|
The Battle of Lima Site 85, also called Battle of Phou Pha Thi, was fought as part of a military campaign waged during the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War by the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) (then known as NVA) and the Pathet Lao, against airmen of the United States Air Force 1st Combat Evaluation Group, elements of the Royal Laos Army, Royal Thai Border Patrol Police, and the Central Intelligence Agency-led Hmong Clandestine Army. The battle was fought on Phou Pha Thi mountain in Houaphanh Province, Laos, on 10 March 1968, and derives its name from the mountaintop where it was fought or from the designation of a landing strip in the valley below, and was the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War and the Laotian Civil War, Phou Pha Thi mountain was an important strategic outpost which had served both sides at various stages of the conflict. In 1966, the United States Ambassador to Laos approved a plan by the United States Air Force (USAF) to construct a TACAN site on top of Phou Pha Thi, as at the time they lacked a navigation site with sufficient range to guide U.S. bombers towards their targets in North Vietnam. In 1967 the site was upgraded with the air-transportable all-weather AN/TSQ-81 radar bombing control system. This enabled American aircraft to bomb North Vietnam and Laos at night and in all types of weather, an operation code-named Commando Club. Despite U.S. efforts to maintain the secrecy of the installation, which included the "sheep-dipping" of the airmen involved, U.S. operations at the facility did not escape the attention of the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces. Towards the end of 1967, North Vietnamese units increased the tempo of their operations around Phou Pha Thi, and by 1968 several attacks were launched against Lima Site 85. In the final assault on 10 March 1968, elements of the VPA 41st Special Forces Battalion attacked the facility, with support from the VPA 766th Regiment and one Pathet Lao battalion. The Hmong and Thai forces that were defending the facility were overwhelmed by the combined North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces. ==Background== See also Lima Site 85 Phou Pha Thi is a remote mountain in Houaphanh Province, northeastern Laos. The mountain, which is about high, is located within the former Royal Lao Army's Military Region 2, and about from the border of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and away from Sam Neua, the Pathet Lao capital. For the local Hmong and Yeo tribes that lived in the area, Phou Pha Thi was a place of religious significance; they believed it was inhabited by spirits who possessed supernatural powers to exercise control over the circumstances of their lives. The United States Air Force (USAF) considered Phou Pha Thi to be an ideal location for installing a radar navigation system to assist U.S. pilots in their bombing campaigns against North Vietnam, and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.〔Chauhan, p. 22〕 Laos was considered a neutral country by the International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos signed on 23 July 1962, thus the United States military was prohibited from openly conducting operations in the country. For that reason, activities undertaken by the USAF in Laos had to be approved by the U.S. Ambassador to Laos William H. Sullivan. When the plan to install a navigation system on top of Phou Pha Thi Mountain was initially proposed, Sullivan opposed the idea as he suspected that Laotian Prime Minister Prince Souvanna Phouma would not allow his country to be involved in an aerial offensive against North Vietnam. Souvanna did, however, permit the installation on the condition that it would not be manned by U.S. military personnel.〔Thompson, p. 102〕 In August 1966, the USAF installed a TACAN System, an autonomous radio transmitter that provided pilots with distance and bearing relative to the station on Phou Pha Thi. In 1967, under the codename Heavy Green, the facility was upgraded with the TSQ-81, which could direct and control attacking jet fighters and bombers to their targets and provide them with precise bomb release points. It began operating in late-November 1967 as Operation Commando Club. To operate the equipment within the limitations imposed by the Laotian Prime Minister, USAF personnel assigned to work at the installation had to sign paperwork that temporarily released them from military service, and to work in the guise of civilian technicians from Lockheed Martin〔 — the process is euphemistically called "sheep-dipping". In reality, they operated as members of the USAF Circuit Rider teams from the 1st Mobile Communications Group based at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base who rotated to the site every seven days.〔Chauhan, p. 23〕 Personnel working at the TACAN site were supplied by weekly flights of the 20th Special Operations Squadron based at Udorn RTAFB in Thailand operating under the codename Operation Pony Express, using Lima Site 85, the airstrip constructed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the valley below. Hmong General Vang Pao, who spearheaded the allied war effort against North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces in Military Region 2, was entrusted with the task of guarding the facility using the Hmong Clandestine Army alongside CIA-funded Thai Border Patrol Police forces.〔 Though substantial resources were invested to maintain the facility, USAF command doubted Vang Pao's capability to hold the installation, and all equipment had explosives attached so that in the event the site was overrun it could be destroyed.〔 By late 1967, Lima Site 85's radar directed 55 per cent of all bombing operations against North Vietnam.〔Hamilton-Merritt, p. 182〕 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 Lima Site 85」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|