Operation Attleboro

Operation Attleboro was a Vietnam War search and destroy operation initiated by the 196th Light Infantry Brigade with the objective to discover the location(s) of People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Viet Cong (VC) base areas and force them to fight. The operation was named after Attleboro, Massachusetts, where the brigade had been formed. Operation Attleboro grew to be the largest series of air mobile operations to that time, involving all or elements of the 196th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, 1st Infantry Division and a brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as numerous Army of the Republic of Vietnam and Regional Forces/Popular Forces and Nùngs. In the end, the operation became a Corps operation commanded by II Field Force, Vietnam.

In late 1966 interdiction remained a high priority for US forces, and, until the dry season began in earnest, COMUSMACV General William Westmoreland's primary concern remained blocking the three infiltration corridors into Saigon.

Senior Colonel Hoàng Cầm, commander of the 9th Division, had his orders: "destroy a 'vital' element of the enemy, support the local [revolutionary] movement, oppose enemy pacification and expansion effort, break the oppressive government control, widen friendly liberated areas, and provide security and protection for storage facilities and base areas of Dung Minh Chau [War Zone C]." This was standard operating procedure for a dry season offensive, but in late 1966 the 9th Division was weakened by heavy losses that the previous summer 's combat had inflicted. Despite this, General Nguyễn Chí Thanh, the COSVN commander, decided to use the 9th, his most reliable and experienced, for a November offensive in Tây Ninh Province. His guidance to Cầm was to direct his "main effort" on the inexperienced 196th Brigade, just settling in at Tây Ninh, and local territorial and Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) units. Cam planned to open the offensive on 3 November with three regiment-sized attacks. First, he assigned the 271st Regiment, a unit of about 1,500 men, to strike the 196th's base at Tây Ninh Combat Base and attempt to lure and annihilate any of the brigade's reaction forces. His 272nd Regiment with two battalions was to move south across the Saigon River and join the 14th Local Force Battalion, the provincial VC unit for Tây Ninh Province, to attack South Vietnamese territorial outposts at Suoi Cao, thirty kilometers southeast of Tây Ninh City. The remaining battalion of the 272nd was to join the 101st Regiment, a unit of the 7th Division on loan to Cầm, for the third and main effort, the destruction of a Special Forces camp at Suoi Da, 15 km northeast of Tây Ninh City. For this mission Cầm provided to the 101st an antiaircraft and a mortar company from his own division. In all, the reinforced regiment would have about 3,000 troops. Cầm himself intended to accompany the 101st Regiment, a unit that had seen little combat and was unfamiliar with the terrain of War Zone C, to its forward assembly areas near Suoi Da and then to depart to occupy a central position from winch to coordinate all three assaults.

The 196th Light Infantry Brigade, a relatively green unit, along with the Philippine Civic Action Group (PHILCAG) had arrived in South Vietnam less than two months earlier, on 14 August and September 15, 1966 respectively. Both units deployed immediately to Tây Ninh, coming under the operational control of the Major General Frederick C. Weyand's 25th Infantry Division. Shortly afterwards Brigadier General Edward H. de Saussure assumed command of the Brigade. De Saussure was considered by many a superb staff officer and an authority on missiles, but he had no experience commanding infantry. He did have proven ability with artillery units and before joining the 196th had served fifteen months as the assistant division commander for support in the 25th Division, four months of that time in Vietnam.

The 196th Brigade initiated Operation Attleboro on 14 September 1966 as a series of battalion-size probes around Tây Ninh. While one battalion was in the field the other two remained behind to finish construction of the base camp. These initial sweeps proved unproductive, and by October the unit was looking for a new mission. So, when troops of the 25th Division uncovered a large rice cache in the Saigon River corridor about 30 km southeast of Tây Ninh City, Weyand sent some of de Saussure's forces farther east in search of other stockpiles. On 19 October de Saussure moved one of his battalions to Dầu Tiếng District on the northern edge of the corridor; and had it begin to scour the area, which varied from low, flat terrain and cultivated fields to scrub brush and thick jungle. On 23 October; operating north of the town, the unit stumbled on a long row of sheds covered with black plastic and filled with tons of rice. In the days that followed, the Americans uncovered other large caches. De Saussure asked permission to move his command post to Dầu Tiếng and bring another battalion into the vicinity of the cache site as soon as possible. Brigadier General George G. O'Connor, commanding the 25th Division while Weyand was serving as temporary commander of II Field Force, Vietnam agreed and on 30 October Attleboro became a full-fledged brigade operation.

Evacuation of the rice posed a problem. Located well away from the Saigon River and any road, it had to be lifted out by CH-47 helicopters, then in short supply, and it also had to be bagged beforehand, a time-consuming process for the two infantry battalions. Although 843 tons of rice had so far been uncovered, over the next three days the brigade removed only 120 tons. One of the Brigade units discovered a document from the 82nd Rear Service Group, the COSVN element responsible for supply in War Zone C, that revealed that there were other supply bases to the north and that the VC were in the process of organizing an area defense. Anxious to seize all the depots before the enemy could react in force, on 1 November O'Connor instructed de Saussure to spend only one more day evacuating the rice, to destroy what was left, and then to move north toward the Ba Hao, a stream emptying into the Saigon River 7 km northwest of Dầu Tiếng. In the interim he gave him the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, from his 2nd Brigade, to begin the probe, which it did using "eagle flights." On 2 November the battalion conducted several such flights along the fringe of the objective area and spotted several trails, but found no caches and met no opposition.

On the morning of 3 November de Saussure sent two of his own battalions, the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment and the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, north from the cache site over four separate jungle routes toward the Ba Hao. At the same time he air-assaulted two companies of the 1/27th Infantry into widely divergent blocking positions just south of the stream, one to the west of the attacking columns, the other to the east. The third company of the 1/27th Infantry remained at Dầu Tiếng, and the 196th's 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, remained at Tây Ninh Base, both serving as reserves. The operation went badly from the start, with no linkup plan, little appreciation of the enemy and terrain, and command and control difficult, the two blocking and four attacking forces quickly became separated from one another, lost in the dense jungle. Shortly before noon a PAVN/VC force of unknown size attacked the western blocking company in tall elephant grass, killing the company commander and inflicting heavy casualties. The arrival of two reserve companies from Dầu Tiếng and Tây Ninh and two companies from the westernmost attacking column failed to turn the tide. Mines, booby traps, and snipers were a constant hazard. Flying overhead, de Saussure spent the rest of the afternoon assisting his battalion commanders as they regrouped their units, evacuated casualties, and brought in extra ammunition, rations, and especially water as the humidity and heat had exhausted the men. Nightfall found the Americans in two laagers. On the west, where the fight had taken place, Major Guy S. Meloy, commander of the 1/27th Infantry who had arrived during the battle, had five companies: his western blocking company, the two reserve companies, and the two companies from the attack column. De Saussure ordered the rest of the committed units, the four remaining attack companies and the eastern blocking company, to assemble and form a perimeter several kilometers to the east. Placing the senior Lieutenant Colonel, Hugh H. Lynch, commanding officer of the 4/31st Infantry, in command, de Saussure began to plan how he would unscramble his units on the following day. Meanwhile, unknown to the Americans, the US foray had caused Colonel Cầm to change his attack plans. Informed of the American movements, Cầm reduced the planned attacks against Tây Ninh Base and Suoi Cao to diversions and scrapped the assault on the Suoi Da Special Forces camp. He would direct his main effort against those elements of the 196th operating northwest of Dầu Tiếng.

On 4 November, the fight intensified all across the battlefront. Cầm's diversionary efforts, a carefully planned mortar attack against de Saussure's Tây Ninh Base to the west and a series of determined assaults against Suoi Cao to the south, were both executed during the early hours, further confusing the Americans. Suoi Cao was saved only by the ineptitude of the attacking 272nd Regiment, heavy US air and artillery fire and a staunch South Vietnamese defense. The PAVN left 53 dead on the battlefield. Tây Ninh was spared a ground attack, but damage to the 196th's communications system was extensive, prompting de Saussure himself to make an emergency trip to his base camp. Northwest of Dầu Tiếng, in the heavy woods near the Ba Hao, Cầm concentrated his main effort. His division had established its forward command post within a fortified stronghold less than 500m northeast of Meloy. Having already rushed the division's security platoon and reconnaissance company to block Meloy's advance, Cầm reinforced with the 3rd Battalion of the 101st Regiment, ordering it across the Ba Hao into prepared positions. His instructions to the battalion were clear: let the Americans enter the woods, then attack.