Viet Cong 307th Battalion of the 273rd Regiment.
This fringed cotton Vietcong Battalion color is embroidered with the unit number "307" and the Vietnamese slogan "Quyet Thang" or "Resolved to Win." The flag is a war trophy taken in combat from the Viet Cong. The letters of provenance, which accompanied the flag states:
"This flag was captured at the Battle of Tan Binh on 24 February 1966 by 1st Lt. William Dunstan (Bravo Trp., 1st Sqdn, 4th Cav, 1st Bde, 1st Inf. Div.) During the early morning hours of the 24th units of the 1st Brigade closed with elements of the VC Dong Nai Battalion and VC 307th Mainforce Battalion, 271st Regiment, 9th VC Division and established the Brigade Command Post north of the hostile village of Tan Binh alongside Route 2A. A short time late the Viet Cong launched attacks from three directions with groups of thirty to forty man, each which were repulsed by intense small arms, mortar and artillery fire. The VC left 15 wounded and 142 dead on the battlefield after withdrawing. Lt. Dunstan, after capturing this flag, donated it to the 1st Infantry Division Museum at Lai Khe where it was on display from March 1966 to March 1967 and then put in storage. It was scheduled for destruction in July 1968, but I was able to liberate it and ship it to my home in the U.S. and keep it in my collection until 2003."
Jay F. Camp
F Co., 52nd Inf. (LRP), 1st Inf. Div. 67-68"
The flag is typical of flags used by the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong or the National Front for the Liberation (NLF) of South Vietnam (NLF) was both an organized political and military body in South Vietnam and Cambodia that engaged in a an intensive guerrilla war-campaign against the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory it controlled.
The NLF of Vietnam adopted a horizontally red over blue flag with a yellow star in the centre in 1960, and was based on the 1955 flag of North Vietnam, a single golden yellow five point star on a red field. This flag was also the flag of the (communist) Republic of South Vietnam, adopted on 8 June, 1969. It became de facto the only flag of South Vietnam on April, 30, 1975 (when the anti-communist regime collapsed) and 2 July 1975 (when North and South Vietnam were united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam).
Flags are now and always have been one of the most sought after military trophies.
Exhibition History:
1st Infantry Division Museum, Lai Khe, republic of Vietnam, 1966-1967
Provenance: Acquired by private purchase from France in 2009.
Sources:
Letter from Jean Phillipe Martinet to Zaricor Flag Colelction, 11 October 2009, Zaricor Flag Collection Archives.
Letter from Jay F. Camp, to Jean Phillipe Martinet, 2003, Zaricor Flag Collection Archives
War Trophy, Wikipedia, 15 November 2011, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_trophy
National Liberation Front (Vietcong), Flags of the World, 15 November 2011, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/vn-vcong.html
Vietcong, Wikipedia, 15 November 2011, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Cong
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
