The My Lai Massacre ( MEE LY; Vietnamese: Thảm sát Mỹ Lai [t̺ʰâm ʂǎt mǐˀ lāj] ) was a U.S. Army war crime committed on 16 March 1968, involving the mass murder of between 347 and 504 civilians, almost all women, children and elderly men, in Sơn Mỹ village, Quảng Ngãi province, South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. Some of the female victims, including children as young as 12, were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated. The incident is the largest massacre by U.S. soldiers in the 20th century.
On the morning of the massacre, C Company, commanded by Captain Ernest Medina, entered the hamlet of Mỹ Lai 4 expecting to confront the Viet Cong's Local Force 48th Battalion, which was not there. The killings began as troops searched for guerillas and continued even after it became clear none were present. Soldiers rounded up villagers, held them in the open, and massacred them using automatic weapons, bayonets, and grenades; one large group was executed in an irrigation ditch. They also burned homes, poisoned wells, and slaughtered livestock. Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr. and his helicopter crew attempted to intervene and halt the attack.
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