"Hamburger Hill"...


On May 10, 1969, the US troops in Vietnam begin their last major ground offensive!



It is about conquering an elevation near the Cambodian border, which is recorded on US maps as "Hill 937" (after its height of 937 meters).

The Vietnamese call the hill Dong Ap Bia ...:



The hill in the middle of the A Shau Valley is important because it dominates the border region to Cambodia, through which the most important supply line of the Viet Cong and the People's Army of (North) Vietnam runs, the so-called "Ho-hi-Minh-Trail." :



The US-Americans deploy 1,800 men of one of their best and most powerful units, the famous 101st Airborne Division under General Melvin Zais, also known as the "Screaming Eagles" after their division badge ...:



And now the US boys have plenty of opportunity to scream!

The US intelligence has recognized that the hill is occupied by the enemy - but the "Military Intelligence" has missed the fact that 1,500 men of the (North-)Vietnamese People's Army are well entrenched there waiting for the attack ...



... and have transformed the Dong Ap Bia into a jungle fortress with dozens of camouflaged trenches, bunkers, hidden holes in the ground, various obstacles to approach (including poisoned, sharpened wooden pegs in the ground) and tunnels.

You self-confident and sure of victory US-Paras will need ten full days until the first of them stand on the seat of the hill ...:





And they will suffer heavy losses in the trenches, which are quickly taking on the character of infantry battles during the First World War ...:











70 US-Americans fall, 372 are wounded ...:











Of the approximately 1,500 Vietnamese defense lawyers, over 630 perish!

During the brutal fighting, the hill was quickly given a new name by the US-Americans: They called it "Hamburger Hill" ...



... because the accurate Vietnamese grenade launcher fire (the People's Army measured the fire zones exactly beforehand!) literally turns them into minced meat!


The grotesque consequence of the battle for "Hamburger Hill" is: The hill will be abandoned after a few days - and occupied again by the Vietnamese!

However, the high losses among US soldiers during the struggle for a strategically insignificant hill led to a rethinking of US military strategy and the "Vietnamization" of the war.

The criticism in the media due to the open war reporting and the war fatigue in the US public has since then led the US commanders-in-chief in Vietnam to keep their own forces more and more out of loss-making skirmishes.

The bloody battle for "Hamburger Hill" heralds the beginning of the end of the US presence in Vietnam ...

The battles for the Dong Ap Bia were filmed - consciously without stars - under the direction of John Irvin in 1987, at a time when the many wars of intervention of the superpower could still be viewed critically in the USA ...:



I think "Hamburger Hill" is the best - because it is the most realistic - Vietnam film, better than "Platoon" and also better than "Apocalypse Now"!

WW1 battle with modern weapons and air power. I agree Martin, HH is THE best Vietnam movie.

Phil