Alcala concluded that it was an attempt by the Viet Cong to recover bodies. A full archive of past and present "River Currents" newsletters from your friends at MRFA. For the Wild Ones of the 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry, and the attached troops, the action had confirmed what they believed all along: that given the opportunity, they could whip anybody. he added along with the bad news of damage to helicopters and three Then a helicopter came in to pick up the wounded; the second helicopter came in and was shot down.. Clusters of coconut trees abounded and mangrove clumps generally straddled one of the many waterways that traversed the area. [1]:106, On the morning of 19 June 3 Companies of the 4/47th Infantry were landed 4km southeast of Cn Giuc, 2 Companies of the 3/47th Infantry were landed 1.6km south of Cn Giuc while the ARVN 2/46th Infantry was landed near Ap Bac. '&charset='+document.charset : (document.characterSet ? The Battle of Ap Bac was a major battle fought on January 3, 1963, during the Vietnam War. It was fought in Dinh Tuong Province (now part of Tin Giang Province ), South Vietnam. On December 28, 1962, U.S. intelligence detected the presence of a radio transmitter along with a sizable force of National Front for We had great food, great company; it was just wonderful. 1 June 1967: MRB arrives at Dong Tam. Heller paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts before he continued. a. MACV MDMAF concept postulated a maximum radius of 50 KM from MRB. Then, without pausing, they ran along the entire length of the dike, which had foxholes every five meters or so, to take out the enemy positions one by one. Explore our Navy section: awards, stories, points of interest, origin of navy terminology and much, much more! During the battle of Ap Bau Bang II, the Americans claimed to have killed at least 227 VC and captured 3, as well as much equipment and weapons. They assumed more VC had died because of the existence of blood trails, indicating that the dead had been taken away by their colleagues. :135 We have buried your dead and taken care of your wounded from this battle.[7]. We welcome content contributions! They captured a youth riding a water buffalo who admitted that he belonged to the Viet Congs 514th Battalion (a provincial main force unit of excellent reputation), and had been sent to observe the Americans approaching from the west. We looked across the field and saw a lot of bodies, recalled platoon chaplain Charlie Zies. 0000000939 00000 n Were all so close; these are brothers. Due to the nature of the battle and the abundant use of automatic weapons on armored vehicles, two and in some cases three basic loads of .50-caliber and 7.62mm. of State, World War I and the 7th ARVN Division, on own initiative, started on 26 July the most ambitious campaign for years. Saigon, January 7; Department of State, Central Files, 951K.6211/1-763) newsmen spread the word to American public that GVN forces wont fight and, on the other hand, do not We continued to pour fire into his position and to inch forward, taking best advantage of the cover. Report. The first true battle of the Vietnam War was Ap Bac. Company A, 3/60th, which had been behind but south of Company B, continued to advance along the stream and the road which formed the line of contact farther to the east. An abandoned railway ran parallel to and thirty meters east of the highway. The concern of fire falling in the fire support base was so great that it was decided briefly not to attack. xref The entire crew was wounded and evacuated. That is a huge, huge loss., Lieutenant Heller and his fellow soldiers in . On 20 June 4/47th Infantry searched south of the ambush area locating a VC force north of the Rach Gion Ong stream at Ap Nam and assisted by a Company from the 2nd Battalion, 60th Infantry, wiped out a VC Platoon. It was a terrible day for the 4th of the 47th.. Moving aggressively, the company closed on the enemy, killed several and forced the others to flee to the north. Series, History of the Captured major caches of weapons, ammo, rice and medical supplies. 5-September 1967: Relocate to Dong Tam. command which never placed a Vietnamese officer above the rank of Explore a glossary of terms, manuals, statistics, historical accounts and reports, maps and articles by MRFA members. escaped with minor losses. The break we were looking for finally came on the right (southern) flank, where the platoon was coming along the stream line. Thirteen men had died in the little pasture and many more had been wounded. While these deployments were being made, the 3/47th continued to alternate intense artillery fire and air strikes the enemy position, thus effectively preventing most of them from escaping. Reason, increase in Viet Cong attacks on commercial shipping in Long Tau channel in early February. By noontime, troops of the the Wild Ones had reached and searched as far north as objective Queen without contact or major incident. This time, darkness would provide no convenient cover for their escape. (SACSA Briefing, April 24; Department of Following this operation the aircraft would pass to the 3/47th for a similar operation. [6] The attackers were followed by a line of unarmed troops carrying ropes and wires with hooks to recover the fallen communists. The ARVN were decisively defeated. This placed the battalion in a perfect position to attack the flank of the enemy which was engaging the 3/47th. Despite the disparity of numbers and weapons, the Viet Since no officers could be identified among the enemy dead, except for the battalion surgeon, there was reason to suspect that these key people may have moved out earlier in the day, and possibly were some of those that had been encountered by Company B. Concurrently, the other companies of the battalion where dispersed to the east and north of the stream, with the mission of blocking any escaping enemy. Please sign the MRFA guestbook! Vietnam, April-Dec. 1963), The Department of State and the White House expressed concern over the (Initially 3rd-Bn 47th Inf then 4th-Bn, 47th Inf) Learn about the association, Board Members, Officers, and download a membership application form! At 07:00 the final air strike and artillery rounds were fired. 2 May 1967: Battle of Ap Bac, not riverine, but most significant battle fought to date by 2nd Brigade. For the Viet Cong, the Battle of Ap Bac marked the first time they decided to stand and fight a large South Vietnamese formation, although outnumbered by more than five to one. On the north and south was a line of dense coconut trees and undergrowth. Electronic resources for U.S. foreign relations, Copyright It could prevent disaster, if necessary, but its chances of successfully attacking south along the stream were slim, since semi-darkness was already covering the area. Learning that elements of the 3/47th were in contact, and anticipating that his battalion would become involved, the commanding officer of the 3/60th ordered company B to move toward the area of contact, followed by Company A. WebOn January 2, 1963, regular army and civil guard forces of the Republic of Vietnam engaged a Viet Cong battalion at the village of Ap Bac in Dinh Tuong province, 35 miles southwest 2. thus this was not a real and valid test test of operating radius. Later a switch was made and the aircraft attack runs were made from east to west on the south and southwest sides of the perimeter. Marion. The two platoons in the rice until they could gain fire superiority, then moving again. Wheeler Mission, Mansfield Report, Comprehensive Plan, Thompson Three American advisers were killed in the Sheehan, Current These are all my friends., Wyoming ranks third best place to raise a dog, Governor praises Sholly for Park flood response, Big and little have been partnered for eight years, 128 South Bent StreetPowell, WY 82435 Alcala sent his 2nd Platoon commanded by First Lieutenant Harlan E. Short to establish an ambush along the trail at a point 1.5km north of the fire support base and approximately 350 meters west of Route 13. discipline in battle. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam, was forwarded to President The Americans reported their battle losses at 3 killed and 63 wounded. Howitzers in direct support of each assaulting company, and under the control of the commanders concerned. La bataille de Coral-Balmoral (12 mai - 6 juin 1968), est un engagement entre la Premire force oprationnelle australienne et la 7e division d'infanterie nord-vietnamienne soutenue par le Viet Cong , qui se droule prs de Lai Kh (en) 40 kilomtres au nord-est de Sagon . Then when the fire lifted to the rear of the enemy, to block his escape positions, the infantry would assault before the enemy could recover. '&charset='+document.characterSet : '')); The United States Army Command in the Pacific reported the battle to the Country Series, 1/63) Lieutenant Colonel John P. Vann, senior United [5], The communists troops on the southwest portion of the base perimeter were mobbing some of the APCs. 5-17 August 1967: RSSZ operations. } Because of a shortage of transportation, the 3/47th was delayed, and did not move until later. The personnel carriers of Company C, 5/60th, having a longer distance to travel, and having two fairly deep streams to cross, did not close Company As position until approximately 1530. Department, Buildings of the 59, Files of the Office of Public Opinion Studies, U.S. Policy on S. American intelligence analysts believed that the whole regiment participated. A relatively small engagement that had major media, political, and policy implications, the Battle of Ap Bac took place between Viet Cong (VC) and Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) forces on January 2, 1963. There is no question that, had the 2nd Brigade waited until dark, the enemy force, or most of it, would have slipped out. The 3d Platoon of C Troop, moved up Route 13 from their position five kilometers to the south, driving through a barrage of fire before reaching the base perimeter at 01:27. Because of that, we knew each other very well, and kept in touch with each other. The perimeter was manned on the west by the 1st Platoon, commanded by First Lieutenant Roger A. Festa and to the east by the 3rd Platoon under Second Lieutenant Hiram M. Wolfe, IV.[3]. Infantry Division, January 9; JCS Files) No doubt, some escaped in the fading light. Anything and everything that couldn't fit in any of the other categories. if (document.context) document.write ("&context=" + escape(document.context)); D. Wheeler, General Earle 20-22 August 1967: MRF Conducts Recon in force into Parrots Beak area of LONG AN Province (along VAM CO DONG River above BEN LUC-also known ORIENTAL RIVER). //]]>-->, Alpha Company walked into a batallion-sized ambush, said Powell resident and Army veteran Jim Heller. He fell and I said, Crawl back to me. He said, Charlie, Charlie, hold my hand. I held his hand, his body started quivering and then he died. It was as hoped that in this manner the tracked vehicles could compensate for the lack of a blocking force. During the battle, 29 US air strikes delivered 29 tons of ordnance, and American artillery fired nearly 3,000 rounds. Two companies of the 3/60th were at the jump-off point, the 3/47th was en route but had not yet arrived, and one company of the 3/60th was sitting in the brigade area at Dong Tam without transportation. After fighting its way through the houses along the stream, it arrived at a position just short of the enemys main defense line. At first this was sporadic sniper fire which did little to slow the advance of this unit. Keeping low, the squad moved across a short space of open grassland to a small dike, where it prepared to cover the crossing of the rest of the platoon. (Telegram CAP Get the recipe! zoneId = '3'; Advancing without halting under cover of the terrific fire they were putting down, they rapidly closed up to the wooded area. There was no way to avoid some of this fire falling into positions held by elements of the 3/47th and even as far back as the fire support base. Thank you for stopping by. By 1600, everything was ready for the coordinated attack. 21 May 1967: 4th Bn 47th Infantry relieved RSSZ mission, proceeds to Dong Tam and OnCon 2nd Brigade. [7], Following the battle, General Hay wrote a propaganda letter to the 9th Vietcong Division commander, taunting him about the communist defeat. From Albert's Peach Cobbler to an Irish Chicken Dinner, we have them all! We knew they were there. Farther to the north (about 30 meters) was another dike, parallel to the one behind which the dead lay. Click most pictures to enlarge. The APC operators decided to fire their canisters on each other to remove the Viet Cong, as they were too close for an APC to clear from itself. Occasionally the throaty whine of an armored personnel carrier would rend the eerie darkness momentarily as the carrier jockeyed on the battlefield. On the north, the mechanized company moved forward at about ten miles an hour in a general line, while hosing down the countryside with .50 caliber-fire. WebThis was the plan finally coordinated on the evening of 1 May 1967. General Harkins noted that the South Encapsulating the great terrors, mistakes, ironies, and courageous acts of the Vietnam War, The Battle of Ap Bac recounts the clash in which the Viet Cong first won their spurs. 0000002715 00000 n Festa's track was hit, wounding his sergeant, as fire came in from the west. Vietnam, filed an after-action report on the Ap Bac operation which 0000004946 00000 n The attacking force was stopped within 15m of the perimeter. If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free web account by clicking here. It was apparent that the climax was rapidly approaching. "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, For he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother." As they held their cigarettes their hands shook from the terrific nervous tensions they had been under. Click most pictures to enlarge. There was much shouting and hollering as leaders tried to find their men, ascertain their status and reorganize for the night. We served more like the people that trained in WWII. This past June 19 marked the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Ap Bac. indicated that the Viet Cong attributed their success at Ap Bac to Company A, 3/60th, had moved forward several kilometers from the line of departure in order to remain in supporting distance of the forward companies. However, throughout the area, the small streams could be crossed only at certain points. Finally, the battle has proven the wisdom of the axiom; once you have an enemy force in a trap, destroy it without delay. adequately report GVN victories which document.write ("&loc=" + escape(window.location)); Americans lost, there is good news which you may not read about in The Washington Post. He pointed to a number of 0000002958 00000 n This was the plan finally coordinated on the evening of 1 May 1967. Powered by Creative Circle Media Solutions. Calling for artillery fire and air support, the commander attempted to maneuver his company across the stream. WebThe Battle of Ap Bac was to have been a routine heliborne operation into the rice rich Mekong Delta. memorandum prepared for the President by the Joint Staff of the Joint If we were going to win, the enemy must soon begin to break and run. The brigade commander ordered the assault as soon as the air strike, then in progress, was finished. are occurring more frequently. (National Defense University, Taylor Papers, T-182-67). Originally, our 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, had been promised two helicopter companies for the operation; however, late on the day before the operation began, one of these was withdrawn. Some rice had been found, more proof that Viet Cong had been in the area. The battalion commander of the 3/60th Infantry intended to move his unit forward by stages before making the final assault. They developed a deep caring for each other and their mission.. [5] Several Viet Cong who attempted to remove the .50-caliber machine gun from one of the burning tracks of Festa's unit were killed, as were others trying to storm the foxholes containing the wounded. Then moving again, ammo, rice and medical supplies and Army veteran Jim Heller points interest. Pasture and many more had been in the area, the commander attempted to maneuver his company the. An armored personnel carrier would rend the eerie darkness momentarily as the carrier on! 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