The Veterans of Huế | K-12 Sapper Battalion's 1969 Raid on Firebase Airborne
The Saigon Files
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They had already survived a month of house-to-house fighting at Huế in 1968. In May 1969, the K-12 Sapper Battalion came for a 101st Airborne firebase in the A Shau Valley — and by dawn, the men who held it called it the worst night of the war.
Firebase Airborne sat on a ridge of Dong Ngai Mountain, built to support a brutal three-week campaign the 101st Airborne and 1st Cavalry Division had just fought to clear North Vietnamese Army supply bases from the A Shau Valley — the same week, and a few kilometers away, the far more famous Battle of Hamburger Hill was underway on Ap Bia Mountain. When the veteran 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry rotated out on May 10th, a relief company moved in believing the mountain was secure. It wasn't.
In the early hours of May 13th, 46 men of the K-12 Sapper Battalion — the same unit that had fought through Huế during the Tet Offensive a year earlier — crawled through Firebase Airborne's wire in six places without being detected, opening the way for infantry from the 806th Battalion behind them. What followed was roughly ninety minutes of close-quarters fighting inside the perimeter. By the time gunships broke the attack, 26 Americans were dead and 62 wounded — and the brigade's own commander later admitted it was "the worst result I ever saw come out of a sapper attack."
This account is adapted from Chapter 11 of Samuel Zaffiri's book "Hamburger Hill: May 11–20, 1969" (pages 107–124).
Units — U.S. forces: 101st Airborne Division • 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne • 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry ("Rakkasans") • 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry ("Geronimo") • 2nd Battalion, 17th Cavalry • 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery • 2nd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery
Units — North Vietnamese Army: NVA 6th Regiment • K-12 Sapper Battalion (46 men, spearheaded the breach) • 806th Battalion, 3rd and 4th Companies
#SapperAttack #NVASappers #101stAirborne #VietnamWarHistory #HueVeterans #ASauValley #MilitaryHistory #WarDocumentary #USArmyHistory #CombatHistory #HamburgerHill1969
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The Veterans of Huế | K-12 Sapper Battalion's 1969 Raid on Firebase Airborne
The Saigon Files
5,038 views
They had already survived a month of house-to-house fighting at Huế in 1968. In May 1969, the K-12 Sapper Battalion came for a 101st Airborne firebase in the A Shau Valley — and by dawn, the men who held it called it the worst night of the war.
Firebase Airborne sat on a ridge of Dong Ngai Mountain, built to support a brutal three-week campaign the 101st Airborne and 1st Cavalry Division had just fought to clear North Vietnamese Army supply bases from the A Shau Valley — the same week, and a few kilometers away, the far more famous Battle of Hamburger Hill was underway on Ap Bia Mountain. When the veteran 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry rotated out on May 10th, a relief company moved in believing the mountain was secure. It wasn't.
In the early hours of May 13th, 46 men of the K-12 Sapper Battalion — the same unit that had fought through Huế during the Tet Offensive a year earlier — crawled through Firebase Airborne's wire in six places without being detected, opening the way for infantry from the 806th Battalion behind them. What followed was roughly ninety minutes of close-quarters fighting inside the perimeter. By the time gunships broke the attack, 26 Americans were dead and 62 wounded — and the brigade's own commander later admitted it was "the worst result I ever saw come out of a sapper attack."
This account is adapted from Chapter 11 of Samuel Zaffiri's book "Hamburger Hill: May 11–20, 1969" (pages 107–124).
Units — U.S. forces: 101st Airborne Division • 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne • 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry ("Rakkasans") • 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry ("Geronimo") • 2nd Battalion, 17th Cavalry • 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery • 2nd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery
Units — North Vietnamese Army: NVA 6th Regiment • K-12 Sapper Battalion (46 men, spearheaded the breach) • 806th Battalion, 3rd and 4th Companies
#SapperAttack #NVASappers #101stAirborne #VietnamWarHistory #HueVeterans #ASauValley #MilitaryHistory #WarDocumentary #USArmyHistory #CombatHistory #HamburgerHill1969