Ambush at Cai Be, Dinh Tuong Province, Vietnam 11th January 1968Presented by the Green Machine Gamers of KildareThe game being played by the GMG is based on the events of the 11th January 1968 in the Vietnamese province of Dinh Tuong. US and South Vietnam Army (ARVN) forces launched a large operation in late 1967 codenamed CORONADO IX. The operation was aimed at targeting Viet Cong Local Force and Main Force guerrilla groups and supply caches that were scattered around the region and using the waterways as a means of supply. By January the following year, the operation had caused heavy losses to Viet Cong forces in the province, with several hundred enemy fighters killed and many weapons and medical caches discovered and destroyed, significantly compromising enemy activity in the area. US and ARVN casualties had been light up till then. On the 11th January, the Mobile Riverine Force and the 47th Infantry Regiment launched a joint assault from the river and the air. Their target was the 261st Viet Cong Main Force Battalion that was located in the area of Cai Be. In this case the enemy was ready for the US attack. The landing zones (LZ) for the helicopters transporting 47th Infantry were covered by enemy positions and they conducting an assault landing on ‘hot’ LZs covered by enemy fire. The Mobile Riverine Force also found its landing areas covered by well concealed enemy bunkers with excellent fields of fire. Both groups went through two days of heavy fighting before the operation came to a conclusion. The US forces had a confirmed enemy bodycount of forty-seven Viet Cong fighters, but themselves suffered eighteen killed and over fifty wounded in what would be the toughest and bloodiest fight of the entire operation. Two days after the fighting at Cai Be, Operation CORONADO IX was brought to a close. Our game represents the fighting of two groups during the Cai Be battle. The action recreated represents a dual air and river landing tasked with securing and clearing the area around the river and village of Thanh Phu. Defending the area are several cadres from the 261st Main Force Battalion who have bunkers and defences covering likely enemy landing areas. The game is being run using ‘Force-on-Force’ rules by Ambush Alley Games with the ‘Ambush Valley’ Vietnam supplement written by GMG club member Piers Brand.
