60 years ago, with the determination to “hold the ground” against “helibourne”, “armour-bourne” sweeping operations of the U.S. and Saigon puppet regime which aimed to round up our people to establish strategic hamlets, armed forces of the 8^th Military Region dealt a major blow to the enemy and won the battle of Ap Bac. This victory was of great significance, signalling the strategic defeat of the U.S. Imperialists’ “Special War”; at the same time, marking brilliant features of our military art.

Due to the success of our Dong Khoi Movement, the U.S. Imperialists had to initiate the strategy of “Special War” to quickly put down the revolutionary movement in the South. To this end, they bolstered the strength of the puppet military, increased military aids and deployed modern military hardware to conduct “helibourne”, “armour-bourne” operations directed by American advisors to round up our people and establish strategic hamlets, determining to “pacify” South Vietnam in 18 months. In early 1963, after discovered that our force was stationed in Ap Bac, the enemy launched a surprising sweeping operation to quickly “destroy and capture the Viet Cong”, putting down the revolutionary movement in the area.

On our side, in late 1962, the Politbureau issued a resolution on the situation, direction, and immediate objectives of the revolution in the South, determining that: “try our best to expand our military and political strength, initiate widespread guerrilla warfare to wear down the enemy, defeat their plan to establish strategic hamlets, immediately crush the enemy’s offensive plan in 1963, preserve and expand our forces, and expand our base and liberated areas. To realise these objectives, the Central Office for South Vietnam ordered local forces to actively establish combat hamlets and communes, construct defensive fortifications, hold firm in areas of operations, and push ahead three prongs of offensive to defeat the enemy’s scheme.

An anti-aircraft gun in service in the battle of Ap Bac (A file photo)

At Ap Bac, despite being heavily outnumbered, with bravery, ingenuity, creativity, and unique military art, our force dealt a major blow to the enemy and victoriously won the battle. The Victory of Ap Bac was an important milestone in the War against U.S. Imperialism to save the country and reflected many significant features of our military art.

First, have solid intel on the enemy plan, conduct effective combat preparation. Having solid intel on the enemy plan is the most important factor and the basis for accurately determining our combat plan, thereby proactively making effective preparation and combat direction for the success of the battle. To have solid intel on the enemy attack plan at Ap Bac, commanders at all levels utilised the role of different contingents and forces to proactively grasp information about the enemy from long range and close range, before, during, and after the battle. Thanks to the intel on the organisation, force, plan, and fighting method of the enemy, and the clear understanding of fatal weaknesses of the enemy helicopters and armoured vehicles, we were able to develop an appropriate battle plan, correctly predicted possible combat situations, and defeat the enemy’s waves of attack. Accordingly, we chose the continuous high ground positions from Ap Bac to Tan Thoi Hamlet to deploy the 1^st Company of the 261^st Battalion and the local platoon of Chau Thanh District to firmly defend the primary approach (West and South direction) to Ap Bac and launch counterattacks to destroy the enemy contingents when the opportunity arised. On the secondary approach (North and North West direction), the 1^st Company of the 514^th Battalion was responsible for the defence of Tan Thoi hamlet. This arrangement of forces created a salient encircling the entire large field in the front, where we expected the enemy helicopters to drop troops and enemy armoured vehicles to move in to attack Ap Bac. Therefore, although the enemy mobilised a force many times larger than ours, equipped with modern military hardware, supported by their air force and artillery force to launch repeated attacks against our position, they still suffered a heavy defeat.

Besides an appropriate force disposition, we proactively conducted effective preparation for the battle. The 8^th Military Region Command ordered the Regional Staff and its political and logistics departments to dispatch seasoned cadres to the locality to directly train local units on anti-sweeping operation tactics, how to construct defensive fortifications, anti-helicopter, and anti-armour techniques; organise political training sessions, develop fighting determination to be ready to defeat any enemy’s offensive. To limit the enemy strength and exploit their weaknesses; make good use of our firepower, fortes and fighting method, our units took advantages of the terrain in the area, particularly high mounds, orchids and the local canal system to build a robust, continuous, in-depth, and well-camouflaged network of tunnels, trenches and defensive fortifications. With the spirit of “hold the ground until the end”, and thanks to our well-prepared and secret network of defensive fortifications, on the direction of Thay Lo temple, our regular troops and guerrillas were able to wait for the enemy to get close to the range of 40m, well inside of our firepower’s range, then simultaneously unloaded on them and achieved a very high kill ratio. After unsuccessful waves of attack, the enemy used napalm bombs, rockets, and incendiary munitions, etc., to try to burn down targets in Ap Bac. Our troops, with limited casualties thanks to the protection of our defensive fortifications, managed to preserve their strength and maintain formation to continue to fight and fulfill their assigned tasks.

Second, develop an effective fighting method against the enemy’s “helibourne”, “armoured-bourne” tactics. To realise their “Special Warfare” strategy, the enemy thoroughly took advantage of their modern weapons and equipment, employing helibourne”, “armoured-bourne” tactics to launch multiple military operations, causing many setbacks to our revolution in the South.

After initial losses, our military and people in the South still fought bravely to achieve many military feats, such as taking down the enemy helicopters in Na Mieu (Tra Bong, Quang Ngai), Tan Hung Tay (Cai Nuoc, Ca Mau), Hung Thanh (Chau Thanh), etc. However, there were still no victories that could turn the tide of the war.

After “partial” successes, the 8^th Military Region Command held multiple meetings to promote collective ideas and timely learn from previous practical experiences in countering the enemy’s sweeping operations to figure out a way to defeat the enemy’s tactics and modern war machines. At the same time, commands at all levels strengthen education work to build confidence in our weapons and equipment for their troops and prevent them from being afraid of the enemy helicopters and tanks, not confident enough to stay and fight against the enemy sweeping operations. To counter the enemy helicopters, regular troops and guerrillas were trained on anti-helicopter firing methods and formed “helicopter hunter teams”. In the Battle of Ap Bac, our teams secretly and patiently waited for enemy troop transport helicopters to slow down, lower altitude, and gradually descend on the drop points in front of our positions, then suddenly and simultaneously focused fire to destroy them. Thanks to this tactic, we shot down 05 enemy helicopters and damaged many other helicopters. Regarding M113 armoured vehicle, its weakness was that during combat, the driver had to close the front hatch and observe the battlefield via a periscope with limited vision, this caused difficulties for the enemy to coordinate and fully employ their firepower. Besides, due to its small track design, it was very difficult for the vehicle to climb from the waterway to canal bank, and it was easy to be stuck in the mud. Therefore, we organised a network of trenches and ditches to ambush the enemy vehicles at close range, employing the principle of “dispersing weapons, concentrating firepower” to destroy 03 vehicles and damage many other carriers, defeating the enemy’s waves of attack. These were the fundamental factors that helped us to defeat the enemy “helibourne”, “armoured-bourne” tactics in the Battle of Ap Bac.

Third, coordinate forces, promote the strength of the three prongs of offensive. Relying on combat hamlets and communes, our armed force played the key role in countering the enemy’s sweeping operations; and our people were responsible for political activities and enemy troop recruitment; these were important developments in our strategy of combining “two legs (politics, military), three prongs (political, military, enemy troop recruitment activities)” in the Battle of Ap Bac. The Provincial Party Committee of My Tho launched a widespread political and enemy troop recruitment movement in all localities with the participation of a huge number of civilians. The battle not only took place in the two hamlets of Tan Phu Commune but also spread to the whole province, with many forms such as attacking enemy outposts, stations and communication lines, shooting down helicopters, obstructing and threatening enemy units, and destroying strategic hamlets. The Province’s reconnaissance platoon raided and took control of Than Cuu Nghia air base. Over 700 civilians of My Han Dong, My Hanh Trung and My Phuoc Tay Commune surrounded the enemy artillery group at My Phuoc Tay Base to prevent them from firing at population areas, disrupting their fire support activity. At the same time, over 200 families whose members participated in the sweeping operation against Ap Bac, recruited by our secret agents, marched to the town hospital to request visits to the wounded soldiers, protest against the enemy draft, and demand an end to the sweeping operation. The widespread, constant activities of the people forced the enemy to divide their units to deal with them, thus creating favourable conditions for our regular troops at Ap Bac to focus on defeating the enemy. This close combination of military offensive, political protests, and enemy troop recruitment created a huge drive to not only defeat the enemy operation but also force the enemy to surrender and withdraw from 45 outposts, destroy 69 strategic hamlets, and liberate 55 other hamlets, thus became a shining example of people’s warfare and of the work of building combat communes and villages, and in defeating the plan to round up our people to establish “strategic hamlets” of the U.S. Imperialists and their puppets.

The Victory of Ap Bac paved the way for our force to defeat the enemy’s “helibourne”, “armoured-bourne” tactics that once were considered “sophisticating and effective”, signalling the strategic failure of the “Special War” strategy of the U.S. Imperialists and their puppets, providing huge encouragement for our military and people in the South to push ahead “Emulating with Ap Bac, destroying the enemy for new military feats”. The outstanding features of the military art employed in the Battle of Ap Bac and the experience learnt from this engagement still have profound theoretical and practical values today, and they need to be further studied, developed, and applied in the cause of building and defending the Motherland in the present day.

Senior Colonel, Dr. LE THANH BAI, Military History Institute, Ministry of National Defence