Sơn Tây prisoner of war camp
Sơn Tây prisoner of war camp in the late 1970s
| date | November 21, 1970 |
|---|---|
| place | Sơn Tây , Vietnam |
| output | Operation ended without losses for the Americans, prisoners of war had previously been transferred |
| consequences | Centrally combined accommodation for prisoners of war |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Vietnamese People's Army , Chinese and Russian advisors |
United States Army , United States Navy , United States Air Force |
| Commander | |
|
unknown |
Brig Gen. LeRoy J. Manor, USAF |
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | 56 Special Forces soldiers 92 members of airborne units 29 aircraft |
| losses | |
|
unknown, at least 100 dead |
2 injured |
The Sơn Tây prison camp was one of the North Vietnamese near the city Sơn Tây from the late 1960s to entertaining in the late 1970s POW camp . In the middle of the Vietnam War , about 65 prisoners of the American armed forces were held there.
Operation Ivory Coast
- Main articles: Operation Ivory Coast , Operation Kingpin
On November 21, 1970, 56 members of the Green Berets attacked the prison camp under the command of Col. Arthur Bull Simons to free about 70 to 80 prisoners of war. 92 crew members in 29 aircraft of the United States Air Force were involved in the attack in the area of operation , with the supporting forces a total of 105 aircraft were involved in the action.
Before the attack, however, all 65 prisoners of war had been transferred to another camp some 15 miles away, unnoticed, in mid-July 1970. The reason for this is assumed to be the risk of flooding in the Son Tay camp due to the nearby river. American intelligence probably discovered this the day before the attack, but the operation had already begun.
Three attack groups landed in or near the prison camp:
- The first group intentionally crash-landed in the middle of the camp in a helicopter in order to be able to intervene directly in the action as quickly as possible.
- The second group unintentionally landed about 400 m away, as it turned out, the headquarters of the guards was located there. The group attacked and believed to have killed more than 100 security guards.
- The third group landed outside the actual prison camp, where they participated in securing the area against external attacks.
The attack succeeded insofar as the camp grounds were dominated, but there were no prisoners left to be released.
26 minutes after the first helicopter crash-landed, all the Americans involved in the attack were back in the aircraft on their way to the starting bases. One soldier suffered a fractured ankle in the crash landing and another injured his leg in the course of the operation.
The exact number of North Vietnamese soldiers killed in the attack is unknown.
The attack, which failed in its actual goal, nevertheless brought Simons and his people an unintended success. The attempt at liberation drew the world's attention to the improper treatment of American prisoners of war. After the attack on Sơn Tây, the North Vietnamese changed the accommodation, treatment and treatment of the foreign prisoners.
swell
- ↑ CV Glines: The Son Tay Raid ( Memento from April 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), In: Air Force Magazine , November 1995, Vol. 78, No. 11, report on the course of the operation, including contributions from former prisoners, at www.afa.org, web presence of Air Force Magazine Online, accessed July 4, 2008 (English)
Web links
Coordinates: 21 ° 8 ′ 19.7 ″ N , 105 ° 30 ′ 15.1 ″ E