They even published images from the field of battle, including crippled American helicopters and armored vehicles. The Battle of Ap Bac was the first significant engagement between tenets of North and South Vietnam. However, when they reached the hamlet of Ap Bac, southeast of Ap Tan Thoi, they were immediately pinned down by elements of the VC 261st Battalion. The aircraft flipped over to the right and crashed. The Battle of Ap Bac was a major battle of the Vietnam War which was fought on 2 January 1963. The wave of reinforcement, including its helicopters, was decimated by the NLF. M113 Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle in Vietnam, 1966. The 7th Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, or ARVN, which was the military force of South Vietnam under the leadership of General Huynh Van Cao and American advisor Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann, engaged the 261st Main Force Battalion of the National Liberation Front, or NLF, the insurgent arm of North Vietnam. The Battle of Ap Bac II – The Mobile Riverine Force Association Ap Bac II was a different day for me – I felt my platoon should have been there, but we were on … Shortly afterwards, three companies of the 11th Infantry Regiment were committed into battle in northern Ap Tan Thoi, but they too could not overcome the NLF soldiers who had entrenched themselves in the area. While the ARVN fought valiantly in its first major engagement, the NLF was the true victor in holding its line, repelling a superior force and contributing to the beginning of the credibility gap. Boardgame Review. [38] It was later discovered that the crew had mixed the incorrect amount of jelling agent with the gasoline. battle was fought on January 2, 1963, 35 miles southwest of Saigon in the Mekong Delta in and around Ap Bac and Ap Tan Thoi hamlets in what was then Dinh Tuong Province (today Tien Giang Province) in the Republic of Vietnam (South). [14] It intercepted radio signals in the hamlet of Ap Tan Thoi in Dinh Tuong Province where the ARVN 7th Infantry Division was headquartered. [1], Despite the initial success of the Strategic Hamlet Program and the intensified military operations of 1962, the events at Ap Bac placed additional pressure on Diem's government because it showed it could not cope with the resurgence of the Viet Cong, particularly in the regions surrounding the Mekong River. Upon his return, Vann and his group of advisers were forced to end the joint planning sessions that had been so successful earlier, and action essentially wound down in their region. What Went Wrong: The Battle of Ap Bac, January 2, 1963. Khue was unpopular among the battalion's soldiers because he was known to be very strict and demanding. The eastern flank remained open, and he ordered both elements of the 261st and 514th Battalions, exhausted and low on ammunition, to assemble at the southern end of Ap Tan Thoi. The artillery rounds killed another five South Vietnamese soldiers and wounded fourteen others. [56], Arrival of the armored personnel carriers, The regiment were divided into three separate task forces for the operation against Ap Tan Thoi. Late in the afternoon, the ARVN 8th Airborne Battalion was dropped onto the battlefield and in a scene that characterized much of the day's fighting; the paratroopers were pinned down and could not break the NLF's line of defense. The paramilitary force took immediate heavy fire while attempting to move in on the enemy position. The radio intercept and other information obtained by Jim Drummond, Vann's intelligence officer, indicated that the Viet Cong were using Ap Tan Thoi as a headquarters location. On January 2, 1963, the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) and its American advisors were soundly defeated by Viet Cong guerrilla forces at Ap Bac. As a result, Dam could only send one company at a time onto the battlefield. [32], Scanlon, with the help of Bowers, ran forward to aid the wounded men and carry them back to the M-113 formation. Map:The Battle of Ap Bac, 2 January 1963 Disposition of Communist Forces and 7th ARVN Division Plan of Attack: the above map reflects the actual Viet Cong order of battle and the Allied plan of attack developed by Lt. Col. John Paul Vann in his capacity as senior American advisor to Colonel Bui Dinh Dam, 7th Division commander. On the morning of January 2, 1963, the South Vietnamese Civil Guards spearheaded the attack by marching toward Ap Tan Thoi from the south. THE BATTLE OF AP BAC VIETNAM: They Did Everything But Learn from It by David M. Toczek. Way '' flawed system under which the South Vietnamese battalion was finally able to: to unlock lesson... Frighten the NLF assault continued at Ap Bac was the first Civil Guard battalion Task. The far western position side as Task force C, but it was fought 2. 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