Group 559

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For more details on on the PAVN logistical system through southern Laos, see Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Group 559 was a was a transportation and logistical unit of the People's Army of Vietnam that was subordinate to the Rear Services General Directorate. Group 559 was established on 19 May 1959 in order to move troops, weapons, and materiel (by sea and land) from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and to build and maintain support facilities en route.

The purpose of this unit was to establish supply lines from North Vietnam to Vietcong paramilitary units in South Vietnam. This task was made more difficult by the presence of a demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the border separating the two countries, though the North Vietnamese did send some supplies across the DMZ, their major infrastructure went around it. Group 559 developed road lines through Laos and Cambodia that fed into various areas of northern and western South Vietnam. This system of roads became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and was used under the supervision of Group 559 to infiltrate weapons, ammunition, and cadres into the South.

The purpose of these activities was the support of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, or derogatively, Viet Cong) in their struggle to topple the southern regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem. By 1962 the group's force level was 6,000 troops organized into two regiments equipped with bicycles and a few trucks. Within one year the force level grew to 24,000 troops and six motarized transport battalions plus engineering, anti-aircraft, and security elements.

After the commitment of U.S. and allied forces to the Vietnam War in 1965, Group 559 moved a volume of supplies nearly equal to the total volume of the preceding five years. Increasing North Vietnamese involvement, including the introduction of large ground units, in the southern war and U.S. interdiction of PAVN's logistical system at sea sharply increased the group's overland route. During the year, Group 559 acquired the status of a Military Region reporting directly to the Military Affairs Party Committee and the General Staff, with three subordinate commands for the supply corridors through Laos.

Preparations for large-scale main force offensives, both during and after the U.S. withdrawal sharply increased logistical requirements. In July 1973 the group, redesignated the Truong Son Command, converted sectoral and way station forces into divisions or regiments and estaqblished five additional regiments. By late 1974, forces under its command included Anti-Aircraft Division 377, Division 968, the sectoral divisions 470, 471, and 472, plus fourteen regiments and various repair facilities and hospitals with total personnel of 100,495.

Group 759 and Group 959 were created somewhat later, with similar but different missions. Group 759 was charged with infiltrating supplies into South Vietnam by sea, complementing the land based operations of Group 559. Group 959 was created to move supplies to Pathet Lao forces in Laos. [1]