I visited the Ap Bac memorial while I was in the Mekong Delta, I'd read about the battle only briefly because of John Paul Vann who was advising the ARVN officer overseeing the action. Vann was a real interesting guy who had a lot of worthwhile insights into the war at the time. Anyway, a large VC force had been reported in the area so an ARVN unit was called in to attack them. While on route the ARVN unit stumbled unexpectedly into a Viet Cong unit and became pinned down in rice paddies, chaos ensued and the ARVN lost a lot of men and vehicles while the VC broke contact and disappeared into the night. The arrogance of the ARVN officers refusal to listen to Vann and other American advisors resulted in a lot of men killed.
Seeing how flat the landscape is the ARVN must have really caught hell, hardly any cover you'd just have to hug the mud. Plaques mark the, I'm assuming, rough locations of the destroyed vehicles. How accurate they are I don't know.
Overhead Map
Sign post
Fields in which the fighting took places
The government crosses out all ARVN insignias
Seeing how flat the landscape is the ARVN must have really caught hell, hardly any cover you'd just have to hug the mud. Plaques mark the, I'm assuming, rough locations of the destroyed vehicles. How accurate they are I don't know.
Spoiler!
Overhead Map
Sign post
Fields in which the fighting took places
The government crosses out all ARVN insignias
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