ngãi border.[1]
: 240 

Operation

The 3rd Brigade,

Quế Sơn Valley to join Operation Wheeler and was replaced by the 198th Infantry Brigade, which in turn handed over the operation to the newly arrived 11th Infantry Brigade.[1]
: 240 

By January 1968 the 198th Infantry Brigade continued the operation in

Đức Phổ District with the 1st Battalion, 52nd Infantry Regiment, and elements of the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. US soldiers suffered a steady stream of casualties from VC booby traps and mines, but rarely encountered the VC. Most of the mines came from bases abandoned by the South Korean 2nd Marine Brigade who had departed the area without clearing their minefields.[1]
: 240–1 

On 17 January, Company A, 1/52nd Infantry, caught up with four VC local force companies near the coastal village of Phu Nhieu in Quảng Tín Province, several kilometers south of Chu Lai. Reinforced by the battalion’s Company B, the troops swept toward the village, while the 3rd Brigade’s reconnaissance platoon and Company B, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, landed into blocking positions south and west of the town. As the attack progressed, VC who had sought refuge in the village fled into the blocking positions, where small arms fire and gunships cut them down. At a loss of one soldier killed and six wounded, the Americans claimed 100 VC dead, seven prisoners and 38 captured weapons. By the end of January 1968 the operation had resulted in 454 VC dead and 103 weapons captured at a cost of 25 US killed.[1]: 242 

In February 1968 in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive the 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, continued the operation together with Task Force Barker, a group composed of three infantry companies and a partial artillery battery drawn from various parts of the 11th Infantry Brigade that was commanded by the brigade’s operations officer, Lieutenant colonel Frank A. Barker. It patrolled a sector that lay northeast of Quảng Ngãi City and which included the Batangan Peninsula. Elements from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) 2nd Division guarded the districts immediately surrounding Quảng Ngai City. The 3rd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment and the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, operated in the southeastern part of the province from the brigade headquarters at Duc Pho. The 11th Infantry Brigade, therefore, had a huge amount of territory to cover, a problem exacerbated by the fact that it was physically split in two by the ARVN zone.[1]: 487–8 

In the wake of Tet, Allied units based near Quảng Ngai City searched the countryside for the enemy forces that had attacked the provincial capital. The VC had suffered tremendous casualties but would bounce back unless the experienced cadre that formed the nucleus of their units could be destroyed. ARVN troops and US gunships on 6 February killed 50 VC from the 406th Sapper Battalion southwest of Quảng Ngai City and another 92 soldiers from the 83rd Local Force Battalion near the same location the next day. The VC 48th Local Force Battalion proved more elusive. The unit typically operated out of the sprawling village of Son My, made up of over a dozen hamlets that dotted the lower coast of the Batangan Peninsula. The community of rice farmers and fisherman had been a Communist stronghold since its founding by

My Lai Massacre.[1]: 489–93 [2]

On 23 April, a VC force led by the 95th Local Force Sapper Company and supported by elements of the 48th Local Force Battalion attacked a hamlet that was occupied by Marine Combined Action Program Team 135. Americal soldiers came to the aid of the defenders and with their help killed some 49 VC. The VC carried away most of the bodies as they withdrew. According to local villagers, one of the dead had been a battalion commander.[1]: 495 

Aftermath

On 10 June the operation was terminated.[1]: 611 

References

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780160942808.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain
    .
  2. ^ "Investigation of the My Lai Incident Report of the Armed Services Investigating Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services House of Representatives" (PDF). 15 July 1970. p. 8.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.