Timeline, May 13th

[David]

PREBELLUM - OTHER:
May 13, 1908 (14th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]): The U.S. Navy Nurse Corps is established.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
May 13, 1966 (23rd day of the 3rd month, supplemental, Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive): The deepest successful rescue mission is performed to date, 80 miles northwest of Hanoi.

May 13, 1967 (5th day of the 4th month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): The 155th AHC extracts the two battalions of the 23d ARVN Division they had inserted a week earlier in Lam Dong Province.

May 13, 1967 (5th day of the 4th month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Khe Sanh: Operations Hickory and Crockett begin.

May 1967 (3rd and 4th months, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): The Army's 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division begins operations against the Cam Son Secret Zone, approximately 10 miles west of its base at Dong Tam in IV Corps. Located in the midst of rice paddies and swamps, the 600-acre Dong Tam base took two years to build with sand dredged from the My Tho River.

To patrol and fight in the inundated marshlands and rice paddies and along the numerous canals and waterways crossing the Delta, the Army modernizes the concept of riverine warfare that was employed during the US Civil War by Union forces on the Mississippi River and by the French during the Indochina War. The Mobile Riverine Force uses a joint Army-Navy task force controlled by a ground commander. In contrast to amphibious operations, where control reverts to the ground commander only after the force is ashore, riverine warfare is an extension of land combat, with infantry units traveling by water rather than by trucks or tracked vehicles. Aided by a Navy river support squadron and river assault squadron, infantrymen are housed on barracks ships and supported by gunships or monitors.

May 13, 1967 (5th day of the 4th month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Blackjack 41C (or perhaps Blackjack 40 White) begins in IV Corps.

May 13, 1968 (17th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): Operation Toan Thang update: attack on signal site at Nui Ba Den.

May 12-13, 1968 (16th and 17th days of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): 1 RAR including 12 Field Regiment HQ and 102 Field Battery and supporting arms, fights pitched battles with Communist forces in the Battle of FSPB Coral. With little time to prepare defenses the 1 RAR Mortar Platoon position is overrun including a field gun from 102 Field Battery. Enemy forces suffer very heavy casualties. Australian casualties are 9 killed and 28 wounded. Meanwhile, 3 RAR takes up a blocking position 20 miles northeast of Saigon at FSB Coogee, just outside the western edge of War Zone 4.5 km west of Coral.

May 13, 1968 (17th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): A/7/17th scouts encounter the NVA southwest of Dak To.

May 13, 1968 (17th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): Men of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade's Company A, 5th Battalion, 12th Infantry, go in to reinforce a reconnaissance patrol that is in contact with a well-entrenched Viet Cong force.

May 13, 1968 (17th day of the 4th month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): Delegates from the US and North Vietnam hold their first meeting in Paris.

May 13, 1969 (27th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive) (Zaffiri, including quote): Operation Apache Snow update: At 0200, enemy sappers around Firebase Airborne in the northern A Shau Valley move out from their assault positions and by 0300, without alerting a single guard, have opened gaps in six different sections of the wire. Behind them are other sappers with satchel charges and AK47s, and following these are the infantry. At around 0315, an NVA mortar attack on the base begins. While the GIs are huddled under cover, the sappers slip through the breaches and scatter into all parts of the firebase, throwing satchel charges into bunkers, attacking howitzer positions and charging the center of the main position. The infantry behind them occupies overrun positions and sets up machine guns. After the Americans recover from the shock, they organize a defense line on the northwest side of the perimeter and start firing back. A C47 Spooky gunship arrives at 0400 and stops the NVA from feeding fresh troops into the battle zone, and those inside the base start trying to escape. At 0600, Phantoms arrive and attack the trails down which the NVA are retreating. 26 Americans are killed and 62 wounded in the 1-1/2 hour battle. 39 enemy bodies are found, but the exact totals of dead and wounded are probably much higher.

On Ap Bia Mountain/Hill 937, which is less than 7 km away, after a night of tracers and fire fights, jets bomb, strafe and napalm enemy positions most of the morning, so close to B/3/187th that it takes a casualty from the shrapnel. At 1100, Bravo's 2nd Platoon starts up the hill again to attack enemy bunkers. The attack fails and the Americans take casualties. At 1220, the 1/506th is ordered to halt its operation near the A Sap River and head north to Ap Bia. As B/3/187th and the 1/506 maneuver, the NVA launch a surprise attack on C/3/187th, which is still heading up its ridge toward Ap Bia, killing two men and wounding five others before being driven off. Charlie Company will advance all of 175 meters during the day, through sniper fire all the way.

Delta Company is now almost 1500 meters straight north of Charlie Company's LZ and about 500 meters east of the battalion CP in the deep ravine it took them all day on the 12th to penetrate. At midday, Delta's 1st Platoon advances a little way up the ridge on the other side of the ravine floor, while the 2nd Platoon stops at the floor for lunch. The NVA launches a rocket attack against the 2nd Platoon, wounding eight men. The 1st Platoon pushes further up the ridge to be able to suppress enemy fire and tells the medevac chopper that has arrived not to come in until they've secured the ridge, but the pilot brings the chopper in anyway because some of the wounded need immediate help. Because of vegetation, the ship has to hover and lower a basket, and is shot down with an enemy rocket grenade while raising the first wounded man. Seven men die in the crash. Honeycutt tells the 1st Platoon and survivors of the 2nd to withdraw, but they make slow headway, carrying wounded up the near-vertical ravine slopes, and surrounded by NVA who "really want to put the hurt" on them. Honeycutt sends an Alpha Company platoon to their aid, which links up with them at 1850. At 2000, they've reached the edge of Delta's previous NDP, 200 meters away, with another 600 meters ahead of them. Then it starts to rain heavily and they can advance no further. From 2100 on, small groups of NVA probe for Delta's position all night long, requiring the FO to call in arty over and over again.

At 1940, an NVA 120mm mortar in Laos opens up on Charlie Company's NDP, which is now 1 km to the south of Delta Company's NDP. Although they fire for only a few minutes, the enemy gunners have exact coordinates and walk the rounds perfectly from one end of the position to the other, seriously wounding five men.

May 13 and 14, 1969 (27th and 28th days of the 3rd month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): In Quang Tin Province, the forward support base of Americal's 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry, is under heavy enemy attack.

May 13, 1970 (9th day of the 4th month, Year of the Dog [Canh Tuat]) (US Sanctuary Counteroffensive): D Company 8 RAR conducts a cordon and search of Ap Bac Hamlet. B Company is ambushed around Long Dien.

May 13, 1970 (9th day of the 4th month, Year of the Dog [Canh Tuat]) (US Sanctuary Counteroffensive): Company A of Americal's 3d Battalion, 1st Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade, is attacked while searching for a company-sized enemy force.

May 13, 1971 (19th day of the 4th month, Year of the Boar [Tan Hoi]) (US Counteroffensive, Phase VII): North Vietnamese forces are reported to have made two strong attacks on South Vietnamese forces in the A Shau valley.

May 13, 1972 (1st day of the 4th month, Year of the Rat [Nham Ty]) (US Cease-Fire): Nguyen Hue/Easter Offensive: After two battalions of 369th Brigade South Vietnamese Marines leave the area by helicopter, NVA troops and tanks attack 369th Brigade HQ at Chinh An and are repulsed. Meanwhile, the two South Vietnamese Marine battalions land in the Hai Lang area, 10 km southeast of Quang Tri City and, using helicopters of the 9th U.S. Marine Amphibious Brigade, sweep through their objectives, and then return to their defenses at the My Chanh. Caught by surprise in their rear for the first time, the NVA resist weakly and suffer extremely heavy losses. This is the start of several small-scale counterattacks the South Vietnamese will make on Hai Lang and My Thuy, north of the My Chanh, by means of airlifts and amphibious landings.

THIRD INDOCHINA WAR - OTHER:
May 13, 1979 (18th day of the 4th month, Year of the Goat [Ky Mui]): Refugee administrators estimate that 4000 Vietnamese boat people are landing in Malaysia every week.