Page 147 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

engaged in other harrassing actions such as the ones recorded against
the Newport and the bus station in Gia Dinh.

On the rnorning of 24 February a corrrbined US-Vietnarnese
force, supported by arrnor and air strikes,6wePt through an area I I rniles
frorn Saigon in search of a Cornrnunist elernent known to be operating in
the villages of Xuan Thoi Son' Xuan Thoi Thuong and Xuan Thoi Trung
A heavy clash ensued at Tan Thci Trung,between a South Vietnarnese
airborne elernent and the Viet Cong,that continued into early evening'

In this clash the ground troops were supported most ef-
fectiwely by gunships and artiltery and,as the fighting slowed at dark,a
total of Z0 Cornrnunlsts had been killed, five captured, and10 individual
weapons confiscated. The enerny force was about 400 strong and well
eqr]i ped with anti_aircraft roachineguns that shot an.AJlied helicotper
ol-,t oi tfr. sky, This fortunately resulted in no casualties arrrong the
pas sengers.

In another oPeration in this general area three rni.les
northeast o{ Saigon,an airborne battalion (-) with only two cornpanies
rnet with the enerny in one of the fiercest battles of the carnpaign' The
Sixth Airborne tsattalion, in c luding only Cornpanies 61 and 64,rnet and
fought an elernent of the Phu Loi Three Battalion for six hours. In the
course of the battle governrnent troops killed 7Z Yiet Cong.

A{ter securing control o{ the area,the governrnent soldiers
captured two rnachineguns, ten 1.K. 47 individual weapons and two
Chinese C,o rnrnuni st pistols. Against a loss of 72 killed on the eornrnu-
nist side,the South Vietnarnese unlt lost five dead and seven wounded
Arnong the Viet Cong killed was Dinh Huu Chinh,who had cornrnanded
Cornpany BZ/A7, and his political cornrnissar,Tran Van Ngu'

Also beginning that first day o{ March,'Al1ied troops in the
Saigon area launched a series o{ operations that sought to break the
cornrnunist noose around the city. In the area of the Binh Loi bridgq
one such operation was launched that is typical of rnany other like carn-

To reduce enerny pressure in this area,a cornbined oper-
ation grouping thousands of Al1ied soldiers was conducted,with the ob-
jective of kilting as rnany Viet Cong as possible' The operation took
ptt." ir"r a triangle rnade up of the district tow-s of Thu Duc' Lai Thieu
and Di An. Here the enerny rnaintained irnportant instal'lations in the
Dong An Woods, the Forest of Dau, the Lo Chen Area, Thuan Giao'
and the Co Mi Woods,

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