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The Battle of Suoi Tre (Vietnamese: ''suối Tre'') occurred during the early morning of 21 March 1967 during Operation Junction City, a search and destroy mission by American military forces in Tay Ninh Province of South Vietnam, to the west of the capital Saigon. After being challenged heavily to begin with, the Americans gained the upper hand and completed a convincing victory over the Viet Cong. They found 647 bodies and captured seven prisoners, 65 crew-served and 94 individual weapons. The Americans losses were 36 dead and 190 wounded, a fatality ratio of more than twenty to one in their favour. On 19 March, American helicopters dropped two infantry battalions off in a clearing near Suoi Tre to build a fire support base to be used in search and destroy missions against the Communists. During the airlift, seven helicopters were damaged. On March 21, a Viet Cong attack started before dawn at 6:30 a.m., headlined by mortars, and followed by a large-scale infantry charge. They overwhelmed parts of the American perimeter at first, and forced them to withdraw inwards. After a period, American reinforcements broke through the Communist envelope to assist their besieged colleagues, and firepower and artillery helped them gain the upper hand. The Communists stubbornly fought on, with some carrying wounded compatriots forward in follow-up infantry charges, but they were eventually forced to withdraw with heavy casualties. == Prelude == On 20 March, in an area surrounded by a tree line of sparse woodland that had been scarred by defoliants, American helicopters landed the 3rd Battalion of the 22d Infantry and the 2nd Battalion, 77th Artillery, led by Lieutenant Colonels John A. Bender and John W. Vessey, Jr., respectively, as part of the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division led by Colonel Marshall B. Garth.〔 Their objective was to establish Fire Support Base Gold, which would be used to support search and destroy missions of Operation Junction City. The Americans did not anticipate heavy action.〔Rogers, p. 136.〕 The landing area was an elliptical clearing close to Suoi Tre, near the center of War Zone C and 90 km northwest of Saigon. Only 3 km away, during Operation Attleboro a few months earlier, the Americans had defeated the Communists at the Battle of Ap Cha Do. The 272nd Regiment of the 9th Viet Cong Division had been involved in that battle, and had recovered since then.〔Rogers, p. 135.〕 On March 19 as the three sets of helicopters landed, five heavy remote-controlled charges were set off by the Viet Cong in the landing clearing. Three helicopters were destroyed and six more damaged, leaving fifteen killed and 28 wounded.〔 A Viet Cong claymore-type mine was also detonated against C Company of the 3rd Battalion, wounding five infantrymen.〔 Company B of the 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry, was assigned the east portion of the defensive perimeter, Company A the western half. Later that day the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry landed at Fire Support Base Gold and moved to the northwest. Its final airlift attracted Communist fire, and another seven helicopters were damaged.〔 On 20 March work was done to improve the fire support base's perimeter defenses, which turned out to be fortunate for the Americans as the Battle of Suoi Tre was to begin the next day.〔 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「Battle of Suoi Tre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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