Battle of Snuol
| Battle of Snuol | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Vietnam War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 South Vietnam United States Khmer Republic
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 Viet Cong North Vietnam
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Do Cao Tri † Nguyen Van Minh |
Bui Thanh Danh Le Nam Phong |
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| Units involved | |||||||
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: 9th Regiment 8th Regiment 74th Ranger Battalion 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment 5th Engineer Company |
: 5th Division 7th Division |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 8,000 | 20,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
37 killed, 167 wounded, 74 missing 300+ captured |
Unknown (South Vietnam claimed 1,043 killed) | ||||||
The Battle of Snuol was a major battle of the Vietnam War, conducted by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam as part of Operation Toàn Thắng TT02. The battle lasted from January 5 to May 30, 1971.
In 1970 the joint South Vietnamese and U.S Cambodian Incursion was viewed as an overall success after allied troops successfully captured a huge enemy cache consisting of food and weapon supplies. Although relatively little contact was made during the operation, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops were forced to move deeper into Cambodian territory.
One year following the incursion, General Nguyễn Văn Hiếu and General Do Cao Tri made a plan to go back into Cambodian territory to find and destroy the Viet Cong. According to General Hieu's plan, instead of searching for the enemy, the ARVN would use one regiment to try to lure the Viet Cong out and then trap them once they come out to attack. South Vietnamese commanders called this the "luring the tiger down the mountain tactic".
In order to carry out their mission, South Vietnam was ready to commit the rest of the ARVN 5th Division, as well as the 18th and 25th Divisions just in case the Viet Cong came out in force.
Prior to the luring operation, 11 sensors were implanted along Route 13 north and south of Snuol during two separate sensor implanting operations. The monitoring equipment was operated by the ARVN 5th Division located in Loc Ninh.
On January 4, 1971, the ARVN Task Force 9 was formed with the mission of luring out the Viet Cong. Task Force 9 consisted of the 9th Regiment, 74th Ranger Battalion, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 5th Engineer Company. They were supported by the US 3rd Squadron/17th Air Cavalry.
On February 26 General Nguyen Van Minh took over command of the operation after General Do Cao Tri died in a helicopter crash. Instead of continuing on with the original plan, General Minh choose to apply withdrawal tactics without air-support, if successful the Viet Cong would be annihilated by several ARVN divisions during the final phase. But if not, the task force would be destroyed.
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Wikipedia