[27] The VC also took full advantage of the local terrain by taking up positions in Ap Tan Thoi in the north, along a tree-lined creek in the southeast, and Ap Bac in the south. Just before … In the last months of 1962, the great prize in Vietnam was the Mekong Delta, an incredibly rich area producing most of the rice and a wealth of other crops in South Vietnam. The 1st Company, 514th Battalion, covered the tail of the formation, with one of their platoons acting as a rear guard. Dam expressed concerns about his own abilities when the promotion was first presented to him by Diem. [1], Ap Bac had many as yet undefined consequences for the South Vietnamese government and the American involvement in Vietnam. The foxholes were deep enough for one man to stand up, or big enough to accommodate a two-man machine gun crew. The battle of Ap Bac, sixty-five kilometers southwest of Saigon in the Mekong Delta in January 1963, illustrates the early problems faced by the developing armored forces of the ARVN . By 9:30 am, the last of Dam's reserve companies had been airlifted into Tan Hiep, about two hours late because American aircrews were prevented from landing their CH-21 helicopters, known as "Flying Bananas" for their shape, in the heavy fog that covered Tan Hiep airfield most of the morning. The battle was a milestone for the VC. [8] The lightly armed VC had no weaponry capable of stopping the armored carriers and inevitably were forced to flee, taking heavy casualties. [6], Large-scale American support began during the Kennedy Administration in the early 1960s, with the arrival of large numbers of the US Special Forces to help out in the field. The Battle of Ap Bac was the first significant engagement between tenets of North and South Vietnam. [27] Vann relayed a message to the command pilot of the ten CH-21 helicopters, which were being escorted by a group of five recently deployed UH-1 Huey gunships, armed with 7.62mm machine guns and 2.75 inch rockets, and instructed him to land the reserve companies about 300 meters (980 ft) from the western and southern tree lines that covered Ap Bac in order to minimize the effectiveness of the Viet Cong's .30 caliber machine guns. The South Vietnamese army, the ARVN, was supported and supplied by the Americans in an effort to give them an advantage over the norther Viet Cong. When reporter Neil Sheehan asked Brig. The flamethrower had a range of up to 200 meters (660 ft),[45] but when the operator fired the device, the flame died after only 30 meters (98 ft). He wanted to hit the VC with 500 rounds of artillery and destroy them as they retreated. Cao would not approve the use of flares because it could expose the airborne battalion's night defensive positions, and instead ordered 100 rounds of artillery to be fired at a rate of four shells per hour. American advisers Captain Fletcher Ware and Sergeant Russell Kopti, who had parachuted in with the South Vietnamese, were also wounded. [61] Militarily, the morale and confidence of VC commanders and soldiers, who had experienced serious setbacks in the previous year, were greatly boosted. After a skirmish on a highway that resulted in a small number of South Vietnamese casualties along with several trucks destroyed, Cao was called to Saigon and reprimanded by Diem. [23], 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. However, Cao argued that a surrounded and well-entrenched enemy would fight more fiercely than a retreating one, so he wanted the VC units inside the hamlets of Ap Bac and Ap Tan Thoi to expose themselves by retreating through the eastern side of the battlefield, where he could destroy them with artillery and air power. "It was a miserable damn performance, just like it always is. However, Cao argued that a surrounded and well-entrenched enemy would fight more fiercely than a retreating one, so he wanted the Viet Cong units inside the hamlets of Ap Bac and Ap Tan Thoi to expose themselves by retreating through the eastern side of the battlefield, where he could destroy them with artillery and airpower. Due to the delay in the arrival of the regular South Vietnamese army units, two Civil Guard battalions of Task Forces A and B—under the command of Dinh Tuong provincial chief Major Lam Quang Tho—were left to march against enemy positions by themselves. 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