Battle of Suoi Bong Trang

Battle of Suoi Bong Trang
Part of the Vietnam War
Australian soldiers returning to Bien Hoa airbase following Operation Rolling Stone, late-February 1966.
Date 23–24 February 1966 Location Tan Binh, central Binh Duong Province, South Vietnam Result US-Australian defensive victory
Belligerents
United States  Australia  New Zealand	Viet Cong  North Vietnam
Commanders and leaders
Edgar N. Glotzbach Y.Y. Phillips Alex Preece
Units involved
1st Bde, US 1st Inf Div 1 RAR 161 Bty RNZA	J10/761st Regt 707/763rd Regt D800 Independent Bn
Strength
	~2,000
Casualties and losses
US: 11 killed, 72 wounded Australia: 2 wounded	154 killed 200 wounded 15 captured

The Battle of Suoi Bong Trang (23–24 February 1966) was an engagement fought between US, Australian and New Zealand forces, and the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War. The battle occurred during Operation Rolling Stone, an American security operation to protect engineers building a tactically important road in the vicinity of Tan Binh, in central Binh Duong Province, 30 kilometres (19 mi) north-west of Bien Hoa airbase. During the fighting, soldiers from the US 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division and the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR), which had been attached for the operation, fought off a regimental-sized Viet Cong night assault. Repulsed by massed firepower from artillery and tanks, the Viet Cong suffered heavy casualties and were forced to withdraw by morning. After the attack, the Americans and Australians made no attempt to pursue the Viet Cong, focusing on securing the battlefield and evacuating their own casualties. The Viet Cong continued to harass the American sappers with occasional sniper and mortar fire, but these tactics proved ineffective, and the road was completed by 2 March.

During February 1966, as part of an American road-building program designed to challenge the Viet Cong's ability to manoeuvre in the areas around Saigon, the US 1st Engineer Battalion—under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Howard Sargent—had been engaged in constructing an all-weather road between Route 13 and Route 15 in central Binh Duong Province, west of Ben Cat, on the northern apex of the Viet Cong base area known as the Iron Triangle. This road was planned to cut the communist supply routes between War Zone C, the Mekong Delta, the Iron Triangle and War Zone D, while it would also link the two forward brigades of the US 1st Infantry Division between Phuoc Vinh and Lai Khe and help to extend the authority of the South Vietnamese government.

...
Wikipedia