The Battle of Hamburger Hill

The Battle of Hamburger Hill

Introduction

The Battle of Hamburger Hill was one of the most controversial battles of the Vietnam War. The nickname “Hamburger Hill” was given by American journalists to describe the product by the fighting carnage basically infantry base. The battle took place in the jungle of Dong Ap Bia Mountain, along the Laotian border in the Republic of Vietnam between the 101st Airborne and the Army of the Vietcong. It lasted ten days when the Americans managed to win at the cost of huge losses for a small victory. The fact that the fighting was mainly carried out by infantry with small-caliber automatic weapons, they quickly got the character of the infantry battles during the First World War. The rising U.S. paratroopers were expected from the well-armed and well-trained NVA soldiers in dismounted fighting positions. The attacks often had to be canceled due to severe weather conditions such as tropical cloudbursts, friendly fire by its own air force and artillery, accidents, and the highly efficient defense of the elite regiment of the NVA.

Discussion

The Battle of Hamburger Hill was part of a larger “Operation Apache Snow,” which began May 10 assault helicopters, 101 Airborne, the northern part of the A Shau Valley. He defended himself picked 29 North Vietnamese Army Regiment. 3 Battalion 187 Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel. Weldon Honeycutt landed smoothly on the pad marked LZ2, about 2 miles west of the hill and proceeded to intensive reconnaissance operations, moving towards the hills and the border with Laos. Closer to the hill and set up a permanent base landing battalion command. These activities did not induce any response from the NVA, to the Company B was ordered to reach the summit.

The May 11, 1969 the 3rd Battalion of the 101st Division reported the presence of North Vietnamese troops on that hill and the high command ordered that this position was taken immediately to “any price”. Determined to dislodge the enemy, the Americans began a pumps air strike with napalm and grenades on NVA positions. Bombardment was so intense that they thought they had destroyed their enemies and could move quietly down the slopes of the hill. Unfortunately they were wrong and 12 May was greeted with machine gun fire, grenades and mines installed in trees. It was a real massacre and the few who managed to retreat and evacuate, they could be injured because the fire were falling everywhere. Then they asked for more air support and aviation furiously attacked again on North Vietnamese positions during the day. The nightmare was just beginning.

The commander of the 3rd Battalion was Lieutenant Colonel Weldon Honeycutt with the code name “Blackjack”, a farm worker who ran prefer advance assurance. He was a respected officer. He had only one fault: he obeyed all commands with absolute obedience. This setting should be him after the Battle of Hamburger height undoing. Throughout the afternoon and the following night went grenades down on the NVA ...