Annex 2.10: Closing Out 1966

Sources. 

Note: Many of the sources and comments relating to this article are virtaully identical to those described in Annex 2.08

General. Statistics relating to number of fixes, sorties flown, etc., were extracted from the 6994th history, July-December, 1966, which has been pieced together from unclassified non-FOIA sources. Details of ground operations are based largely on official histories. From the USMC, U.S. Marines in Vietnam; 1966, An Expanding War. From the Army’s Center of Military History, The United States Army in Vietnam, Combat Operations. Taking the Offensive, October 1966 to October 1967. Shelby Stanton’s The Rise and Fall of an American Army, U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1965-1973 is also a useful source. The official histories are available on line. Stanton's book is available at https://archive.org/

Combat Operations in Late 1966: I CTZ and the DMZ. Based on the USMC history noted above, chapters 10 and 11. COMUSMACV quotation is from p.195.

II CTZ: Battles from the Highlands to the Coast. Based on Taking the Offensive. The citation for 46% of South Vietnam's land mass is from p.62. Quotation “ended without certainty” is from p.76. “American electronic intelligence” [most likely ARDF] is from p.83. 

III Corps and COSVN. Quotations “exclusively on the basis of intelligence provided by ARDF” and “job well done” are from the 1968 CHECO report on the EC-47, p.31. Details of the operation, including the citations for artillery and airstrikes, may be found in "1st Infantry Division Operational Report – Lessons Learned 1 August-31 October, 1966", p.11. The remainder of the section is based on Taking the Offensive. The quotation "destroy a 'vital' element of the enemy” is from p.34. Quotations regarding Operation ATTLEBORO are from pages 53 (“electronic intelligence”) and 58 (“what percentage …")

Six Successful Months. As noted in Annex 2.08, mission statistics are often contradictory, depending on the source. The statement that “over 1,000 ARDF sorties had been flown in which some 2,600 targets  were fixed” is based on the 6994th history, July-December, 1966. A listing of ground operations and number of association fixes is included in Annex 2.08. The description of the 4 December 1966 attack on Tan Son Nhut is based on an AAR by the 337th Security Police Squadron. In addition to the major damage inflicted on 42-92166, the following EC-47s received minor damage: 45-1046 (24 hrs to repair), 43-48933 (18 hrs), 44-76668 (16 hrs), and  43-48767 (11 hrs.)


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