The Khmer Rouge On Koh Tang
Unknown to the Americans then converging on Koh Tang, none of the Mayaguez crew was on the island and it was heavily defended by over 100 Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge defenses on Koh Tang were intended to counter the Vietnamese, not the Americans. Following the Fall of Saigon, the Vietnam People's Army moved quickly to take control of a number of islands formerly controlled by South Vietnam and other islands contested between Vietnam and Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge commander of Kampong Som District, Em Son, was also given responsibility for securing Koh Tang and on 1 May he took a force of 100 men to Koh Tang to defend the island against attack by the Vietnamese. Sa Mean was given responsibility for the defense of Poulo Wai.
On the East Beach two heavy machine guns had been dug in at each end of the beach and fortified firing positions had been built every 20 metres behind a sand berm connected by a shallow zig-zag trench. Two M60 machine guns, B-40 rockets and two DK-82 mortar/grenade launchers were in the firing positions. On the West Beach a heavy machine gun, an M-60, B-40 rockets and a 75 mm recoilless rifle were dug into connected firing positions. North of each beach was a 60 mm mortar and south of the beaches was an 81 mm mortar that could fire on either beach. Ammunition was stored in dug-in bunkers one behind each beach, with a third ammunition dump located near Em Son's command post in the jungle south of the beaches.
Read more about this topic: Mayaguez Incident
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