US Air Cavalry Trooper vs North Vietnamese Soldier

US Air Cavalry Trooper vs North Vietnamese Soldier PDF Author: Chris McNab
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 147284176X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81

Get Book

Book Description
The tactics and technologies of modern air assault – vertical deployment of troops by helicopter or similar means – emerged properly during the 1950s in Korea and Algeria. Yet it was during the Vietnam War that helicopter air assault truly came of age and by 1965 the United States had established fully airmobile battalions, brigades, and divisions, including the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).This division brought to Vietnam a revolutionary new speed and dexterity in battlefield tactics, using massed helicopters to liberate its soldiers from traditional overland methods of combat manoeuvre. However, the communist troops adjusted their own thinking to handle airmobile assaults. Specializing in ambush, harassment, infiltration attacks, and small-scale attrition, the North Vietnamese operated with light logistics and a deep familiarity with the terrain. They optimized their defensive tactics to make landing zones as hostile as possible for assaulting US troops, and from 1966 worked to draw them into 'Hill Traps', extensive kill zones specially prepared for defence-in-depth. By the time the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) withdrew from Vietnam in 1972, it had suffered more casualties than any other US Army division. Featuring specially commissioned artwork, archive photographs, and full-colour battle maps, this study charts the evolution of US airmobile tactics pitted against North Vietnamese countermeasures. The two sides are analysed in detail, including training, logistics, weaponry, and organization.

US Air Cavalry Trooper vs North Vietnamese Soldier

US Air Cavalry Trooper vs North Vietnamese Soldier PDF Author: Chris McNab
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 147284176X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81

Get Book

Book Description
The tactics and technologies of modern air assault – vertical deployment of troops by helicopter or similar means – emerged properly during the 1950s in Korea and Algeria. Yet it was during the Vietnam War that helicopter air assault truly came of age and by 1965 the United States had established fully airmobile battalions, brigades, and divisions, including the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).This division brought to Vietnam a revolutionary new speed and dexterity in battlefield tactics, using massed helicopters to liberate its soldiers from traditional overland methods of combat manoeuvre. However, the communist troops adjusted their own thinking to handle airmobile assaults. Specializing in ambush, harassment, infiltration attacks, and small-scale attrition, the North Vietnamese operated with light logistics and a deep familiarity with the terrain. They optimized their defensive tactics to make landing zones as hostile as possible for assaulting US troops, and from 1966 worked to draw them into 'Hill Traps', extensive kill zones specially prepared for defence-in-depth. By the time the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) withdrew from Vietnam in 1972, it had suffered more casualties than any other US Army division. Featuring specially commissioned artwork, archive photographs, and full-colour battle maps, this study charts the evolution of US airmobile tactics pitted against North Vietnamese countermeasures. The two sides are analysed in detail, including training, logistics, weaponry, and organization.

US Air Cavalry Trooper vs North Vietnamese Soldier

US Air Cavalry Trooper vs North Vietnamese Soldier PDF Author: Chris McNab
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472841735
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81

Get Book

Book Description
The tactics and technologies of modern air assault – vertical deployment of troops by helicopter or similar means – emerged properly during the 1950s in Korea and Algeria. Yet it was during the Vietnam War that helicopter air assault truly came of age and by 1965 the United States had established fully airmobile battalions, brigades, and divisions, including the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).This division brought to Vietnam a revolutionary new speed and dexterity in battlefield tactics, using massed helicopters to liberate its soldiers from traditional overland methods of combat manoeuvre. However, the communist troops adjusted their own thinking to handle airmobile assaults. Specializing in ambush, harassment, infiltration attacks, and small-scale attrition, the North Vietnamese operated with light logistics and a deep familiarity with the terrain. They optimized their defensive tactics to make landing zones as hostile as possible for assaulting US troops, and from 1966 worked to draw them into 'Hill Traps', extensive kill zones specially prepared for defence-in-depth. By the time the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) withdrew from Vietnam in 1972, it had suffered more casualties than any other US Army division. Featuring specially commissioned artwork, archive photographs, and full-colour battle maps, this study charts the evolution of US airmobile tactics pitted against North Vietnamese countermeasures. The two sides are analysed in detail, including training, logistics, weaponry, and organization.

1st Air Cavalry in Vietnam

1st Air Cavalry in Vietnam PDF Author: Simon Dunstan
Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing
ISBN: 9780711030428
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
On 1 July 1965 the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) was officially activated and was ordered to Vietnam beginning 28 July 1965. In a matter of three and half weeks the newly formed division, with 16,000 men and 434 helicopters--Chinooks (CH-47s), Flying Cranes (CH-54s), Mohawks (OV-1s), UH-1s and OH-13s--was prepared to enter combat. Within 90 days of becoming the Army's first airmobile division, the 'First Team' was in combat as the first fully committed division of the Vietnam War. On 10 October 1965, in Operation 'Shiny Bayonet', the First Team initiated its first brigade-size airmobile action against the enemy. The division would go on to take part in many more air assaults and play a leading role in defence against the Tet offensive, driving out the NVA and Viet Cong invaders from Hue and, in Operation 'Pegasus', relieving the 3,500 U.S. Marines and 2,100 ARVN soldiers besieged by nearly 20,000 enemy at Khe Sanh. On 1 May 1970, the 'First Team' was 'First into Cambodia' hitting what was previously a Communist sanctuary but the campaign had severe political repercussions for the Nixon Administration. Pressure was mounting to withdraw US forces from the war. Although there would be further assault operations, the war was beginning to wind down and 26 March 1971 officially marked the end of duties in Vietnam for the 1st Cavalry Division, although it was only on 5 May 1971 that the colours moved from Vietnam to Fort Hood, Texas.

Anatomy of a Division

Anatomy of a Division PDF Author: Shelby L. Stanton
Publisher: Gower Publishing Company, Limited
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book

Book Description


The American Cavalry in Vietnam

The American Cavalry in Vietnam PDF Author: Jacques-François de Chaunac
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781563118906
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book

Book Description
Colonel Lyman C. Duryea (Retired) is a West Point graduate and former Commander of "C" Company of the 2d Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam in 1966. He served a second Vietnam tour as an advisor. In addition to various stateside assignments he served in Germany, France, the Congo, Panama, Haiti, and El Salvador. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the Army War College. He holds Masters Degrees in Military Art and Science from the USAC & GSC, and French from Middlebury College. He has a Doctorate in Military History from Temple University. He has taught on the faculties of the Military Academy, the US Army School of the Americas, and the Army War College. His special interest is revolutionary theory. The action begins in October 1965 in the Vietnamese highlands. When the Green Berets and their allies, the Jarai montagnards are about to be submerged by North Vietnamese assaults, the Huey helicopters of the First Cav, as in Apocalypse Now, sow death in the communist ranks. From that moment on, there is no letup in the action. Ambushes, patrols, and large military operations follow one after the other. The author accompanies the infantrymen into the rice paddies, into the jungle, and on helicopters. He shares the life of the "sky soldiers." Documented using exclusively American sources, this book is also a work of military history. It traces the beginning of this unit, at once unique and autonomous, that has its own infantry, its own artillery, and its own airmobile logistical support system thanks to its five hundred helicopters. The First Cav, the most modern Division in the world created in Vietnam the Rambo myth. It is this same unit that, one hundred years earlier, was at the heart of the legends of the West fighting the Comanche and the Sioux. The Americans leave Vietnam in 1972 with the departure of the last brigade of the First Cav. In April of 1975 Saigon becomes Ho Chi Minh City. Who can say today who the real winner is? A planter in Vietnam in 1974 and 1975, Jacques-Francois de Chaunac lived through the end of the war in Long Thanh. With Francois d'Orcival he is the author of Marines a Khe Sanh (Presses de la Cite). Book jacket.

Heroes

Heroes PDF Author: Mike Larson
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595525210
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book

Book Description
Even today, my thoughts of Vietnam are positive. I have incredibly fond memories of spending one year in that theater with some incredible people. My feelings about the Vietnam War mesh exactly with what Michael Norman wrote in his book These Good Men: Friendships Forged From War-even though Norman's heroes served in the U.S. Marine Corps and mine served in the First Air Cav. In recalling his tour in Vietnam, Norman wrote: "I did not pick these men. They were delivered by fate and the U.S. Marine Corps. But I know them in a way I know no other men. I have never since given anyone such trust. They were willing to guard something more precious than my life. They would have carried my reputation, the memory of me. It was part of the bargain we all made, the reason we were so willing to die for one another."

The Blackhorse in Vietnam

The Blackhorse in Vietnam PDF Author: Donald Snedeker
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504063511
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 487

Get Book

Book Description
This military history chronicles the combat operations of the Blackhorse Regiment, which paved the way for armored cavalry tactics in the Vietnam War. South Vietnam, September 1966. When the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment came ashore at Vung Tau, it faced a number of challenges. In addition to the threat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, the terrain and weather posed their own dangers, adversely affecting the use of bulletproof vehicles and helicopters. The dearth of doctrine and tactics for the employment of armored cavalry in a counterinsurgency was equally challenging—especially during pre-deployment training and initial combat operations. But despite all this, the leaders of Blackhorse Regiment found a way to accomplish their mission. Within a year of their arrival in Vietnam, Blackhorse troopers overcame ambushes that featured anti-tank weapons, numerous landmines, and coordinated assaults. They not only defeated an enemy division twice their size, but also demonstrated how to succeed while operating on and off the roads, in the jungle, and during both the wet and dry seasons. By the spring of 1967, army leaders were beginning to realize the value of troops stationed in Vietnam. And with the Blackhorse Regiment leading the way, armor came to be considered an essential part of the combat team. Written by a Blackhorse veteran, this regiment history features firsthand accounts from soldiers who served in Vietnam and Cambodia.

1st Air Cavalry Division

1st Air Cavalry Division PDF Author:
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1563111802
Category : Soldiers
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Get Book

Book Description


Air Cav

Air Cav PDF Author: J.D. Coleman
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1596529385
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

Get Book

Book Description
Air Cav: History of the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam 1965-1969 is the story of the small, close world of fighting men in action, told in their own words and supplemented with vivid photographs of the First Cavalry Division’s experience in the war and a history of the division. This volume can be many things to many people—a book of memories, a souvenir, a pictorial essay on airmobility, or simply a story of gallant men at war. It can be many things, but one thing it is not, nor does it pretend to be—a complete history of the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam. The task and burden of history must lie with the objectivity of future generations, far removed from current pressures and restraints. It is true, of course, that much research for this book has been done from available official records, the ultimate source of written history. But even more has been drawn from the vivid recollections of the Cavalrymen who fought, tasted the brassy bile of fear, shared the fierce exultation of victory, or were drenched in the dark despair of death. This volume contains the memoirs of a fighting team—the FIRST TEAM. It is a memory of combat; no doubt it is imperfect as all memory is, but nonetheless it is real for those who were there, for those who can fill in the inevitable gaps.

Ia Drang 1965

Ia Drang 1965 PDF Author: J. P. Harris
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472835131
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97

Get Book

Book Description
The Pleiku campaign of October–November 1965 was a major event in the Vietnam War, and it is usually regarded as the first substantial battle between the US Army and the People's Army of Vietnam. The brigade-sized actions involving elements of the US 1st Cavalry Division at Landing Zones X-Ray and Albany in the valley of the river Drang have become iconic episodes in the military history of the United States. In 1965, in an effort to stem the Communist tide, the Americans began to commit substantial conventional ground forces to the war in Vietnam. Amongst these was the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), a new type of formation equipped with a large fleet of helicopters. On 19 October, North Vietnamese forces besieged a Special Forces camp at Plei Me, and after the base was relieved days later, the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, General Harry Kinnard, advocated using his troops to pursue the retreating Communist forces. A substantial North Vietnamese concentration was discovered, but rather than the badly battered troops the US expected, these were relatively fresh troops that had recently arrived in the Central Highlands. On the morning of 14 November 1965, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Col. Hal Moore, landed at LZ X-Ray to start the first major set-piece battle of the Vietnam War. This title explores the events of the campaign that followed, using detailed maps, specially-commissioned bird's-eye views, and full-colour battlescenes to bring the narrative to life.