Campaign 74B

DATE: 27/03/2025

TIME (GMT): 19:00

ERA: Vietnam

MAP(S): Cam Lao Nam

TYPE: COOP

GAME: Arma 3

EVENT: Official

AUTHOR(S): Sclembi for Brothers in Arms

SLOTS: 61 / 70

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RATING: (11)

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A major theater of battle during the resulting Laotian Civil War was the Plain of Jars (PDJ). There Royalist Hmong guerrillas trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and backed by air power fought it out with People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) regulars. During 1969 and 1970, a series of seesaw battles were fought on and around the PDJ. Hmong General Vang Pao directed a series of offensives dependent on air superiority blasting a way for his guerrillas. The Communists staged their own counteroffensives. Vang Pao's Operation Pigfat and Operation Raindance were countered by the PAVN's Campaign Toan Thang. Vang Pao struck back with Operation Off Balance and Kou Kiet. The Communists retaliated with the massive combined arms Campaign 139, running from 13 September 1969 to 25 April 1970, which nearly won them the war. The aptly named monarchist Operation Counterpunch, fought from 26 September 1969 through 7 January 1971, barely kept the Royal Lao Government in the war.

Foul weather, unusual for February, hindered flight operations. Taking advantage of the cloud cover, a battalion from the 866th Independent Regiment and a company of 41st Dac Cong Battalion moved down the Nam Bleung Valley. On 7 February, they struck GM 22. With the huge Operation Lam Son 719 offensive beginning against the Ho Chi Minh Trail on 8 February in southern Laos, the fighting in northern Laos suddenly rated only 24 sorties of tactical air support per day. While the Communist battalion tied up the guerrilla regiment, 1st Company of the 27th Dac Cong Battalion infiltrated past those Royalists. Beginning at midnight 13 February, Dac Cong commandos took the major guerrilla base at Long Tieng under fire with a DK-82 recoilless rifle. This threat to the vital Royalist stronghold was diversion for another element of Dac Cong. This latter element had circled to move in from the south, headed toward the King's villa; they destroyed a 105 mm howitzer near it. The Dac Cong set up a mortar and began shelling Long Tieng. For the first time ever, the PAVN fired 122 mm and 140 mm rockets at the base. The chaotic situation was not helped by Vang Pao's overnight absence in Udorn, Thailand; the Hmong partisans of L'Armee Clandestine depended upon his orders.
If the paucity of air support were not problematic enough, on 14 February, an F-4 Phantom II inadvertently dropped cluster munitions on civilian dependents. Thirty Hmong women and children were killed; 170 wounded. A munitions dump, a mess hall, the CIA dormitory, all were struck. Vang Pao landed back at Long Tieng in the wake of this dispiriting disaster. Also arriving were two Thai mercenary battalions, Bataillon Commando 603 (BC 603) and Bataillon Commando 604 (BC 604) which were stationed on Skyline Ridge to ward off the Dac Cong sappers.

Poised to fend off any attack was Task Force Vang Pao, a reinforced regiment of Thai mercenaries. They occupied three static positions in and around the vital guerrilla base of Long Tieng in Military Region 2; they also manned four separate artillery positions for fire support. One of these artillery units, at Ban Na, was also occupied by Bataillon Infanterie 15 (BI 15). Bataillon Infanterie 17 (BI 17) from the allied Forces Armee Neutralistes (FAN) garrisoned the forward fighter base at Muang Soui. Then there were three guerrilla regiments available for mobile operations. A Royalist guerrilla regiment, Groupement Mobile 23 (GM 23), was stationed nearby. Groupement Mobile 21 (GM 21) had been stationed at the old Project Momentum base at Ban Padong to recuperate from service in Operation Counterpunch. A third partisan regiment, GM 22, was stationed near Tha Tham Bleung. The Thai mercenaries were nearing the end of their year's assignment in Laos — this fact would have its effect on the unfolding tactical situation.

Royalist guerillas are tasked with defending the area of PDJ from an incoming PAVN assault. It is up to the commander to decide how he tackles the task, the only concern is holding the Plain of Jars.