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| Date: | Wednesday 2 January 1963 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Bell UH-1B |
| Owner/operator: | Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Co., US Army |
| Registration: | |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 3 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Ap Bac, Châu Thành district, Mekong Delta -
 Vietnam
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
10 helicopters CH-21 of the 93rd Transportation Company of the US Army carrying soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, South Vietnam, escorted by five UH-1B gunships off the Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company (UTT), arrived in the early morning to engage in combat against two Viet Cong battalions.
Nearby the US helicopters landed their troops safely in three separate waves. Then as they wheeled in for the fourth time, from camouflage foxholes behind the trees, hundreds of VC regulars loosed a deadly barrage of machine gun fire
Three H-21s and one of the five escorting UH-1s were shot down within five minutes, another H-21 later that day, and all but one of the H-21s and UH-1s suffered battle damage. Only three helicopters H-21 were flyable to return to the airfield.
Sergeant William Leander Deal, UH-1 crew chief is killed. The pilot and co-pilot survived the subsequent forced landing
A total of 83 South Vietnamese and three Americans (including one Army captain) died in this battle.
Sources:
Voungstow Vindicator 5 January 1963, p1 (photo)
https://www.vhpa.org/stories/apbac.pdf
https://www.145thcab.com/History/NL13HIST.htm
https://www.historynet.com/the-battle-at-ap-bac-changed-americas-view-of-the-vietnam-war/?f
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ap_Bac
Location
Images:
Origine : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chopper_wreck_at_Ap_Bac-LF.jpg
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 13-Jun-2021 18:06 | TB | Added |
| 10-Apr-2025 08:19 | Frédéric Goudon | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative, Category, Photo, ] |
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