Operation Toan Thang 1/71
Operation Toan Thang 1/71 | |||||||
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Part of the Vietnam War | |||||||
Map of Operation Toan Thang 1/71 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
South Vietnam Khmer Republic United States |
North Vietnam Khmer Rouge | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Đỗ Cao Trí Nguyễn Văn Minh | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
5th Infantry Division | |||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
133+ killed, 130 missing 2 killed | South Vietnamese body count: 1,143 killed |
Operation Toan Thang 1/71 was an operation during the Vietnam War conducted by South Vietnamese forces from 4 February to June 1971 to reopen Highway 7 in Cambodia and destroy North Vietnamese bases.
Background
With the pro-American
The goal of Operation Toan Thang 1/71 was to destroy PAVN and
: 47–9Operation
On 4 February 1971, Lieutenant general
On 26 February, however, advancing ARVN troops came under fire from a line of bunkers concealed in a tree line.
Trí had been killed in a helicopter accident on 23 February and his successor, General Nguyễn Văn Minh, was less aggressive. This combined with the South Vietnamese focus on Operation Lam Son 719, which had begun on 8 February but had bogged down, meant that the momentum behind the incursion had started to wane.[1]: 49
The first large engagement occurred on 17 March, when two South Vietnamese task forces, supported by U.S. Army gunships, engaged a PAVN regiment in a two-day battle in the Chup Plantation, a major enemy depot. Two weeks later, a South Vietnamese task force defeated an enemy battalion in a five-hour battle near Suong.[1]: 49
After some additional activity around Snuol during the first week in April, the PAVN went to ground. Thereafter, ARVN troops focused on uprooting enemy supply caches. The operation remained relatively uneventful until the PAVN learned that the South Vietnamese planned to withdraw a task force of the 5th Infantry Division from Snuol in late May. The Battle of Snuol began on 25 May when three PAVN regiments massed to cut Highway 13, thereby trapping the task force in Snuol. An ARVN task force was sent up Highway 13 to relieve the besieged the task force, but the operation became a rout and the ARVN suffered heavy losses of men and equipment as they withdrew.[1]: 49 The battle rendered the ARVN 5th Division combat ineffective in the estimation of its American advisers.[2]: 338–9 According to II Field Force, Vietnam commander Michael S. Davison, the 5th Division troops were close to mutiny.[3]: 478
Aftermath
Operation Toan Thang 1/71 ended in June. The senior U.S. adviser to III Corps, Major general Jack J. Wagstaff, declared the results mixed. The operation had imposed heavy casualties on the PAVN, tying down three enemy divisions away from South Vietnam and further bolstering the Khmer Republic. On the other hand, the South Vietnamese had not done significant damage to the enemy's logistical network and the debacle at Snuol once again raised questions about the progress of Vietnamization.[1]: 50
References
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