Sign Here for Sacrifice by Gardner Ian;

Author:Gardner, Ian;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2022-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

The Phoney War

“Mal Hombre” was no longer in command of an independent battalion but leader of a combined multi-unit task force. With a total of 14 to staff both the Logistics and Supply and Transportation Platoon, “Dee” Dallas was daunted by the prospect of servicing this new army that included several 105mm and 175mm howitzer batteries, five M48A3 Patton tanks, plus a selection of self-propelled guns and Quad-50s.

Out in the bay, destroyer USS Frank E. Evans dedicated a shore fire control party and air liaison forward control team to the cause. Bizarrely, many of the five-inch shells being used dated back to World War II and would often explode in mid-air before reaching their targets. The colonel also inherited a number of indigenous units, including two battalions from the 44th ARVN Regiment, two companies from the Mobile Strike Force, known as “Mike,” and a mixture of regional and popular forces whose collective loyalties were at best questionable.

Army pay for the ordinary South Vietnamese soldier was one-sixteenth that of the average GI and went part of the way to explaining their poor motivation and commitment. Unsurprisingly, the ARVN were very class conscious and a soldier could not progress further than his social standing or family background would allow. Peasantry formed the backbone while most of its officers were drawn from urban privilege. Paradoxically, most peasant soldiers did not want to die preserving the lifestyle of this ruling elite. By comparison, most local VC were compensated not only financially but also with food and protection for their families. However, those “Hanoi loyalists” among them served freely to further their own extreme political beliefs.

The ARVN had been dying at a rate of 2,000 per month and things did not seem to be getting any better for them. America was fighting for what it believed was a world free of enforced rule or ideas. But the war “Mal Hombre” came to fight in late 1967 had already begun to lose much of its original logic and approach.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.