Beschreibung:

[Vietnam: 1963.] A fine Viet Cong grouping, comprising. 1. A three piece cotton Viet Cong Victory flag with yellow star and text reading "Lúc lương vợ trang cái lấy chiến tháng Áp Bác 1963" ["The Armed Forces take Ap Bac victory 1963"]. 2. A cotton Viet Cong bugle/car flag with white star and string attachments. 3. A cotton shoulder patch square with white star, and a Viet Cong/North Vietnamese Army rough cotton web belt with brass buckle displaying a star and dark cotton scabbard with painted red star holding a handmade fighting knife with darkened blade and wooden handle with pommel bottom painted and carved in the shape of a red star. Various sizes, the collection of 6 items mounted in a Riker Box. Provenance: War Museum. A rare Viet Cong battle flag from the Battle of Ap Bac, one of the first major battles of the Vietnam War following the entry of the USA. On the 2nd of January 1963, US intelligence detected a sizeable Viet Cong force in the small hamlet of Ap Bac in the Mekong Delta to the southwest of Saigon, prompting the dispatch of troops from the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam (ARVN) to the area. The result was a humiliating defeat for the ARVN, with 83 casualties, despite the AVRN possessing numerical superiority 1500 troops versus 350, and the Viet Cong forces in the end melted away with very few casualties. The battle subsequently featured heavily in Viet Cong propaganda. It was incidents like this which slowly pushed the US into a fully deployed army on the ground, rather than offering forces in an advisory role.