Page 136 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

Fighting in the suburbs

The Viet Cong Tet offensive, wbich was launched
against Z8 provincial cities and irnportant rnilitary instailations with
an estirnated 97 battalions of troops,included both cornbat and support
troops. The of{ensive failed rapidly except in the forrner irnperial capi-
ta1 of Hue where,due to cloudv weather and the resulting poor observa-
tion,the Cornrnunists were able to {ight nearly a rnonth'

In other parts of the country the intruders were expelled
frorn the cities but were apparently unable to see the true situation,
Thus, they were to rnount a second wave off,ensive on lTFebruary' This
took place in quite a {ew locations but was rather short in duration and
Iess intensive than the initial phase. Although having the capability of
bringing troops to the outlying areas of various cities, the enerny did
not have the will and the ability to turn these rnovernents into victories,
Most rernarkable was his ability to continue pounding
population centers with rnortar and rockets of all calibers' He also
rnade use of a new rocket rnanufactured in Russia, t]ne L zzrorn rocket,
that has a range of eight rniles and has an explosive power equivalent
to 45 kilos of TNT.
In Saigon the enerny began this new offensive phase with
a shelling of the Tan Son Nhut Airport.The bornbardrnent began at 0IZ0
hours and, besides the sprawling air base, Cornrnunist warheads also
fe1l on the MACV Headquarters, the National Police Headquarters, and
the Phu Larn Radar station. A total of nearly I00 rounds of 8Zrnrn rnor-
tar and 37 rounds ol lZ?rnrn rockets exploded in the air base'
One of these warheads hit the waiting roorn where 88 U' S'
Nawyrnen of the Riverine Force were waiting to return tothe U' S', kill-
itg six of the hornegoing troops and wounding quite a few others' Six
other rounds hit the headquarters of General Williarn C' Westrnoreland
but there wexe no casualties. One C.4? transPort plane of the VNAF
33rd Air Wing was d.estroyed and another darnaged while five U' S'
planes were either destroyed or darnaged. The attack resulted in a
total of seven dead and 13I wounded, of which 67 wete evacuated'

At Police Headquarters five policernen lost their lives
and another 40 were wounded when the enerny lodged sorne Z0 rounds
of SZrnrn rrrortar j.nto the cornpound. This general area was to be at-
tacked anew the following day but all the warheads fell into a poor

- 139 _