Within the opening minute of the fire-fight the Southern forces suffered 30 percent casualties and were refusing to return effective fire; the remainder cowering behind the low paddy walls, as their wounded bled out in the open fields. Besides, how could they be getting it wrong in Vietnam if the White House was staffed by the ‘Best and the Brightest’ of their generation? It was the narrative of the time and one that few wanted to ‘lift the lid’ on the conventional wisdom that US Advisors would help the ARVN win this war in three years (by 1965).What wasn’t highlighted was how, for the first time, the VC dug in and stood and fought, in large numbers (around 350) and survived the US dive bombers, the napalm, the daisy cutter bombs, the helicopter gunships and their mini-guns, and the APC cavalry charges.Even more of a shock was how the VC now had developed new tactics for shooting down helicopters, using captured machine guns, before withdrawing under the cover of darkness. The battle took place on January 2, 1963, near the hamlet of Ap Bac, 65km (40 miles) southwest of Saigon in the Mekong Delta. The intent of the operation was to drive out the VC who had survived the earlier Ap Bac engagement. Ap Bac Victory Tien Giang.jpg 300 × 424; 43 KB. Thus, due to his strong leadership skills and popularity, Hoang was selected to take command of VC forces for operations in Ap Bac.In the days before the battle, Hoang anticipated a major attack from the South Vietnamese government, as VC intelligence agents in Dinh Tuong had reported the arrival of 71 truckloads of ammunition and other supplies from Saigon, about 65 kilometers (40 mi) to the northeast.At 04:00 on the morning of 2 January, VC scouts around the hamlets of Ap Bac and Ap Tan Thoi reported hearing the sounds of truck and boat engines, so Hoang issued an alert order which prompted his troops to pick up their weapons and hurry to their foxholes.As planned, the first Civil Guard battalion of Task Force A started north towards Ap Bac.North of Ap Tan Thoi, three companies of the ARVN 11th Infantry Regiment fared no better.
Battle of Ap Bac January 2, 1963 Plan and Assumed Enemy Situation. At that point, South Vietnamese M113 crews backed off while firing their .50 caliber machine guns aimlessly into the sky.In a last-ditch effort to overrun the VC's stronghold, an M113 equipped with a flamethrower was sent forward to within 100 meters (330 ft) of the VC position to fire the western tree line. The 173rd and 175th companies blocked the far western position side as Task Force C, but it was not committed to battle. WHAT WENT WRONG The Battle of Ap Bac January 2, 1963. Small-scale military actions, which would eventually escalate into the Vietnam War, started in the late 1950s, when South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem instituted an anti-Communist campaign aimed at rooting out "left behind" Viet Minh forces. Because at the time the senior reporters, especially those back in DC, wanted to support President Kennedy. He also argued that sending the 13 M113 armored personnel carriers through the Cong Ba Ky Canal would enable the VC to retreat because it might take too much time. Great value for the price. Though most later withdrew from the hamlet during the night, they had turned back a larger force equipped with That refers to the US-backed forces, who had all 3.I don't know about you all, but I think this is one heck of an article. The remainder of the squad trampled over them in slow motion as they sought to find cover.The helicopter gunships made strafing runs up and down the VC tree line with their M134 Gatling guns but to little effect.

Ultimately, their presence made little difference as the VC stood its ground and killed more than a dozen South Vietnamese M113 crew members in the process. ARVN troops immediately poured out of the rear cabin doorway. The Battle of Ap Bac used to be a little known, or understood, battle of the Vietnam War. I am just presenting information on both side of the same subject with the objective is to give credit to the right people (that's my definition of history). Battlefield at Ap Bac.jpg 441 × 234; 29 KB. Ziegler's plan, codenamed Operation On previous occasions, US intelligence had tracked down the location of Viet Cong radio transmitters, but those were often relocated before the South Vietnamese launched their attacks, so Ziegler privately questioned if the VC had as many as 120 soldiers in Ap Tan Thoi.Previously, leadership of the 261st Battalion alternated between Hoang, a South Vietnamese revolutionary who had returned from North Vietnam after 1954, and Tu Khue, who was a native of North Vietnam. South Vietnamese casualties included 83 killed in action and at least 100 wounded.For the VC, the Battle of Ap Bac marked the first time they stood and fought a large South Vietnamese formation—despite being outnumbered by more than five to one. The opening paragraph has a link that looks like it goes to an article about the eponymous hamlet. In this battle, several battalions of South Vietnamese forces—overseen by American advisers, outfitted with armored personnel carriers, and transported by helicopters—failed to dislodge several hundred entrenched Viet Cong troops, who later fled under the cover of darkness. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s featured it in Episode 2 of their documentary The Vietnam War, and now it is the focus of the latest Vietnam War novel, True North.The battle itself took place in the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta on 2 January 1963 (see map below) and was a portent for the eventual failure in South Vietnam. When reporter The South Vietnamese units that participated in the battle took heavy losses in their failed attempt to destroy the VC forces. They marched south in three separate axes towards their objective. Learn more. Task Force A consisted of the 174th, 842nd and 892nd companies, and Task Force B was formed by the 171st, 172nd and 839th companies. This behavior initially mystified Vann, who was attempting to build Cao into an aggressive commander.In 1962, Diem decided to split the command of the area in the south around Saigon into two, the former III Corps area being reduced in size to cover the area northeast of Saigon, and the newly created In November 1962, the VC's Military Region 2 ordered the VC 261st Battalion and the 514th Battalion, the home battalion of Dinh Tuong Province, to destroy the strategic hamlets in their region and at the same time to attack South Vietnamese sweeping operations.An operations plan suited for an attack on a small enemy formation was drafted by Ziegler, who was an adviser to Dam and the command staff of the 7th Infantry Division.

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