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Operation Masher (24 January—6 March 1966) was in early 1966 the largest search and destroy mission that had been carried out in the Vietnam War up until that time.〔Tucker, Spencer C. (1998), ''The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'', New York: Oxford University Press, p. 250〕 It was a combined mission of the United States Army, Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), and Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) in Binh Dinh province on the central coast of South Vietnam. The 3rd Division of the communist North Vietnamese Army, made up of two regiments of North Vietnamese regulars and one regiment of main force Viet Cong guerrillas, controlled much of the land and many of people of Binh Dinh province which had a total population of about 800,000.〔Garland, John M. (2000), ''Stemming the Tide, May 1965 to October 1966'' United States Army in Vietnam, Center of Military History, United States Army, p. 201〕 A CIA report in 1965 said that Binh Dinh was "just about lost" to the communists.〔McManus, John C. (2010), ''Grunts: Inside the American Infantry Combat Experience, World War II through Iraq'', New York: New American Library, p.180, 188〕 The name "Operation Masher" was changed to "Operation White Wing", because President Lyndon Johnson wanted the name changed to one that sounded more benign. Adjacent to the operational area of Masher/White Wing in Quang Ngai province the U.S. and South Vietnamese Marine Corps carried out a complementary mission called Operation Double Eagle.〔Prados, John (2002), "Operation Masher: The Boundaries of Force", ''The Veteran'', Feb/Mar, http://www.vva.org/archive/TheVeteran/2002_03/operationmasher.htm, accessed 15 Apr 2015〕 The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) was the principal U.S. ground force involved in Operation Masher. 228 Americans of the lst cavalry were killed and another 46 died in an airplane crash; 834 were wounded. Twenty-four U.S. marines were killed and 156 wounded in Operation Double Eagle. Several additional Americans from other units were killed. Eleven South Korean soldiers were reported killed; South Vietnamese casualties were not reported. The U.S claimed to have killed 1,342 enemy soldiers. The ARVN and ROKA forces reported they had killed an additional 808 enemy soldiers. Six hundred communist soldiers were taken prisoner and 500 defected. 52 crew-served and more than 200 individual weapons were captured.〔Garland, pp. 214-215〕 The U.S claimed the 3rd NVA Division had been dealt a hard blow, but intelligence reports indicated that a week after the withdrawal of the lst Cavalry North Vietnamese soldiers were returning to take control of the area where Operation Masher had taken place.〔Prados; Garland, pp. 214-215〕 ==Background== Binh Dinh province was a traditional communist and Viet Cong (VC) stronghold. Binh Dinh consisted of a narrow, heavily-cultivated coastal plain with river valleys separated by ridges and low mountains reaching into the interior. The vital artery of Highway 1 ran north and south ran through Binh Dinh. The area of Operation Masher was about north to south and reached a maximum of inland from the South China Sea. The U.S. Marine's Operation Double Eagle extended northward from Masher and the ROKA's Operation Flying Tiger extended southward. South Vietnamese forces participated in all three operations.〔Garland, p. 205 (map); Prados〕 The First Cavalry Division (Airmobile) was selected by U.S. Commander William Westmoreland to carry out the operation. The 1st Cavalry had born the brunt of the combat during the Siege of Plei Me and the Battle of Ia Drang in October and November 1965 and some battalions of the lst Cavalry had sustained heavy casualties. More than 5,000 soldiers in the division were recent arrivals in Vietnam with little combat experience. The South Vietnamese 22nd Division stationed in Binh Dinh had also suffered heavy casualties in recent fighting and was on the defensive.〔Garland pp. 201-202〕 The opposition to the American and South Vietnamese units participating in Operation Masher/White Wing was the communist 3rd division consisting of approximately 6,000 soldiers in two regiments of North Vietnamese (NVA) regulars who had a recently infiltrated into South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh trail and one regiment of Viet Cong guerrillas who had been fighting the South Vietnamese government since 1962. The majority of the population of Binh Dinh was believed to be supportive of the communist forces.〔Garland, p. 201-202〕 The plan of Operation Masher was for the U.S., South Vietnam, and South Korean soldiers to sweep north and for the U.S. and South Vietnamese marines to sweep south catching and killing the communist forces between the allied forces. Orders for the U.S. forces in Operation Masher were to "locate and destroy VC/NVA units; enhance the security of GNV (of South Vietnam ) installations in (capital ) Bong Song, and to lay the groundwork for restoration of GVN control of the population and rich coastal plain area." The primary metric for judging the success of the operation would be the body count of communist soldiers killed.〔Daddis, Gregory A. (2009) "No Sure Victory: Measuring U.S. Army Effectiveness and Progress in the Vietnam War" Dissertation: University of North Carolina, pp. 138-139, https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/indexablecontent/uuid:2ed34353-d863-46a5-bd90-43d0ae056740, accessed 15 Apr 2015〕 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「Operation Masher」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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