Between 10 and 20 May 1969, during Operation Apache Snow in the A Shau Valley near the Laotian border, the 3rd Brigade of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division attacked Dong Ap Bia - Hill 937 - held by the 7th and 8th Battalions of the North Vietnamese 29th Regiment in deep bunkers under triple-canopy jungle. Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry made attack after attack up the ridges, slowed by the defenses, by repeated friendly fire from supporting aircraft and, on 18 May, by a thunderstorm when it was within 75 m of the top. On 20 May four battalions - the 3/187, 1/506 and 2/501 and the ARVN 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment - took the summit. Soldiers and reporters called it 'Hamburger Hill'. The hill was abandoned two weeks later, and the losses for ground soon given up made it one of the most controversial battles of the war, contributing to a change in U.S. tactics and the start of troop withdrawals.
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Operation Apache Snow opens with one of the largest air assaults of the war. After a preparation of the landing zones, Huey lift ships carry the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Col. Joseph Conmy) and two battalions of the ARVN 1st Division into the northern A Shau Valley, the North Vietnamese corridor out of Laos. Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry ('Rakkasans') lands unopposed on LZ 2, about 1,800 m north-west of a jungle massif the maps call Hill 937 - Dong Ap Bia - barely 2 km from the Laotian border; the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry lands about 4 km south of it. Company B, flown in later from Firebase Blaze, meets snipers and an RPG team at dusk on the ridge leading to the summit. Neither side's strength on the mountain is yet known: it holds the 7th and 8th Battalions of the PAVN 29th Regiment, 'the Pride of Ho Chi Minh', dug into bunkers under triple-canopy jungle.
On 11 May Company B pushes along the trail toward the summit and its lead platoon, crossing a clearing beneath the wooded crest, is caught by machine guns and RPGs from concealed bunkers and pulls back. Cobra gunships called in to help instead rocket the battalion command post, killing two men and wounding about 35, Honeycutt among them - the first of several friendly-fire incidents in the battle. On 12 May two Hueys are shot down trying to put engineers on a landing zone cut on Bravo's ridge; Company D needs five hours to advance 500 m. The 3/187 realizes it faces a dug-in regiment, and on 13 May Conmy orders the 1/506 north to strike the hill from the south. The same night PAVN troops and sappers attack Firebase Airborne across the valley, killing more than 20 Americans.
On 14 May Honeycutt attacks with three companies: B up the main ridge, C up a small finger about 150 m to its south, and D through a ravine against the north side. The bunkers hold; Company C loses most of its officers and NCOs in a day. On 15 May A and B fight to within about 150 m of the crest before gunship rockets again strike B's command post, wounding its commander, and the two half-strength companies fall back. Air strikes and artillery catch a PAVN company in a draw behind them. To the south, the 1/506, slowed by elephant grass and bunkered ridges, takes Hill 916, still about 2 km from the summit. An AP reporter's dispatches from the battalion carry the soldiers' name for the mountain home: 'Hamburger Hill'.
After a morning of air strikes and an hour of artillery, the 3/187 attacks from the north-west and north while the 1/506 presses from the south. Company D gets within about 75 m of the summit, but every one of its officers is killed or wounded; Company C is sent up to help. Cobras mistakenly fire on a Company B platoon, and Honeycutt orders the gunships away. Then a sudden thunderstorm closes in, cutting visibility to almost nothing and turning the bare slopes to mud, and the companies slide back down the ridges. The 1/506, still about 500 m short of Hill 900, cannot close. It is the deadliest day of the battle; by now the 3/187's companies have lost half or more of their men.
Maj. Gen. Melvin Zais, commanding the 101st, considers stopping the attack and instead, with his superiors' backing, commits fresh units. The 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry is lifted onto the north-east slopes and the ARVN 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment to the east-south-east of the mountain. Honeycutt protests plans to relieve his battalion and is given Company A, 2/506th Infantry instead. The 1/506 fights a third day for Hill 900. The plan for the 20th: four battalions converge on the summit, the 3/187 holding the western face while the others attack from the north-east, south-east and south.
After two hours of air strikes and about 90 minutes of artillery, the four battalions attack. Accounts differ on who reached the crest first: by one account the ARVN 2/3 was on top around 10:00 and was ordered to pull back; U.S. accounts have the first 3/187 troops on the summit shortly before noon. Most of the PAVN defenders have slipped away west into Laos during the night, but a rear guard of about two platoons fights on until the hill is declared secure at 17:00. Over the battle, ten artillery batteries fired some 20,000 rounds, and 272 air missions dropped more than 1,000 tons of ordnance on the mountain.
The 3/187 is flown out to Eagle Beach on 21 May; of about 450 men who began the assault, some 320 were killed or wounded. The division's report counted 56 Americans killed and 367 wounded (later counts give about 70 killed and up to 400 wounded), five ARVN killed, and 630 PAVN bodies found. Zais said the hill itself had no military value - the aim was the enemy force on it. On 5 June the new division commander, Maj. Gen. John Wright, ordered Dong Ap Bia abandoned; PAVN troops reportedly reoccupied it within weeks. Senator Edward Kennedy called the attack 'senseless and irresponsible', and the battle fed the shift that followed: General Creighton Abrams's guidance to hold down U.S. casualties, and President Nixon's 8 June announcement of the first troop withdrawals. A memorial now stands on the summit.
At Hamburger Hill: Standard rifle of the 29th Regiment.
Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47 became the world's most widespread military rifle thanks to its simplicity and reliability in mud, heat and rain. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops carried both Soviet AKs and the Chinese-made copy, the Type 56.
At Hamburger Hill: Squad machine gun in bunkers along the ridges.
The belt-fed RPD shared its cartridge with the AK-47 and SKS, simplifying supply for a rifle squad. It was light enough to be carried and fired by one soldier, and China built copies as the Type 56 light machine gun.
At Hamburger Hill: Used against the assaulting companies and helicopters.
The Soviet RPG-2 was a simple reusable launcher firing an over-caliber shaped-charge grenade. In Vietnam it was widely used under the designation B40, against armored vehicles, bunkers and buildings, alongside the later RPG-7 (B41).
At Hamburger Hill: Mortars on the reverse slopes.
The Soviet 82-BM-37 and its Chinese copy, the Type 53, were standard battalion mortars of communist forces in Vietnam. An 82 mm tube could also fire captured US 81 mm rounds, though not the other way around.
At Hamburger Hill: Standard rifle of the 101st Airborne.
Developed from Eugene Stoner's AR-15, the lightweight M16 replaced the M14 in Vietnam. Early rifles gained a reputation for jamming, linked to ammunition changes, a lack of cleaning kits and training; the improved M16A1 followed in 1967.
At Hamburger Hill: Company machine guns.
The belt-fed M60 was the standard US infantry machine gun of the Vietnam War, nicknamed "the Pig" for its weight and appetite for ammunition. It drew on design ideas from the German MG 42 and FG 42.
At Hamburger Hill: Grenade launchers against bunkers.
The single-shot M79 "Thumper" or "Blooper" let one soldier lob explosive grenades well beyond throwing range. Grenadiers in Vietnam rifle squads used it against enemy positions, windows and bunker openings.
At Hamburger Hill: Lifted the battalions into the A Shau and brought out the wounded.
The turbine-powered Huey became the symbol of the Vietnam War. It made "air mobility" practical, carrying troops into battle, bringing in supplies and evacuating wounded from landing zones that roads could not reach.
At Hamburger Hill: Firebase artillery in support (105 mm howitzers).
The M2A1, later redesignated M101A1, was the standard US light field howitzer from World War II through Vietnam. In Vietnam it was often lifted by helicopter into firebases to support air-mobile infantry.
Free for everyone every year on its anniversary: May 10–20.
Army historians' accounts (Willbanks after Zaffiri; Boian's SAMS monograph; the Army's own retrospective) and the Vietnam Center archive give the company-level sequence.
The summit is fixed from OpenStreetMap's peak; the firebases and A Luoi come from wartime grid references; Hills 900 and 916 and the landing zones are placed by distance and bearing from the histories.
Company routes follow Willbanks and Zaffiri; Charlie Company's route and the PAVN battalions' positions are interpretive.
Accounts agree on the sequence; casualty figures, friendly-fire counts and who reached the summit first differ and are given as such.
