Timeline, April 16th

[David]

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR:
April 15-16, 1954 (13th and 14th days of the 3rd month, Year of the Horse [Giap Ngo]) (Fall):

Dien Bien Phu: At 0240 on the 15th, the supply convoy gets through to Huguette 6, though with a heavy cost in casualties and lost supplies. The men have to run the same gauntlet to return to their starting point, so the fort's commander launches two diversionary attacks, one across Sparrowhawk against the Viet Minh trench on the airfield and the other against what has become the first enemy strongpoint of the siege (within a single night, the Viet Minh had connected the trench system with a serious of combat bunkers and firing positions in front of which there was even some barbed wire and some of the mines collected from French strongpoints). The two attacks are failures, although the supply convoy reaches French lines again by 1615. One half the airfield, one fifth of the fortress and 400 of its best troops are in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, on the 15th supply runs to Dien Bien Phu from the outside reach their all-time high, with nearly 250 tons dropped into the valley (though a sizable percentage is misdropped into Communist lines), giving the fort's defenders two days of food, five days of 105mm shells and six days of 120mm mortar shells. At 1700, the daily air drop of aerial photographs of the valley, including maps with key information regarding French positions at the fort and detected enemy AA sites in the valley, and even a map of all North Vietnam with all the French code names, is misdropped to the enemy, and French codes have to be changed throughout Indochina. On Isabelle, the unit on Wieme is relieved, although the enemy detects the movement and hits Wieme just as both units are there, with losses to both new arrivals and departing soldiers.

On the 16th, another attempt is made to resupply H6, with almost 60 men setting out with 700 liters of water and a half-dozen boxes of small arms ammo. 42 men are killed or wounded in the breakthrough and only seven water carriers with five jerry-cans of water make it safely to H6. Trenches around H1 have reached the airfield and that strongpoint is now completely surrounded. Legionnaires on H2 decide to dig their way toward H1. Supplies to the fortress from the outside this day total 215 tons, with 10% misdropped and an effective collection ration of 2:1, but the fort's commander is very short on specialists and asks for more men. Hanoi's response is that the commander has been promoted to brigadier general and most of the other senior commanders in the fort have been advanced one notch on the promotion list. That night, another supply group from the fort heads for H6.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
April 16, 1966 (26th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive): The 155th AHC provides support during Operation Paul Revere.

April 16, 1967 (7th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Near Duc Pho, US soldiers out on a night ambush are themselves attacked.

April 16, 1967 (7th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): The Australian HMAS Hobart enters Operation Sea Dragon.

April 16, 1967 (7th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Enterprise update: the battle of Doi Ma Creek.

April 16, 1968 (19th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase IV): An SAS patrol ambushes a VC patrol, killing two and recovering two diaries, northeast of Binh Gia.

April 16, 1968 (19th day of the 3rd month, Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase I): A/7/17 Cavalry Scouts receive intense AW fire while checking out a small bunker complex west of Pleiku. They return fire and kill one NVA. An air strike is called in to destroy the small complex.

April 16, 1969 (30th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): 9 RAR conducts Operation Surfside, supported for the first time by RAAF Bushranger Gunships.

April 16, 1969 (30th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): 1 ATF is advised of a change to operational priorities, with top priority given to pacification (eradicating the presence and influence of the Viet Cong among the civilian population), followed by Vietnamisation (the upgrading of the South Vietnamese forces).

April 16, 1969 (30th day of the 2nd month, Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Tet69/Counteroffensive): Cambodia reopens relations with the US.

April 16, 1972 (3rd day of the 3rd month, Year of the Rat [Nham Ty]) (US Cease-Fire): Nguyen Hue/Easter Offensive: Full-scale serial attacks on North Vietnam resume as the Hanoi-Haiphong area is attacked by B-52 and Navy fighter-bomber aircraft.

A new 20,000 man force to help reopen Highway 13 is formed in relief of An Loc and later includes the 6th Airborne Battalion. At the city, the battle has abated somewhat, with the enemy losing 23 tanks, most of them T-54s and T-59s, but still holding onto the northern part of town and also the ammunition dump. The town is also still besieged. General Le Van Hung, ARVN's top commander on the scene, is putting in 24-hour work days and has declared: "An Loc will remain standing for as long as I'm still alive." Special forces personnel of the ARVN 81st Airborne Ranger Group are airlifted into An Loc from Military Region I to conduct covert military operations and battlefield reconnaissance. They are assigned the task of flushing out strong pockets of Communist resistance in the northern sector of An Loc, where the enemy is heavily armed and well dug in. At nightfall, the airborne rangers begin to move out, inching their way as close to enemy's positions as they can before making a surprise attack. Throughout the night of April 16-17, grenade explosions are heard continuously in the city's northern sector.

Mid-April 1975 (3rd month, Year of the Hare [At Mao]): Ho Chi Minh campaign: The final phase of the invasion of the South is underway. The NVA's First Corps, which now includes the 312, 320B, 325 and 338 Divisions, moves into Phuoc Long, then cuts the highway from Tay Ninh to Saigon. Its Third Corps moves through Tay Ninh toward the capital; while six divisions from the Second and the new Fourth Corps continue the attacks on Bien Hoa and Xuan Loc. Meanwhile, the 232 Tactical Group moves north from the Mekong Delta along Route 4.

THIRD INDOCHINA WAR:
Mid-April 1984 (3rd month, Year of the Rat [Giap Ty]): In Laos, PAVN continues its attack on the guerrilla HQ at Ampil, but the KPNLF holds firm, bringing in reinforcements and inflicting heavy casualties onthe Vietnamese. PAVN hasn't committed most of its armor and leaves 200 men to bleed to death on the slopes around the camp.