Meanwhile, Company A, 3/60th, was formed up and waiting at the helicopter pickup site for the promised company of choppers. Darkness finally came to the rice paddies of Dien Thoung Province in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, but it came slowly. The monument of the 1963 Ap Bac Battle is located not far west of My Tho and makes for a very interesting visit for the hirtoty traveler. Operation Bribie, or the Battle of Ap My An, was fought during the Vietnam War in Phuoc Tuy province between Australian forces from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) and the Viet Cong, reinforced by North Vietnamese regulars. Wolfe's men fired and the Viet Cong stopped, having struck one American vehicle's gun. It was also planned to place a battery of 105-mm. 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]. Explore our catalog and purchase official MRFA gear here. The South Vietnamese troops suffered approximately 80 killed and more than 100 wounded in a battle that might have been, but was not, a decisive one against the Viet Cong. Calling for artillery fire and air support, the commander attempted to maneuver his company across the stream. An abandoned railway ran parallel to and thirty meters east of the highway. Alpha Company moved in and unloaded in some rice paddies and our boats moved back out on the river as fire support. [4], The communists increased their intensity and two M113s were hit directly, wounding several Americans and destroying the vehicle. Learn about the association, Board Members, Officers, and download a membership application form! Farther to the north (about 30 meters) was another dike, parallel to the one behind which the dead lay. Explore our Navy section: awards, stories, points of interest, origin of navy terminology and much, much more! Click most pictures to enlarge. At the Battle of Ap Bac, in January 1963, a force of 1,500 South Vietnamese, despite superior firepower, was decimated by a few hundred Vietcong. 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. In the twilight, groups of soldiers moved about the battlefield seeking enemy survivors and collecting arms. The Battle of Ap Gu occurred during 31 March and 1 April 1967 during Operation Junction City, a search and destroy mission by American military forces in Tay Ninh Province of South Vietnam, to the west of the capital Saigon. At the direction of Alcala, the platoon swept 1.5 km south of the defenders along the rubber tree line. The battle of Ap Bac was by itself a relatively minor skirmish. Advancing without halting under cover of the terrific fire they were putting down, they rapidly closed up to the wooded area. Meanwhile, the battalion commander of the 3/60th was experiencing great difficulty in getting the artillery fire support needed for his assaulting companies. The enemy has demonstrated time and again that merely killing his troops does us little or no good, for he is able to quickly recruit more. 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. By Michael A. Snider The worst battle for Alpha Company was on Fathers Day, 19 June 1967 while on a battalion size operation near Ap Bac Village. Always for the "Under Dog". Several personnel carriers were hit and several troops killed and wounded. This was prompted in part by the need to get as close to the enemy as possible before assaulting, plus the necessity of crossing the tracked vehicles over the two tracked vehicles, would continue to advance by using fire and maneuver within the platoons to destroy individual enemy positions as they were discovered. The rest of the company dug in on the south side of the stream and continued to blast the area with fire from artillery and small arms. [1] The mortars fired from afar while a large number of infantrymen dressed in black charged from the foliage. However, by this time all elements of the 3/60th had closed the final assault line and were beginning to meet enemy fire. [3], Fire Support Base 20 was located in relatively flat terrain 1.5 km north of the village of Ap Bau Bang and immediately west of Route 13. At 11:50 on March 19, 1967, A Troop, 3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment, commanded by Captain Raoul H. Alcala deployed within the perimeter of Fire Support Base 20. Company A was to move by trucks furnished by the brigade besides organic vehicles form the battalion, and upon arrival would go into battalion reserve near the line of departure. Almost form the moment it crossed the line of departure, it had begun to meet fire. As they held their cigarettes their hands shook from the terrific nervous tensions they had been under. 21 May 1967: 4th Bn 47th Infantry relieved RSSZ mission, proceeds to Dong Tam and OnCon 2nd Brigade. It soon became apparent that the craft would be delayed, and after a wait of more than an hour, the battalion was notified that the helicopters would not arrive because of a tactical emergency elsewhere. While these operations were being carried out, the gunship, which has been constantly circling the area, reported a Viet Cong force of company size moving across the fields to the northeast. Become a member of MRFA! Ap Bac Battlefield. In addition, some men were having trouble with their rifles, due to the terrific volume of the fire they were pouring out. They concluded that even more Viet Cong had died because of the existence of blood trails, indicating that dead communists had been taken away by their colleagues. The real outcome of the battle at Bac was sobering. The letter was translated into Vietnamese, and leaflets were dropped into the communist area. By now, fire from all sides was intense, but despite this, several men of the platoon crawled forward to aid the wounded, only to die themselves. Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954) The defeat was a harsh psychological blow to the French. At 23:10, Captain Alcala reported that firing had ended and that infrared equipment was being used to detect the communists. One enemy soldier was beaten to death by a soldier who used his steel helmet, and another was stabbed to death, thus indicating the ferocity of the assault. The battle near the border with Cambodia left 609 Viet Cong (VC) killed acc May 17, 1945 to August 03, 1967 BORIS R BENTLEY is on the Wall at Panel 24E, Line 70 SGT BORIS ROMAN BENJAMIN BENTLEY . For the 1967–1968 dry season, II Field Force, Vietnam planned to mount a large-scale offensive to cut the three main infiltration routes into III Corps from Cambodia. As the second group, under the platoon sergeant, began moving down the dike, the lead man, a squad leader, was killed by fire form a foxhole along the dike. To the south of the position was a rubber plantation, while wooded areas were prominent to the north and west. This killed the communists, but in one case, Viet Cong mortar hit simultaneously, blowing up the APC, killing one and injuring many others. Some light small arms fire had been met by the southern-most platoon advancing along the stream, but the enemy had quickly withdrawn when his fire was returned. The two platoons in the rice until they could gain fire superiority, then moving again. At about this time, Company A succeeded in getting a squad across the stream under cover of supporting fire. Links to friends, affiliates and other sites you should visit! 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. Three VC were killed and the others fled to the south. The Battle of Ap Bac January 2, 1963 Game Design: Paul Rohrbaugh The battalion commander of the 3/60th Infantry intended to move his unit forward by stages before making the final assault. Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha received his medal in February. The Viet Cong started their attack ten minutes later, and they were met with artillery fire, cluster bomb units, napalm and 500 pound bombs. It had proved once again that the American fighting man, when well trained and aggressive, is the finest in the world. 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