Battle of Gio Linh

The Battle of Gio Linh was a battle between forces of the Comintern and Allied Powers during the starting stages of the Third World War. The battle was a major engagement and the first major battle which took place in the Vietnamese theatre of the conflict. Chiefly, the battle was largely fought between forces of the Republic of Vietnam and Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the forces of South Vietnam were largely supported and assisted by other allied countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, and the United States which aided in the defence of Gio Linh and the routing of the North Vietnamese forces across the Vietnamese Demilitarised Zone which was in turn established as a frontline against the Comintern forces and vice versa. The engagement was originally a skirmish between the border crossing detachment of around 5,000 reconnaissance forces under the North Vietnamese Army, which led to the South Vietnamese Army deploying nearby operational reserve forces towards the border in order to vanguard and protect it from any NVA incursions into South Vietnamese territory until further reinforcements would arrive to the northern border garrison located at Gio Linh, further reinforcements arrived several hours later by helicopter aerial deployment and the use of rapid response strategy in order to defend the settlement from any supposed attacks, the South Vietnamese forces began to entrench and fortify Gio Linh and set up a larger field base within the surrounding area to cover the region with a system of incomplete and half-hearted erected trenches and fortifications in order to deter and delay the NVA from continuing their frontal attacks on the settlement.
The following day on May 24, 1965. Some days after the Third World War broke out between the newly reformed Allied Powers and the Comintern Powers, the North Vietnamese Army gathered on the northern border across the demilitarised zone in which the gathering of forces were largely concealed within the dense jungle in order to ensure that any scouting aircraft and that the forces located along the demilitarised zone were unable to detect any hostile movement. Later, a force of around 55,000 total estimated NVA infantry forces were put under the control of Hoàng Văn Thái, in which the North Vietnamese commander in charge of the offensive operation mustered the strength through militia and nearby assets of the NVA in total comprising of 55,000 soldiers, although the concealment of the obnoxiously large 55,000 strong NVA force was detected by the South Vietnamese stationed along the DMZ, which prompted alarms to the South Vietnamese military high command, in which a sanctioned call for assistance was made for the call to arms from nations allied within the nearby region. During the same time, Hoàng Văn Thái ordered his forces to cross the heavily guarded DMZ through several directions, eventually breaking through the fortified DMZ and reaching the town of Gio Linh, in which Hoàng Văn Thái's forces were gathered and organised to concentrate their offensive efforts upon the town and the surrounding South Vietnamese-Allied forward operating base.
Largely formidable, equipped, fiercely determined and highly motivated. The forces under control of Hoàng Văn Thái commenced the offensive following the night, around 1 AM on the 25th, the forces of the North Vietnamese Army within the area, 55,000 strong began their night time attack against the South Vietnamese-Allied positions located at Gio Linh, the NVA underestimated the willpower and defensive capabilities the heavily fortified town maintained which cost the forces of the North Vietnamese Army dearly, shortly after the NVA began their assault upon the outpost, Allied air and artillery assets began to bombard and strike at advancing North Vietnamese forces on the outskirts of Gio Linh, the North Vietnamese also suffered heavy casualties when engaging the South Vietnamese in direct frontal close quarters combat, which largely depleted their manpower as the South Vietnamese was well prepared for the oncoming attack and were largely more professionalised than the NVA forces were in regards of their combat training and experience with fighting Communist guerrillas across the south before the outbreak of hostilities. The North Vietnamese were then repulsed from the outpost and the north of the town, after suffering significantly large casualties and losses of equipment in the process, the North Vietnamese forces resorted to bombarding the town mortar and artillery fire to support the tactical withdraw of the NVA units which remained under orders delivered by Hoàng Văn Thái. Ultimately the NVA's first attempt failed, but it showcased many exposed chokepoints within the South Vietnamese lines which could be exploited in the next planned attack in order to seize control over Gio Linh. Many injured North Vietnamese soldiers which were left behind as the remaining NVA forces retreated were recovered by the South Vietnamese and were tended to their injuries whilst also giving important military information in return for their treatments, nevertheless however, many North Vietnamese prisoners refused to give in, and some were unaware of any information as they were simply regular soldiers, this caused a sizable amount of NVA prisoners to be summarily executed.
On the 26th, the South Vietnamese positions were largely and speedily resupplied and supported by a joint expeditionary force of American, South Korean, Malaysian, Thai, Filipino, Indonesian British, Australian and New Zealander units which quickly reacted and gathered in response of the attacks undertaken by the North Vietnamese, further air support was provided by both air and naval air support which flew more close air support sorties against NVA positions deep within the Vietnamese jungle, the Allied air units were also engaged by both Vietnam People's Air Force and the People's Liberation Army Air Force within the skies above Gio Linh, although the joint Vietnamese-Chinese air units were quashed by both Allied anti-air and fighter-interceptor aircraft which engaged in a dogfight against the Comintern forces and quickly gained the upper hand, with this disruption however, the North Vietnamese Army amassed a large force which was reorganised following the defeat sustained in the first attempt, the North Vietnamese forces began to attack supposedly weakened chokepoints which were now reinforced and manned by the multinational relief forces which were a stopgap for the North Vietnamese to breakthrough and seize control over Gio Linh, after the realisation that taking Gio Linh was impossible, and that the NVA forces were largely killed, captured and injured by these attempts, it was decided by Hoàng Văn Thái, the director and commander of the operation that all remaining North Vietnamese forces were scattered and were forced to be routed across the demilitarised zone, as Hoàng Văn Thái now attempted to lure the Allied forces to his positions and as such, the North Vietnamese began to dig a network of systematic tunnel systems which provided defence against both aerial and artillery bombardments upon their positions, this plan worked and the NVA forces were then reinforced north of the DMZ with armoured and mobile assets in order to deter the advance of the Allied forces into the north, the Chinese military also assured North Vietnam that an expeditionary force of the PLA would be sent to fight and aid in the defence of North Vietnam, the Korean People's Army also agreed to send a detachment of their military forces to come to the defence of North Vietnam. The battle ended with the Allied forces winning a decisive victory, and further battles along the former DMZ continued as the are was heavily entrenched and fortified elastically by both combatant factions.
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