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| Date: | Wednesday 2 January 1963 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Vertol CH-21 (x4) |
| Owner/operator: | 93rd Transportation Company, US Army |
| Registration: | |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: |
| 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.
At the days end, nine members of the 93rd Transportation had been wounded and one killed in action, the specialist Donald Leon Braman,crew chief of a CH-21 .
A total of 83 South Vietnamese and three Americans (including one Army captain and a UH-1 crew member shot down) died in this battle.
Sources:
https://www.vietnamwar50th.com/education/week_of_january_2/
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:Downed_choppers_at_Ap_Bac.jpg
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 11-Apr-2025 18:03 | Frédéric Goudon | Added |
| 11-Apr-2025 18:17 | Frédéric Goudon | Updated [Photo, ] |
| 14-Apr-2025 14:22 | Frédéric Goudon | Updated [Aircraft type, ] |
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