On the land side, the 'Street Without Joy' was preceded by another, less well-defined line of villages, the centre of which was Van Trinh. Surroundings The 1st Cavalry Division supported by the 14th Engineer Battalion is conducting Operation Open Housing to eliminate VC sanctuaries, 15 July 1968 Close to 20 miles long and more than 300 yards wide, this zone of villages constituted the heart of the Communist resistance zone along the central Annam coast.

had spent more than two years fortifying the villages with an interlocking system of trenches and tunnels, underground arms depots, and first-aid stations. Each village forms a veritable little labyrinth that measures barely more than 200 feet by 300 feet and is surrounded by bushes, hedges or bamboo trees, and small fences which made ground as well as aerial surveillance almost impossible. This zone is followed by the 'Street Without Joy' itself, fringed by a rather curious system of interlocking villages separated one from the other by often less than 200 to 300 yards. Then comes a zone of about 800 meters deep entirely covered with small pagodas or tombs and temples, which offer excellent protection to any defenders. A few fishing villages are precariously perched in the dune zone, which in certain places has a depth of more than two kilometers. However, a bare 100 meters beyond began the dunes, varying in height from 15 to 60 feet, very hard to climb and ending on the land side in veritable ditches or precipices. The first was the coastline itself, fairly straight, covered with hard sand and offering no particular difficulties. He described the terrain encountered by the French in Operation Camargue as follows:įrom the coast looking inland, the zone of operations divided itself into seven distinct natural strips of land. The area was made known to an English-speaking audience in the book Street Without Joy by Bernard B. įrench colonial forces carried out a major attack on the Street Without Joy in Operation Camargue in July–August 1953. The Viet Minh had fortified a string of villages along a line of sand dunes and salt marshes between Route 1 and the South China Sea and used these bases to launch ambushes on convoys passing on Route 1 and on the adjacent Hanoi-Saigon railway line which together formed the principal lines of communication between northern and southern Vietnam.

Street Without Joy or La Rue Sans Joie was the name given by troops of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps to the stretch of Route 1 from Huế to Quảng Trị during the First Indochina War. For the film, see Street Without Joy (film). wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Wunder_Beach,_May_1968.For the book, see Street without Joy (book).wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Vietnam_Service_Medal_ribbon.svg.dbr:File:Vietnam_Service_Medal_ribbon.svg.dbc:Buildings_and_structures_in_Quảng_Trị_province.dbc:Installations_of_the_United_States_Army_in_South_Vietnam.dbr:501st_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States).dbr:1st_Cavalry_Division_(United_States).dbr:Republic_of_Vietnam_Marine_Division.wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/Wunder_Beach,_May_1968.jpg?width=300.Army logistics and supply base along the coast east of Quảng Trị and northwest of Huế. Wunder Beach (also known as Wonder Beach, Utah Beach and Sunder Beach) is a former U.S.

Wunder Beach vietnam war