Battle of Loc Ninh

Battle of Loc Ninh
Part of the Vietnam War
Movements of Communist forces in Bình Long in 1972.
Date 4–7 April 1972 Location Lộc Ninh, Bình Long Province, South Vietnam Result Viet Cong and North Vietnamese victory.
Belligerents
South Vietnam  United States	Viet Cong  North Vietnam
Commanders and leaders
Nguyen Cong Vinh Richard R. Schott Mark A. Smith	Hoàng Văn Thái Trần Văn Trà
Strength
: Regular Force: About 2,000 Local millitia: ~2.000 : Air support and advisors to direct strikes	About 13,800
Casualties and losses
Nearly 2,000 South Vietnamese soldiers killed or wounded 1,876 captured (only about 50 soldiers actually reached An Lộc) 7 American advisers captured (later released) 18 M-41 tanks and 31 M113 APCs destroyed, 17 M-41 tanks and 32 trucks captured 8 Self-propelled guns destroyed 8 helicopters destroyed.	~1,000 North Vietnamese soldiers killed or wounded 2 T-54 and 1 PT-76 tanks destroyed

The Battle of Lộc Ninh was a major battle fought during the Easter Offensive during the Vietnam War, which took place in Bình Long Province, South Vietnam between 4–7 April 1972. Towards the end of 1971, North Vietnamese leaders decided to launch a major offensive against South Vietnam, with the objective of destroying Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) units and capturing as much territory as possible, in order to strengthen their bargaining position in the Paris Peace Accords. On 30 March 1972, two North Vietnamese Army divisions smashed through the Demilitarized Zone, marking the commencement of the Easter Offensive. They quickly overwhelmed South Vietnamese units in the I Corps Tactical Zone. With the rapid collapse of South Vietnamese forces in the northern provinces of South Vietnam, North Vietnamese and Việt Cộng forces began preparing for their next offensive, targeting Bình Long Province in the Mekong Delta region. On 4 April, the Việt Cộng's 5th Division opened their attack on Lộc Ninh, defended by the ARVN 9th Infantry Regiment. After three days of fighting, the vastly outnumbered South Vietnamese forces, though well supported by American air power, were forced to abandon their positions in Lộc Ninh.

In December 1971, following the defeat of South Vietnamese forces during Operation Lam Son 719, North Vietnamese leadership in Hanoi decided to launch a major military offensive against South Vietnam. In what became known as the Easter Offensive, the combined North Vietnamese and Việt Cộng forces employed combined arms tactics using heavy weapons that were a radical departure from the low-intensity guerrilla warfare of previous years. Although North Vietnam eventually used the equivalent of 14 army divisions, its leaders did not seek to win the war outright. Rather, their objective was to gain as much territory and destroy as many units of the South Vietnamese military as possible, in order to strengthen their bargaining position at the Paris Peace Talks.

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