341st Division (Vietnam)

341st Infantry Division
Allegiance  Vietnam
Branch Vietnam People's Army
Type Infantry
Role Mechanized infantry
Size Division
Engagements Operation Prairie III
1975 Spring Offensive
Battle of Xuân Lộc

The 341st Infantry Division is a division of the People's Army of Vietnam, first formed in the 1960s.

Vietnam War

U.S intelligence indicated that the 341st Division was operating in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone by August 1966.[1]

In mid-May 1968 the 341st was the target of Operation Mameluke Thrust launched by the 1st Marine Division in the Happy Valley area southwest of Danang, however the 341st did not engage the Marines.[2]

For the 1975 Spring Offensive, the 341st formed part of the VPA 4th Corps with the 6th and 7th Divisions.[3]:116 On 9 April 1975, the 4th Corps attacked the ARVN 18th Division around the strategic city of Xuân Lộc part of the last defensive line before Saigon.[4] The 18th Division withstood the initial NVA attacks and on 12 April were reinforced by men of the elite 1st Airborne Brigade and Vietnamese Marines.[5] By 16 April the battle was turning in favour of the NVA and on 19 April the ARVN General Staff ordered the units defending Xuân Lộc to withdraw to defend Biên Hòa.[6] On the afternoon of 22 April the headquarters of the 341st near Xuân Lộc was hit by a CBU-55 bomb dropped from a Vietnam Air Force C-130, killing over 250 soldiers.[7] The VPA 4th Corps pushed on towards Biên Hòa and at 5pm on 26 April they attacked Bien Hoa Air Base and Long Bình.[8] By the morning of April 28 troops from the 4th Corps overran ARVN positions at the eastern end of the Newport Bridge.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Coan, James (2004). Con Thien: The Hill of Angels. University of Alabama Press. p. 44. ISBN 0-8173-1414-8.
  2. ↑ Shulimson, Jack (1997). U.S. Marines in Vietnam: 1968 The Defining Year. History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps. ISBN 0-16-049125-8.:338–9
  3. ↑ Dougan, Clark; Fulgham, David (1985). The Vietnam Experience: The Fall of the South. Boston Publishing Company. ISBN 0-939526-16-6.
  4. ↑ Dougan, p. 116.
  5. ↑ Dougan, p. 117.
  6. ↑ Dougan, p. 129-34.
  7. ↑ Dougan, p. 140.
  8. ↑ Dougan, p. 154.
  9. ↑ Dougan, p. 155.