Timeline, March 11th

[David]

March 11, 1945 (27th day of the 1st month, Year of the Rooster [At Dau]): Emperor Bao Dai accepts the Japanese offer to head a new "independent" government, but members of his cabinet soon have second thoughts about the new arrangement. Two ministers, including a royal prince who later will join the Viet Minh, persuade their colleagues to resign in favor of a more broadly based government. Bao Dai is forced to form a new cabinet. His choice for prime minister is Ngo Dinh Diem, but the Japanese are against it. A new government of middle-class intellectuals is formed who realize that Japan's defeat is imminent and that they, in the process, are going to be discredited. This paralyzes the government, and it accomplishes almost nothing of substance. Japan exercise real control over the country. Meanwhile, the American OSS begins an increased supply of arms and instructors to the Viet Minh.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
March 11, 1965 (9th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): Market Time patrols begin off the South Vietnamese coast. Some sources put the date as March 16.

March 10-11, 1966 (19th and 20th days of the 2nd month, Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive): SF/CIDG camp at A Shau update: At 0400, the NVA launches another assault, this time with two battalions. Nothing can stop them. Part of the South Vietnamese 141st CIDG Company stops fighting and joins the enemy. Rather than be overrun, the camp's CO orders the rest of his men, the Nungs and the few remaining loyal South Vietnamese to retreat to another defensive perimeter within the camp. Clouds clear and air support is able to come in, but the situation is desperate and an evacuation by air is ordered. It's messy and not all can be airlifted, so the CO and his band of about 100 men, which now includes some chopper pilots and crews that have been shot down, is ordered to attempt a breakout that night. Two groups escape the camp and head out through the jungle. "All night they moved through the jungle, fighting rear-guard actions every foot of the way against enemy patrols trying to finish them off," but shortly after noon on the 11th, UH-34s from HMM-163 spot the group and they are rescued, though enemy action and panic among the South Vietnamese soldiers have reduced the number who make it out to 60. Another 34 from the second group are picked up the next morning. All in all, only 180 of the original 434-man garrison make it out of the A Shau camp alive, the rest being either dead or prisoners.

March 11, 1968 (13th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Tet Counteroffensive): After an attack beginning at 0300, Lima Site 85 falls to the NVA, though they apparently don't realize the value of the site. Later that morning, the USAF orders an aerial barrage of the site to completely destroy it.

March 11, 1968 (13th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Tet Counteroffensive): Joint operation Quyet Thang begins near Saigon.

March 11, 1968 (13th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Tet Counteroffensive): Operation Yellowstone update.

March 11, 1969 (24th day of the 1st month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): Operation Spindown update: The SOG hatchet force is extracted.

March 11, 1969 (24th day of the 1st month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): Operation Massachusetts Striker update: Charlie Company of the 1/502nd,, aboard three lifts of six helicopters each, is ordered into the area around the former Firebase Veghel to secure a landing zone for the rest of the battalion. As the first six helicopters, carrying 30 men of Charlie's 2nd Platoon, descend toward the LZ, the NVA explode the rows of claymore mines they have placed around the site pointing skyward. Ten men are wounded, but the pilots, some of them among the wounded, manage to bring their ships down and with the infantrymen scramble to cover and start fighting back. Charlie's 3rd Platoon, coming in on the second lift, sees the disaster on the ground and circles nearby a short distance away. In the face of a heavy NVA attack and with more than half of the men in the platoon wounded by now, the Americans call in a napalm strike only 75 meters from their position that stops an enemy charge. In the pause while the NVA is regrouping, most of the 3rd Platoon are landed and the helicopters that brought them manage to leave safely with most of the wounded. It is to be the last lift of the day, as weather conditions quickly worsen. The fight on the ground continues in the midst of fog and rain for the rest of the day and throughout the night, with the NVA throwing satchel charges and grenades at the American perimeter and the defenders answering with grenades and M79 canister rounds.

March 11, 1970 (4th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Dog [Canh Tuat]) (US Counteroffensive, Phase VII): Company G, 2/5th Marines, is in contact with the enemy at night in Quang Nam Province.