MAP

Skirmish at Ka Deun

3 January, 1955

Two PAVN divisions closed on the road juncture at Ka Deun toward the end of 1954, driving the Royal Laotian Army back onto its own barricades at Ka Deun. In the week that followed the new year reinforcements were rushed to the area, including a number of mercenaries and a battery of Laotian artillery. The Laotians successfully defended the juncture, albeit with only light casualties. The PAVN had not pushed them hard, as it was the monsoon season and it rained almost daily across much of northern Laos.

Flight of the FAN

13 January, 1955

Unhindered by the PAVN, whose command seemed still convinced the FAN was on their side, the FAN coalesced around the town of Muang Xai and declared Phongsaly Province a neutral territory administered by the FAN. They would defend their borders as necessary and liberate the rest of Laos from either the communists or the royalists when the time came. Recruiting from around the area, the FAN aims to use the monsoons to shield them from attack until they are adequately prepared for one.

Second Battle of Tay Ninh

20 January, 1955

The opening moves of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam fell at Tay Ninh, an untouched section of front during the fighting in late 1954. With a newly-organized independent tank brigade at their disposal, the ARVN’s 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiments of the Third Infantry Division advanced, the former quite effectively pinning down the PAVN’s 16th Division while the 2nd Infantry rolled up the eastern flank to make way for the 1st Tank Brigade to drive headlong to the north. By the time the 16th PAVN managed to disengage and retreat from Tay Ninh, 1st Tank Brigade had taken the bridge over the Tha La River, leaving 16th PAVN surrounded.

26 January, 1955

The pocket was reduced by the infantry until large numbers of 16th PAVN’s men began to hear propaganda broadcast by former Viet Minh captured in Mekong, detailing their fair treatment at the hands of the ARVN. That coupled with being left ever further behind enemy lines compelled the vast majority of the 16th PAVN to surrender, effectively destroying the unit.

The Dong Xoai Offensive

20 January, 1955

As part of Operation Swift, the ARVN struck out from their forward position south of Hung Chien with the 1st Armored Regiment and the 3rd Infantry Regiment, taking the town with no resistance and advancing well to the north to Binh Long before turning east. They would continue to advance with little difficulty until they reached their goal of Phu Rieng, at which point they were surprised to encounter friendly pickets from the 4th Light Infantry Division’s forward elements.

Reinforced by an artillery battery and reconnaissance company, the 4th Light Infantry Division succeeded in eventually driving the PAVN from Dong Xoai. The 4th PAVN Division extricated itself from the fighting and escaped east, retreating directly into the onrushing 28th PAVN Division, which quickly took up the fight for Dong Xoai-- albeit they were now the aggressor, as the ARVN held the city. Artillery helped the defenders, who successfully repelled the initial assaults by 28th PAVN.

To the west, the 5th PAVN Division continued its disorganized retreat over the tributary that they had originally intended to use as a defensive line behind which they could reorganize. The ARVN, however, had two infantry regiments chasing them down. As the ARVN infantry advanced and claimed mounting numbers of prisoners while the 5th PAVN sought to reorganize and failed to combat the effects of the same propaganda as would go on to shatter the morale of 16th PAVN, their cohesion totally failed and the 5th PAVN ceased to exist as a fighting unit, the majority taking to the forests or surrendering.

23 January, 1955

On the eve of Tet 13th PAVN Division, having learned of the enemy reaching Phu Rieng while on the road to Dong Xoai, struck in that direction, damaging the forward unit of 4th Light Infantry until the 3rd Division’s armor and infantry arrived to assist in the defense. The ensuing fighting around Phu Rieng was indecisive, neither side gained ground on the other or suffered exceptional losses.

Tet would thus see the front stabilized, with the ARVN now in control of vast swaths of territory from Tay Ninh to Dong Xoai and points north.

Battle of Long Khanh

20 January, 1955

As part of the rolling ARVN offensive across the entire front, the town of Long Khanh was to be taken. A single PAVN division, the 2nd, occupied the town. They were unable, therefore, to adequately defend from the strong armored flank attack coming from the south while infantry pressed in from the west.

21 January, 1955

2nd PAVN retreated in the night from Long Khanh, suffering moderate losses. Four ARVN regiments occupied the city and pushed away from city limits to the east, briefly chasing 2nd PAVN before it made good its escape and began to regroup in front of Xuan Tho.

The Tan Hai - Ba Ria Battles

20 January, 1955

Reinforcements arrived early in January to relieve the battered 4th Infantry Regiment, ARVN, from its positions west of Ba Ria. 4th Infantry went on to defend an oncoming artillery regiment, which began to pound the defending PAVN division with fire directed by the nearby 1st Reconnaissance Wing. Two AT-17 Bobcats of 1st Reconnaissance were brought down by Yak fighter-interceptors, which did interrupt that good intelligence and leave the artillery firing blindly again.

22-23 January, 1955

2nd Independent Tank Brigade, assigned to this theater, struck out west, then south with the ultimate goal of reaching Ba Ria and cutting off the 1st PAVN Division. They were, however, intercepted north of the city by the arriving 25th PAVN Division, which dealt moderate casualties to the inexperienced-- and more importantly unsupported-- tankers and held the city. This action still had the result of withholding reinforcements from the 1st PAVN Division, which was duly driven back into Tan Hai proper with mounting losses.

Nightfall on 23 January saw the two regiments of the ARVN taking the western outskirts of Tan Hai, pushing 1st PAVN back towards 25th PAVN.

The Islands Campaign

20 January, 1955

As an amphibious component of Operation Swift, Vietnamese Marines on their new landing craft departed from Ninh Kieu several days ago and have now landed unopposed in the Spratly and Paracel Islands. They are at present entrenching, fortifying their grip on these new spits of land in the South China Sea.

The Central Offensive

21 January, 1955

With word of the opening shots of Operation Swift coming in from Dong Xoai and Tay Ninh, 7th PAVN Division advanced into the treacherous terrain between themselves and the Be River. Surprisingly there was no defending ARVN force to counter them, only the dense jungle and impenetrable undergrowth. They struggled forward, bending southward with the only path that allowed them to make any measurable progress.

26 January 1955

After a week’s effort 7th PAVN Division managed to penetrate 21 kilometers at the deepest point, with smaller scouting elements reaching the Be River while the main body pressed on to the Dong Nai in the south, seeking easier terrain. As near as they could tell, the ARVN had not yet detected them.

War in the Air, January 1955

1954 ended with almost complete air supremacy on the part of the VNPAF. This began to change by the end of January, 1955, with the activation of the 1st Combat Wing of the RVNAF attempting to contest aerial control. Against the piston-driven Yaks they had decent success, but nothing the Republic of Vietnam fielded could quite match the speed and maneuverability of the MiG-15s flown by the VNPAF. They inflicted the loss of three Yak-3s upon the 2nd Fighter Regiment, but they lost five of their own planes to the MiG-15s of 4th Fighter Regiment.

This began to change with the arrival of a volunteer air force flying unmarked F-86 Sabres. These were game-changing for Operation Swift, which began on 20 January 1955. As the 1st CCTW began to assert itself in the skies over Vietnam, the F-86s destroyed a further eight Yak-3s by the end of the first week of the operation and downed two MiG-15s for the loss of two of their own F-86s.

Ground attack elements proved decisive on the ground, as well. 1st CCTW’s airborne early warning elements allowed the scrambling of Sabres to drive off inbound fighters and establish temporary air superiority over operational areas, allowing ground-attack elements (namely B-26s and A-1s) to hammer PAVN positions on the ground. This allowed the tiring ARVN units to still make modest gains in the eastern and northern sectors. They are nearing the end of their logistical tether, however, and the most forward elements will need to resupply after a month and a half of warfare.

A Western Trail

Unbeknownst to the ARVN and its allies, work has begun on a trail leading from China to the south of Vietnam, with the ambitious goal of supplying guerillas throughout Indochina. The terrain they have to pass through is unforgiving, ranging from sheer mountains in Laos to dense, triple-canopy jungle in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Even the thousands of laborers sent from China will take years to clear this path. They will have to labor within enemy held territory, hoping against hope not to be sighted by a patrol or aircraft. In the end, it is a massive undertaking.

Beginning in the month of January, the trail made relatively quick progress in the friendly territory between China and Hanoi, with much of the clearing done by 1 February in the northern sections, where the Chinese have concentrated tens of thousands of workers for the effort. It should reach Hanoi by March, by the best estimates of the foremen on the ground. That will be the easy part, however.

Haiphong

1 January, 1955

The authorities responded curiously to the extreme tensions between Vietnamese Catholics and the CPV in Haiphong (and, to a lesser extent, in Hanoi). The police finally had clear instructions: destroy any violence against the CPV. Thus armed and instructed, they set about their work while the CPV conducted a propaganda campaign throughout the two beleaguered cities.

Unfortunately, in Haiphong the propaganda fell on deaf ears. Citizens in the city simply wanted to get back to a life where they didn’t have to dodge through crossfire between Catholic militias and city police to buy groceries. General resentment builds in the city, with the primary target of that resentment being the CPV for causing the mess with Catholics in the first place.

In Hanoi the campaign only went somewhat better. The CPV held a better grip in the city and there had been little violence, but it fell short of the expectation of creating anti-Catholic mobs that would beat protestors into submission. CPV’s men did not yet see that the Hanoi Catholics were getting more organized, however. Something was in motion.

6 January, 1955

Returning to Haiphong, the situation is devolving rapidly. As more police fall the Catholics grow better armed. Money has begun to reach the Catholic militias in substantial amounts, allowing them to begin bribing the authorities and buying firearms on the black market. Somehow they have become better trained, more coordinated as the violence increases. The Catholics attempted to break into an armory and failed, leading to dozens dead and numerous police officers hospitalized-- their weapons being the only ones the Catholics successfully stole.

10 January, 1955

In the greatest escalation of violence in Haiphong thus far, a Catholic militia set fire to a police station in the eastern districts of the city and opened fire on the police officers that tried to escape the burning structure. Thirty-two police officers were gunned down and executed with no evident loss to the militia.

20 January, 1955

With word of the ARVN offensive renewing in the south, the Catholic militias announced the formation of God’s Army, a union of the fledgling militia groups in the city. Their numbers are unknown, but they were well armed enough that to christen their new organization they launched three ambushes throughout the city, killing twenty-five police officers. Concerningly, these police officers were found naked. Perhaps more concerningly, a discontent populace refused to inform on them.

23 January, 1955

While the Haiphong Police prepared to celebrate Tet, God’s Army prepared a new round of attacks. As night fell they ambushed a Police patrol. When the Police called for help, numerous GA men dressed in stolen uniforms “arrived on the scene”, opening fire on the beleaguered officers from behind. They were promptly caught at the scene by actual responding officers, who killed them to the last man. This last battle in January claimed six Haiphong Police officers and fourteen God’s Army men.

[M] Stay tuned for the rest of 1955! I plan to have it out by the end of the week. [/M]