Timeline, May 1st

[David]

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR:
May 1, 1954 (29th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Horse [Giap Ngo]) (Fall): Dien Bien Phu: The Communists celebrate May Day, with thousands of red flags flying over Viet Minh positions and loudspeakers blaring music. But the enemy is also on the move, reinforcing positions and artillery pieces. There have been many ground probes. During the night of 4/30-5/1, the Legionnaires of Huguette 5 are attacked and they begin a counterattack in a driving rain at 0230 with protective artillery fire from Isabelle's howitzers. By 0600, the Communist penetration is disintegrating, but French reserves are needed to deal with "a few hardy elements." By 0800, even the approach trenches to H5 have been cleared in hand-to-hand fighting, and the position is established at 1000. When the day's supply drops end at 1415 with hardly any interference from the enemy (although 50% are parachute failures), the fort's defenders know something is on the way.

The fort has three days of food available, 275 rounds of 155mm ammo, 5000 rounds of 120mm mortar ammo and 14,000 rounds of 105mm howitzer shells. But only 43 volunteers have jumped in overnight; the fort has less than 2900 first-line combatants left, about a third of what had been available on March 13. At around 1700, the first prep fires of the Viet Minh final attack start hammering first Claudine and Huguette, and then Dominique 3 and 4, boxing in what remains of the garrisons on the slopes of the northern part of Upper Eliane. At 2000, most of two Communist divisions begin to storm D3 and D4. E1 is also attacked and at 2015 requests reinforcements, but now the northwestern sector is being hit with fire from 16 new howitzers and a battery of 120mm mortars. After some diversionary probes on Lily 2 and small infiltrations between Huguettes 2, 3 and 4, the main attack comes against outlying H5, where there are only 29 able-bodied men left after the day's shelling and the intensive one-hour prep fire.

At 2005, H5 is reported as fallen; the fort's commanders send Hanoi a list of strongpoints fallen or attacked and units destroyed. The commander in Hanoi finally decides to commit his last parachute battalion.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
May 1959 (3rd and 4th months, Year of the Boar [Ky Hoi]): Hanoi establishes Group 559, a logistical unit charged with organizing a supply conduit into South Vietnam via eastern Laos and Cambodia, known later as the Ho Chi Minh trail. Within a year, weapons and northern Communist cadres are traveling south along the trail. Most of the early infiltrators come from the NVA 338 Division, composed of southerners who went north in 1954-55. Members of the 338th had been settled from 1954-59 at an agricultural commune at Xuan Mai, 50 km southwest of Hanoi, Once the division starts infiltrating south in 1959, Xuan Mai becomes the initial training center for guerrillas destined for South Vietnam.

May 1, 1959 (24th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Boar [Ky Hoi]): Although prohibited by the Geneva Agreements from forming an air force, North Vietnam has an "Air Sports Club" for foreign-trained pilots at Cat Bi Airbase at Haiphong and at other sites, as well as an "Air Studies Bureau" that is expanded this date into an Air Directorate, which will receive aircraft that will form the 919 Military Air Transport Squadron.

May 1, 1965 (1st day of the 4th month, Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): A/1 AVN and 52 CAB arrive at Vung Tau and head for Ban Me Thuot.

May 1, 1966 (22nd day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive): Operation Austin IV (probably not VI) begins in Phuoc Long and Quang Duc Provinces.

May 1, 1966 (22nd day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive): Operation Lam Son update.

May 1966 (3rd month [supplemental] and 4th month, Year of the Goat [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive): The 155th AHC loses three craft during the month of May.

May 1, 1967 (22nd day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui] (US Counteroffensive Phase II): US Forces are now at 436,000.

May 1, 1967 (22nd day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui] (US Counteroffensive Phase II): The 155th AHC assumes the mission of direct support of II Corps Headquarters with missions throughout II Corps.

May 1-July 31, 1967 (22nd day of the 3rd month through 24th day of the 5th month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui] (US Counteroffensive Phases II and III): The 71st AHC is in direct support of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade during this period; the 174th AHC, of the 3d Brigade, 25th Infantry Division; and the 176st AHC, of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne (this Brigade is the primary maneuver Brigade for Task Force Oregon with Operations Malheur I and II near Duc Pho).

May 1, 1967 (22nd day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui] (US Counteroffensive Phase II): An accident occurs during a night emergency medevac to the hospital ship, Sanctuary; seven medevac personnel plus the aircraft's gunner are lost at sea.

May 1, 1967 (22nd day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui] (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Fort Wayne begins in III Corps.

May 1, 1967 (22nd day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui] (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Khe Sanh: Enemy forces withdraw from Hill 881S during the night of the 4/30-5/1t, and the hill receives heavy preparation fire all day. Marine units are relieved or reinforced. G/2/3 finds an extensive enemy bunker complex between Hills 881S and 881N.

May 1, 1967 (22nd day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui] (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Francis Marion update, Kontum Province.

May 1968 (4th and 5th months, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): 155th AHC has a busy month.

May 1, 1968 (5th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): Operation Kudzu begins in IV Corps.

May 1 1968 (5th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): Battle of Dong Ha update: Although wounded the day before while relocating his unit under heavy enemy fire, US Marine Captain Jay Vargas combines Company G with two other companies and leads his men in an attack on the fortified village of Dai Do.

May 1, 1968 (5th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): Operation Carentan II update, I Corps.

May 1 through July 31, 1968 (5th day of the 4th month through 7th day of the 7th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phases IV and V): 145th CAB at Bien Hoa: Organizational and operation details plus intelligence on the enemy in Bien Hoa Province as the next phase of the Tet-68 offensive starts.

May 1, 1968 (5th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): Tet-68 update, Saigon area.

May 1, 1968 (5th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): The battle of Western Valley.

May 1, 1968 (5th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): Project Rapid Fire IX starts in III Corps.

May 1969 (3rd and 4th months, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): Life at Pleiku Dustoff.

May 1, 1969 (15th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): Operation Commando Hunt II starts in Laos.

May 1, 1969 (15th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): Operation Massachusetts Striker update.

May 1, 1969 (15th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): A normal day's mission and other activities other activities at Camp Holloway.

May 1, 1970 (26th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Dog [Canh Tuat]) (US Sanctuary Counteroffensive): Operation Toan Thang 44 begins as Task Force Shoemaker enters the Fishhook area of Cambodia near the towns of Snoul and Mimot. The attack begins early with waves of B-52 strikes and an intensive artillery bombardment. Total fire support on the first day includes 185 tactical air strikes, 36 B-52 missions and 5460 artillery rounds. Landing zones for ARVN airborne units are cleared by dropping 15,000 pound bombs fused to detonate about 7 feet above the ground. The first combat action occurs at 0740 when US helicopter gunships destroy a North Vietnamese Army truck. Opposition is light and surprise appears complete. Most action occurs when gunships attack retreating VC driven into the open by the advancing armor and infantry. The ARVN airborne units, pushing through dense jungle on unfamiliar terrain, take severe casualties at first. Elsewhere in Cambodia, the 12,000 South Vietnamese troops and American advisers of Operation Rock Crusher continue pushing through the Parrot's Beak area along Route 1, with infantry riding on the fast armored vehicles, while ethnic Cambodian troops trained by US Army Special Forces try unsuccessfully to open the river route from Phnom Penh to South Vietnam.

May 1, 1972 (18th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Rat [Nham Ty]) (US Cease-Fire): Nguyen Hue/Easter Offensive: The Paris peace talks have resumed after being boycotted by the RVN delegation since the beginning of the NVA invasion. In Quang Tri Province, the previous day's withdrawal plan is countermanded, and new orders from President Thieu are for the troops defending Quang Tri City to remain where they are and to hold their positions "at all costs." Chaos results, with some units reporting that they have already moved to new positions and others refusing to change a course of action already initiated. Within four hours, the ARVN disposition for the city's defense crumbles, with the battalions breaking up into disarray and heading south, together with tens of thousands of civilians trying to flee to Hue via Route 1. Security is poor in the segment of the national Route 1 near Hai Lang district, 10km south of Quang Tri, and civilians and troops running in disarray are ambushed there by the Communists, with casualties so high that a foreign correspondent dubs that part of the highway the "Avenue of Horror." The only cohesive unit remaining is the 147th Marine Brigade. Sixteen US marine advisers remain with the VNMC units, but at noon, the 3rd Infantry Division Staff and its eight American advisors are airlifted by three CH-54 helicopters from Quang Tri Citadel to Da Nang. At 1430 hours, the 147th's brigade commander decides for himself that the situation is hopeless and orders his unit, too, to move out of Quang Tri, leaving behind the 3rd Division commander and his skeletal staff all alone in the undefended city's old citadel. When he realizes what has happened, the commander and his staff board three armored vehicles in an effort to catch up with their own withdrawing column of troops, as the USAF evacuates the division's advisory personnel and their Vietnamese employees. Route QL-l is impassable, however, and the commander is forced to return to the Citadel, where he and his staff are eventually picked up by U.S. helicopters. When the last "jolly green giant" lifts off at 1655 hours with the 3d Division's senior adviser aboard, it's fired upon by enemy small arms: the first NVA troops have already penetrated the Citadel. The withdrawing Vietnamese Marines, meanwhile, have engaged an NVA regiment at Hai Lang and the fight continues for the rest of the day and throughout the night.

With the fall of Ouang Tri City and the major part of the province, the enemy's attention, like that of the fleeing refugees, turns toward Hue and the NVA launches a heavy ground attack against FSB King and rockets Camp Eagle, location of the 1st Division HQ.

In the highlands, the ranger battalions at Vo Dinh come under attack and the group commander orders them to withdraw, thus moving he ARVN defense line back to just 13 km northwest of Kontum City, and as well exposing the weakness of the command structure at Kontum City. US advisers intervene, and General Toan agrees in early May to bring in the remaining units of the 23d ARVN Division, the 44th and 45th Regiments to replace the 2d and 6th Ranger Groups, respectively, thus enhancing Col. Ba's command and improving the city's defense. The remainder of the 22nd ARVN Division, meanwhile, is sent back to its rear bases in Binh Dinh Province for regrouping and refitting.

An Loc is still heavily besieged and short of supplies, food and medicine. US logistics experts have been trying to solve the parachute problems with the HALO delivery system and two teams of qualified packers arrive from Okinawa to assist in packing and training ARVN personnel.

BORDER CLASHES:
May 1975 (3rd and 4th months, Year of the Hare [At Mao]): Khmer Rouge launch raids against Communist Vietnamese forces on Phu Quoc Island.