Operation Gibraltar

Vietnam (Vietnam War 1955-1975)

1965

An Ninh
(village 10[-10])

An Khe

Operation Gibraltar - 1965 (Vietnam War 1955-1975).

This game represented the Battle of An Ninh which was part of Operation Gibraltar which itself was part of Operation Highland.

Operation Highland involved securing the road from Qui Nhon to the new army base at An Khe for the arrival of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) which itself was to form part of a mobile response force able to reacte to situations across the country.

The main part of Operation Highland was to secure the road which wont be dealt with here but might be covered in another scenario later. Once units started arriving at An Khe other units began Operation Gibraltar which was aimed at sweeping the surrounding countryside for enemy forces which were expected as it was an area of known enemy activity.

As part of that on 18 September 1965 at 0700 were inserted outside of An Ninh which was a village about 30kn east of the new base at An Khe. The landing zone was bombed beforehand and a first airlift was made. However, when the second airlift was carried out the North Vietnamese who had made their base there opened fire causing most of the helicopters to turn back.

There were a lot of problems and the forces on the ground had little support for a couple of hours.

Some military staff described the engagement a success whilst others in years to come described it as a total disaster. Essentially they had failed to provide enough helicopters to land the entire battalion in one go.

They called in airstikes but due to contaminated fuel at the Bien Hoa air base the planes could not be cleared to take off. THey did later get off the ground after 0900 and carried out 50 airstrikes.

However, the units and failed to bring any mortors with them or recoilless rifles because they didn't think they would need them in mountainous country. They also had no artillery support because recent rains had meant that fords were uncrossable and helicopters capable of flying in artillery were off on other missions.

The fighting went on until nightfall at which point the North Vietnamese retreated.

I think this will be a difficult game to play authentically.