Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS
number of the scarce French aircraft. A Vietminh artillery
bombardment on 10 March 1954 initiated the direct attack on
Dien Bien Phu and within four days closed the garrison’s
airstrips. Meanwhile, the Communists assaulted the French
positions as they fended off French air attacks.
The air portion of the battle saw French aircraft duel Communist
flak. Communist antiaircraft guns, 16 Vietminh and 64
Chinese, forced French aircraft higher and higher and disrupted
the accuracy of both weapons and supply delivery. Thus, the
Vietminh countered French aerial firepower and forced more
than 50 percent of French air-dropped supplies to miss their
mark and fall to the Communists. Radar-directed guns hit aircraft
flying as high as 10,000 feet. During the battle, the Vietminh
downed 48 French aircraft and damaged another 167.
More importantly, they cut off the fortress from the outside and
neutralized one of its most potent weapons. Thus, AAA played
a critical role in the decisive battle of the first Indochina War. 2
America Enters the War
American involvement in Indochina began in the 1950s,
with the dispatch of advisers and equipment. Again, the insurgents,
this time called Vietcong (VC), lacked air power. The
South Vietnamese used American helicopters, which gave
them a tactical advantage over the guerrillas; however, the
Communists employed discipline and .50-caliber machine guns
to counter the choppers, as they demonstrated during the December
1962 battle at Ap Bac. Despite the advantages of superior
numbers and helicopters in this encounter, the South
Vietnamese suffered heavy losses, including five helicopters
destroyed and 14 others hit. The VC continued to exact a
steady toll on the aircraft attacking them. On 24 November
1963 in An Xuyen province, for example, Communist ground
fire hit 25 aircraft and downed five. 3
The American presence and air activity steadily increased,
and with this increase came losses. The United States suffered
its first combat aircraft loss on 2 February 1962, when a C-123
flying a low-level training mission failed to return. The United
States lost 11 aircraft to hostile causes in 1962 and 23 aircraft
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