First Battle of Vietnam: Ia Drang | Animated History

today we just added two new vietnam war products to our store over at store.armchairhistory.tv there you can buy a vietnam uniform infographic or a vietnam helmet sticker sheet in addition to these two new products you can find the evolution of u.s tanks and british uniform posters a battle of fallujah poster and mugs and t-shirts go to store.armchairhistory.tv to support the channel the u.s cavalry ride through the jungle headed for battle their horses made of steel their riders sweltering in flak jackets the infantrymen inside check their weapons just like they've been trained they repeat their briefing in their head just like they've been trained the pilot comes in for a landing hovering above the swirling greenery just like he's been trained [Music] but once the bullets start flying and the first sap is struck down by a hail of rounds these soldiers begin to panic as reality sweeps their training aside this is the central highlands of vietnam and the first major battle for american forces has begun but the gis will find no stand-up fight here no easy conquest born on the back of their technological supremacy they will find only paro hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair historian in the early days of direct american involvement in the vietnam war strategists planned to use their growing air capabilities to overcome the challenges of operating in the jungles of vietnam these innovative tactics were put to the test for the first time in the battle of iadram when a u.s air mobile division fought to push back an assault by the b-3 front of the north vietnamese army on the strategically vital central highlands in the bloody struggle that followed both sides would ultimately achieve a form of victory while the americans accomplished most of their objectives the battle revealed vulnerabilities in their air mobile tactics which their tenacious enemies were quick to exploit in this video we will look at how the battle of yadrang set the stage for the bloodbath that was the 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month for free that's only three dollars and sixteen cents per month and all with no risk to you thanks to nord's 30-day money-back guarantee [Music] by 1965 the united states was rapidly becoming more and more involved in the ongoing conflict between the democratic republic of vietnam in the north and the republic of vietnam in the south fighting up to that point had largely been between the south vietnamese army or arvin assisted by cia militias known as the civilian irregular defense group or cidg and the vietcong an irregular army of communist insurgents supplied by the north vietnamese military or paving one hotly contested area was the central highlands region which served as a vital staging ground and base of operations for both the vietcong and regular forces the cidg had been struggling to seize control of the highlands for months and early 1965 saw american special forces begin taking a much more active role in the battle but as these professional troops took over from the militia the vietcong themselves began receiving heavy reinforcements from the pavin both sides saw the necessity of securing the highlands but it was the communist forces who would commit to the first large-scale offensive in july major general chu huiman assumed command over three regiments from the pavin first division and began planning an ambitious assault on the american military camp at playmay southwest of pleiku city initially operating as three separate groups one regiment would attack play may and pin the defenders down while a second lurked in ambush for any reinforcements once these had been dealt with the third regiment would arrive and all three would unite for a final assault on plaku city but just as general man's audacious plans began to take shape the americans threw a wrench into the works by deploying the first cavalry division to the central highlands this was the first complete us division to enter vietnam and mon immediately realized that if they were allowed to reach play camp his offensive would be doomed before it even began concluding that only decisive action could prevent a swift american victory general man rushed to prepare his troops for an assault in mid-october nearly three whole months sooner than anticipated but by that point only two of his three regiments were ready to fight even so with forward elements of the first cavalry division already arriving in playmay mom decided to roll the dice and proceed with the operation the playmate camp came under fire on the evening of october 19th with mon's 33rd regiment quickly overrunning an outpost to the south and assaulting the camp by around 1am cabin forces had pushed to the perimeter of the main camp but the defenders held firm and repelled the advancing troops around this time american captain harold m moore took control of the camp's defense after playmate's arvin commander allegedly disappeared into a bunker soon after the attacks began moore immediately called for air support and from around 4 am onward the us 481st tactical fighter squadron unleashed a continuous barrage of airstrikes that would last for the remainder of the siege inflicting considerable casualties on the attackers over the next four days the americans continued to exchange fire with the 33rd regiment who were sheltering in improvised fortifications in a wide arc to the west of playmate with neither side able to gain the upper hand on october 23rd several arvin units under general winfo wing lock set out to relieve their american allies just as planned the pavin 32nd regiment ambushed the relief column on the way to the camp fighting viciously into the night before the vietnamese troops were forced to pull back and return to their hq the pavin ambush succeeded in delaying the relief forces and inflicting heavy casualties but by the night of october 25th the south vietnamese column had reached playmate and broken the siege having failed in their attempt to overrun the americans at play may the 32nd and 33rd regiments were forced to retreat to their headquarters further north the u.s commanders were eager to pursue their fleeing foes hoping to put their newly devised air mobility tactics to good use and so in close coordination with air support units seven sites throughout the central highlands were selected as landing zones for air mobile assault groups to stage their attacks by early november the plan was ready to proceed [Music] after some small skirmishes in the first weeks of november the american offensive began in ernst on november 14th the pavin 32nd and 33rd regiments had completed their retreat to fortified positions surrounding the chupang massif mountain south vietnamese intel suggested that a large portion of these positions were located throughout the nearby yadrang valley prompting the americans to prepare the 1st battalion 7th cavalry to deploy into the valley via a clearing designated landing zone x-ray the operation was saddled with logistics problems from the beginning due to a shortage of service-ready helicopters and a diminished carrying capacity of those that were available only 80 men could be delivered to the landing zone every half hour it would take roughly three hours to transport the full 431 troops of the first battalion leaving the first waves dangerously vulnerable while they waited for reinforcements even with these risks taken into account first battalion commander colonel harold hal moore no not that one approved the plan and the battle of ia drang commenced on the morning of november 14th preceded by colossal bombardments from howitzers gunships and aerial rockets the first elements of the 1st battalion were dropped into the valley at 10 48 am as the americans unloaded their equipment and established a perimeter one can only imagine their trepidation knowing their enemy could be watching their every move kalashnikov ready however the enemy in question was instead taken completely by surprise general man was overseeing a supply run away from the front and his deputy colonel ahn was forced to rush to the battlefield and take command on did not arrive until around 1 pm by which point his men had been haphazardly engaging the americans for hours and had taken many casualties bravo company had taken advantage of its enemies disorganization to advance up the slope of chupang masih pushing to within 100 meters of the pavin 9th battalion's concentration position before being pinned down by enemy fire as alpha company arrived in full to join the vanguard the u.s offensive was proceeding well and colonel moore was quite confident in his imminent victory so naturally the situation spiraled out of control in the next 30 minutes colonel ahn rallied his men and the americans suddenly faced a coordinated counter-attack from further up the mountain heavy mortar fire began to rain down on the lz and bravo company's second platoon was rapidly cut off and surrounded moore scrambled to respond to this sudden reversal of fortune redirecting elements of alpha company to rescue the lost platoon and desperately requesting further air support brutal fighting dragged on for the next two hours with both sides taking heavy casualties as the americans struggled to dislodge the dug in pavin from their defensive positions the volume of fire became so heavy that when the fifth helicopter lift arrived with fresh troops moore had to warn the pilots not to attempt a landing for fear of them being shot down the cut-off second platoon saw the worst of this brutal fighting as they struggled to hold their improvised perimeter against wave after wave of paving troops to make matters worse the platoon's commander was killed leaving sergeant clyde e savage to lead their desperate fight for survival none of the men sent to rescue the second platoon were able to reach them forcing savage and his soldiers to hold out on their own until well into the evening when pavin attacks finally ceased and the enemy began to withdraw even then the platoon remained trapped behind enemy lines cut off from any support specialist galen bungam a veteran of the second platoon later described his ordeal we gathered up all of the magazines we could find and stacked them in front of us there was no way we could dig a foxhole the handle was blown off my entrenching tool and one of my canteens had a hole blown through it the fire was so heavy that if you tried to raise up to dig you were dead there was death and destruction all around as the sun began to set and the fighting gradually died down colonel moore requested reinforcements to shore up 1st battalion's tenuous position these came in the form of an additional company under captain myron after doric with the help of the doric's men the weary soldiers established a defensive perimeter and dug in preparing to face a north vietnamese counter-attack the next morning meanwhile the pavin commanders were attempting to reorganize and rally their scattered forces colonel ahn had ordered the 66th regiment to launch a nighttime attack on the american line but the regiment's commissar lanak cho found fee tired and malnourished troops almost impossible to control no attack occurred that night as both sides licked their wounds in pitch darkness lit only by occasional flash of american shells exploding throughout the jungle the next day the americans received much-needed supplies and reinforcements to further shore up their position the pavin renewed their assaults early in the morning but they were largely held at bay by u.s air support this included repeating strafing runs by fighter jets but the more significant contribution came in the form of operation arclight a massive bombing campaign carried out by guam-based b-52 stratofortress strategic bombers these enormous planes were able to drop enough heavy ordnance on the enemy or rather on a vast area roughly around the enemy to prevent paving troops from launching any effective attacks on the american positions with the help of this shielding curtain of annihilation colonel moore was finally able to organize a rescue operation to recover the battered second platoon bringing them back to lz x-ray and evacuating their many many wounded however this security came at a cost the danger close ordinance the american planes were dropping included vast quantities of napalm and this deadly and imprecise weapon proved almost as dangerous to their own soldiers as to the enemy at one point moore's command post was struck by two napalm bombs killing or wounding several of his men meanwhile the pavin 66th regiment continued probing the americans defenses and trying to find a way through their aerial bombardment by the morning of november 16th these efforts had left the 66th all but shattered and colonel ahn ordered them to cease attacks on lz x-ray and withdraw once it became clear that the fighting was over the first battalion pulled back to a landing zone further from the front to be evacuated while the battle over lz x-ray was finished combat operations in the iadrang valley were still ongoing the next day november 17th the two battalions remaining at lz x-ray set off on foot toward two other lz's in the vicinity of the two sites one hosted an established defensible firebase while the other lz albany was an empty clearing much like lz x-ray the 2-7 battalion arrived in this vulnerable position around 1pm tired and demoralized from their long march through the dense jungle unfortunately for them the americans were not alone the 8th battalion of the pavin 66th regiment had spotted them on their trek and were waiting in ambush in the woods surrounding lz albany this time they made sure that the attack would be right in the face of the enemy preventing the use of air support as soon as the 2-7 entered the clearing a barrage of machine guns and mortar fire tore through the unit killing the closest soldiers before they even realized they were under attack the americans scrambled for cover focusing their defense on three large termite mounds their situation swiftly went from bad to worse when another paving battalion arrived to flank their improvised defenses concealed within the forest the north vietnamese soldiers unloaded everything they had on the beleaguered us battalion and their proximity meant the americans were unable to rely on the air and artillery support that had turned the tide at lz x-ray split into two separate pockets the 2-7 continued to hold out against the onslaught for the rest of the day bolstered by the timely arrival of reinforcements in the evening after nightfall the fighting turned into a nightmarish game of cat and mouse as paving soldiers spread out and scoured the battlefield looking for wounded or isolated american soldiers that they could finish off by the morning however it was over the pavement troops were exhausted and their supplies were almost fully depleted as the sun rose the north vietnamese retreated into the jungle leaving the 2-7 now reduced to less than half its previous strength in possession of the blood-soaked battlefield a handful more minor skirmishes occurred at other lz's in the valley in the following days but the battle of ia drang was over when all was said and done almost half of the 1000 us soldiers who participated in the battle became casualties with 237 killed and 258 wounded the pavin suffered heavier losses with around 1 000 killed and over 500 wounded of their original 2500 troops but this was a sacrifice they were willing to make the north vietnamese from that point on learned how to exploit u.s forces over reliance on air and artillery support by keeping their attack swift and close to the enemy man to man face to face [Music] while american forces were successful in repelling b3 front's attack on the camp at playmay and forcing them off the field many could not help but see it as a ferric victory the fiasco at lz x-ray proved that helicopter transports were of limited use in large-scale engagements disappointing those who had placed their hopes in an air mobility doctrine and even with overwhelming air superiority the ambush of the 2-7 proved that the people's army of vietnam was a force to be reckoned with the lessons learned by both sides at yajrang would go on to influence how they fought in the years of brutal war to come [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 892,093

Keywords: Battle in vietnam, the vietnam war, helicopter warfare, the battle of ia drang, the ia drang valley, viet cong, nva, arvn, the fall of saigon, the tet offensive, the easter offensive, north vietnamese army, the viet cong, the 1st cavalry division

Id: c6hE87li7J4

Length: 21min 2sec (1262 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 19 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/PsychoPigeonLD]

I liked some of the animation figured I would share.

Also guna put out an early Ia Drang map in a week or 2

[u/heyIfoundaname]

Nice vid, thanks for sharing!

[u/phat5pliff]

Love this channel!

[u/canadian-milkshake]

the sks with picatinny rail mount lmao