Operation Birmingham was a military operation of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

War Zone C War Zone C was the area in South Vietnam centered around the abandoned town of Katum near the Cambodian border where there was a strong concentration of People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Viet Cong (VC) activity during the Vietnam War. This ar ...

, north of

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

conducted by the U.S. 1st Infantry Division and the

Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April ...

(ARVN) 5th Division from 24 April to 17 May 1966.

Background

The objective of the operation was to sweep War Zone C and engage the

Viet Cong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...

(VC) 9th Division.

Operation

The operation began on 24 April and in the first few days there was only sporadic contact with VC, however a number of supply caches were located. On 27 April a battalion of the 1st Brigade killed 3 VC and discovered several tons of supplies, while a battalion of the 3rd Brigade found a battalion-size VC base camp. On 30 April two battalions of the 1st Brigade swept north along the east bank of the Rach Cai Bac river on the border between South Vietnam and

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

attracting fire from both across the river in Cambodia and from the Vietnamese hamlet of Lo Go. The 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment engaged the forces firing from Cambodia while the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment engaged the VC in Lo Go. The fighting at Lo Go continued into the afternoon when the VC, latter identified as coming from the C230 Battalion, withdrew leaving 54 dead. U.S. losses were 6 killed. The operation continued for another two weeks as the 1st Infantry Division swept War Zone C in the hope of finding

COSVN Central Office for South Vietnam (abbreviated COSVN ; vi, Văn phòng Trung ương Cục miền Nam), officially known as the Central Executive Committee of the People's Revolutionary Party from 1962 until its dissolution in 1976, was the Ameri ...

headquarters which was believed to located in northern Tây Ninh Province, but there were no other major engagements. Operation Birmingham also employed two brigades of the Vietnamese Mobile Guerrilla Forces (MGFs) whose primary objective was to locate and engage VC forces as well as to destroy their base camps along the

n border. These brigades moved rapidly to exploit recently acquired intelligence on enemy installations and movements and were frequently transported by helicopter to locations throughout Tây Ninh Province. The MGFs utilized

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...

tactics that were often employed by the VC against U.S. and ARVN units.

Aftermath

The operation ended on 17 May 1966.

References

External links

* {{Coord missing, Vietnam Conflicts in 1966 1966 in Vietnam

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

History of Tây Ninh Province April 1966 events in Asia May 1966 events in Asia