History: Battle of the Ia Drang
“A long, bloody traffic accident in the jungle.”
November 14–19, 1965
Today is the 56th anniversary of the commencement of the Ia Drang engagement in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam.
Ia Drang was one of the few set piece engagements of the war, extending over five days and centered around helicopter landing zones (LZ) “X-Ray” and “Albany.”
It was fought by the U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division and support units opposed by the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 33rd and 66th Regiments.
The 1st Cavalry was “air mobile” utilizing Huey helicopters to deploy troops.
The U.S. is reported to have sustained 237 killed and PAVN 559.
U.S. troops were surrounded at LZ X-Ray and ambushed at LZ Albany in fierce close quarter engagements including hand-to-hand combat.
The U.S. outcome relied on the discipline and tenacity of platoons and companies even as successive officers were killed with command being transferred to more junior members.
Field artillery (105s), attack aircraft (F-100s) and tactical bombers (B-52s) were used to beat back PAVN attacks with mixed success.
PAVN troops had been told to “Move inside the [U.S.] column, grab them by the belt, and thus avoid casualties from the artillery and air.”
On the morning of November 15th, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Commander, Hal Moore was forced to transmit the code phrase “Broken Arrow” which relayed that an American combat unit was in danger of being overrun. ” (wiki)
The resulting air strikes caused U.S. “friendly fire” casualties from napalm drops.
Moore later said, “peasant soldiers [of North Vietnam] had withstood the terrible high-tech fire storm delivered against them by a superpower and had at least fought the Americans to a draw. By their yardstick, a draw against such a powerful opponent was the equivalent of a victory.”
