Timeline, August 12th

[David]

PREBELLUM - OTHER:
August 12, 1942 (Year of the Horse [Nham Ngo]): The USS Cleveland demonstrates the effectiveness of a radio-proximity fuze (VT-fuze) against aircraft by successfully destroying three drones with proximity bursts fired by her five-inch guns.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
August 12, 1965 (Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): North Vietnamese surface-to-air missiles shoot down another U.S. aircraft The US implements a series of missions under a plan code-named "Iron Hand" with the SAM sites as its objective.

August 12, 1965 (Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): 1 RAR starts Operation 7/65, a battalion patrolling operation in the combined TAOR of both the 1 RAR and the US 2/503d Infantry to provide warning for and defense of Bien Hoa air base during the brigade operation in the area of Pleiku in II CTZ. The AO is roughly a 30 square km rectangle of undulating to flat terrain, with rice, rubber plantations, vegetable farms and jungle in central Bien Hoa province, 6 km northeast of Bien Hoa air base. Results: Nil.

August 12, 1965 (Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): Operation Midnight is conducted northwest of Da Nang.

August 12, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): A USAF spokesman in Saigon reports that the US has been bombing Communist targets in Laos since May 1964 at the request of Laotian government.

August 12, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): An SAS five-man patrol ambushes a group of ten enemy 8 km north of Xuyen Moc, killing five. The patrol is extracted under fire with the RAAF helicopter sustaining hits.

August 12, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): Operation Lien Ket 12 update.

August 12, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): 155th AHC elements and the 10th Aviation Battalion stage a combat assault near Tuy Hoa.

August 12, 1968 (Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase V): Operation Toan Thang II update.

August 12, 1969 (Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Summer-Fall 1969): Communists attack more than 100 cities, towns, and military bases throughout South Vietnam, using mortars, rockets, and infantry assaults.

August 12, 1969 (Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Summer-Fall 1969): The 1st Infantry Division's Battle of Thunder Road.

August 12, 1971 (Year of the Boar [Tan Hoi]) (US Consolidation I): Operation Inverbrackie update: The ANZAC's 8 Platoon engages Xuyen Moc guerillas in a bunker contact south of the village.

August 12, 1972 (Year of the Rat [Nham Ty]) (US Cease-Fire): The USAF announces that it has made "probably heaviest raids ever" over North Vietnam in the previous 24 hours.

August 12, 1972 (Year of the Rat [Nham Ty]) (US Cease-Fire): The last American ground combat troops leave South Vietnam; 43,500 airmen and support personnel remain.