Operation crimp

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Battles and operations of the
Vietnam War

Battle of Tua Hai  (1960) - Battle of Ap Bac  (1963) - Battle of Nam Dong  (1964) - Tonkin Incident  (1964) - Operation Flaming Dart  (1965) - Operation Rolling Thunder  (1965-68) - Battle of Dong Xoai  (1965) - Battle of the Ia Drang Valley  (1965) - Operation Crimp  (1966) - Operation Hastings (1966) - Battle of Long Tan (1966) - Operation Attleboro  (1966) - Operation Cedar Falls  (1967) - Battle around Hill 881  (1967) - Battle of Dak To  (1967) - Battle of Khe Sanh  (1968) - Tet Offensive  (1968) - Battle of Huế  (1968) - Operation Speedy Express  (1968/69) - Operation Dewey Canyon  ( 1969) - Battle of Hamburger Hill  (1969) - Operation MENU  (1969/70) - Operation Lam Son 719  (1971) - Battle of FSB Mary Ann  (1971) - Battle of Quảng Trị  (1972) - Operation Linebacker  (1972) - Operation Linebacker II  (1972) - Battle of Xuan Loc  (1975) - Operation Frequent Wind  (1975)

The Operation Crimp , later renamed Operation Buckskin , was a combined operation of US and Australian forces in the Vietnam War .

The initial objective was to track down and destroy the politico-military headquarters of the 4th military region of the Viet Cong in the Ho Boo forests of the Tây Ninh province . It was believed that this zone would be the center of all Viet Cong activity in South Vietnam .

The operation lasted January 7-13, 1966 and was one of the largest military operations in the Vietnam War to date. An estimated 8,000 soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division , the 173rd Airborne Brigade and the Royal Australian Regiment were deployed.

At the beginning, 30-ton bombs were dropped by B-52 long-range bombers over the operations room in the Iron Triangle , turning it into a pock-marked lunar landscape.

The armed forces and the available space of the Viet Cong could not be located at first, but everything indicated that the Viet Cong had withdrawn into extensive underground tunnel systems with a complex infrastructure. The mission goal was changed to track down, destroy and seal the tunnels.

The Australians were the first to discover the Củ Chi tunnels . Elite soldiers descended into the tunnels to fight the enemy in close combat. Numerous documents were also captured in the process.

In contrast, the US armed forces first tried to smoke out the tunnels and then to fill them with irritant gases or to make them collapse by blasting them. After this approach did not bring the desired success, the Americans also switched to using specially trained " tunnel rats ".

Operation Crimp was a military failure. There was no clearly defined front line. The Viet Cong were able to carry out night fire attacks from their underground positions and immediately disappear again unnoticed. Viet Cong snipers could kill or wound US officers from undercover.

126 Viet Cong were killed in the course of the operation .

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