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The Battle of Ban Houei Sane was a battle of the Vietnam War that began on the night of 23 January 1968, when the 24th Regiment of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 304th Division overran the small Laotian Army outpost at Ban Houei Sane. The fighting at Ban Houei Sane was one in a series of battles fought between Communist and Allied forces during the Tet Offensive. The small outpost, defended by the personnel of the 33rd Elephant Battalion (BV-33), was attacked and overwhelmed by the vastly superior PAVN and their PT-76 light tanks. The failure of the 33rd Elephant Battalion to defend their outpost at Ban Houei Sane would have negative consequences only a few weeks later, when the PAVN would strike again at Lang Vei. ==Background== During the First Indochina War the Viet Minh constructed a pathway in neighbouring Laos in order to transport vital military supplies to southern Vietnam. Over time that pathway, now known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, grew in importance as the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam sought to topple the rival government in the south, the Republic of Vietnam. In the late 1950s, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was expanded to support the Viet Cong (VC)'s increasing military activities in southern Vietnam. To protect this vital lifeline, North Vietnamese forces were deployed to take control of various areas in eastern Laos adjacent to the Demilitarized Zone. The increasing Communist activities in those parts of Laos did not go unnoticed, as the governments of South Vietnam and Laos began working together to establish a small outpost at Ban Houei Sane for the purpose of monitoring Communist movements in 1959.〔Ken Conboy with James Morrison. ''Shadow War'' (Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1995), pp. 115–116〕 In April 1961, the newly created 33rd Elephant Battalion (BV-33) of the Royal Laotian Army arrived at Ban Houei Sane, after it was forced to retreat from Tchephone by North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces.〔Soutchay Vongsavanh, ''RLG Military Operations and Activities in the Laotian Panhandle'' (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1981), p. 35.〕 At Ban Houei Sane, the Laotians constructed new defensive positions with assistance from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam's 1st Infantry Division. One year later, BV-33 began monitoring North Vietnamese movements along the Vietnam-Laotian border.〔Ken Conboy with James Morrison. ''Shadow War'' (Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1995), pp. 115–116〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Ban Houei Sane」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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