Timeline, October 2nd

[David]

PREBELLUM:
October 1944 (Year of the Monkey [Giap Than]): When the Japanese launch an offensive in southern China, where Ho Chi Minh is, he decides to shift his headquarters to Vietnam and moves there along with 200 armed followers organized into the "Propaganda Detachment of the Liberation Army" under the command of Vo Nguyen Giap. Hanoi will later call this detachment the forerunner of the Quan Doi Nhan Dan, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN).

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR:
October 1947 (Year of the Boar [Dinh Hoi]): Operations Lea and Ceinture start in the Viet Bac, the Viet Minh stronghold in Tonkin.

October 1953 (Year of the Snake [Quy Ti]): Sikorsky H-19 helicopters, nicknamed "happy elephants," replace the WS-51 "dragonflies" or "widgeons" in Indochina, which although they could lift three wounded at a time were unsuited to the terrain. The Happy Elephants can carry six wounded and a medical attendant up to 500 km.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
October 2, 1961 (Year of the Ox [Tan Suu]): Ambassador Nolting discusses special military supplies and personnel that are most urgently needed by South Vietnam.

October 2, 1962 (Year of the Tiger [Nham Dan]) (US Advisory): President Kennedy authorizes a limited crop destruction program in South Vietnam.

October 2, 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo[) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Irving begins in Binh Dinh Province.

October 2, 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo[) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): 1 ATF begins Operation 13/66, Bathurst, comprised of defensive operations to confirm domination of 1ATF's TAOR and the main routes into it. Operations consist of intensive patrolling in up to company strength, route-domination operations using all-arms teams 'Road Runner,' construction of base camp defenses, and emphasis on civic action. The AO surrounding the 1 ATF base in Phuoc Tuy Province is 280 square km of generally undulating terrain except for Nui Dinh in the southwest, covered mainly in jungle or clear forest, with brushwood, grassland, rice, and rubber plantations. VC activity prompting the operation is primarily local force, with D445 Provincial Mobile Battalion and 274 Main Force Regiment not posing immediate threats. No results are reported.

October 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): The 1st Cavalry Division uses a hammer and anvil approach in I Corps against enemy forces there who have recently left their mountain bases to plunder the rice harvest and to harass South Vietnamese forces providing security for provincial elections. The first phase consists of several sharp multibattalion combat actions near the coastal hamlet of Hoa Hoi that catch the Communists with their backs to the sea. With South Vietnamese and U.S. naval forces blocking an escape by sea, the encircled enemy forces fight desperately to return to the safety of the upland valley bases, but their problems are compounded when floods force their troops out of their hiding places, exposing them to allied attacks.

October 2, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): In Operation Lucky Leaf, SF forces raid a prison suspected to contain American POWs but come up emptyhanded.

October 2, 1968 (Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase V): Battle for Thuong Duc SF/CIDG Camp update: After having learned of it by listening in with a captured Chinese radio, the defenders ambush an enemy resupply effort in the open fields northwest of the camp.

October 2, 1968 (Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase V): Operation Dukes Glade begins in Quang Nam Province.

October 1969(Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Summer-Fall 1969): Communist special operations forces in South Vietnam include one sapper regiment, 47 sapper battalions and 31 independent sapper companies with another 13 infantry units slated for conversion to sappers.

THIRD INDOCHINA WAR:
October 1978 (Year of the Horse [Mau Ngo]): Cambodian (Kampuchean) refugees are entering Thailand at the rate of 200 per week. 150,000 have escaped to Vietnam since the beginning of the war.