Page 186 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

ground. Friendly troops then opened fired intensely with autornatic rifles
at the buildings where enerny snipers were supposed to be shooting frorn.
The flag pole was cut down by fire and the flag went down slowly with it.

After this action, the 3rd Ranger Cornpany continuedto ad-
vance deep into the enerny battle area, passing over barricades rnade
of furniture of all sorts. The operational force encircled the Tan Binh
Theater used by the enerny as a cornrnand post the night before. To
seize this objective, the Rangers had to crawl over several roo{s before
reaching the side door of the theater.

The enerny opened fire and killed two of the attackers who
at last had succeeded in penetrating into the building, The attackers
were able to seize the building after engaging in a violent firefight for
about one hour. The Rangers rernained in the building on the defensive
during the night.
The 4th Ranger Cornpany, in particular, had relieved the
pressure at the Binh Tay Distillery before 1100 hours without rneeting
any strong re si stanc e.
On May 9th at 0830h", Captain Dau, the assistant battalion
cornrnander led two cornpanies across Renault Bridge deep into Binh
Tien, Nguyen Van Chi, Van Than Streets to keep the situation under
control and to continue driving the enerny towards Cau Kinh Bridge. No
rnore contact was rnade because enerny troops had withdrawn during
the night. At I030h. the operation was considered finished.

The first sight of the battlefield at Binh Tien revealed
thousands of houses burned down, larnpposts lying on the ground and
furniture of all sorts spread al1 over the streets. The results of the
battle were; 32 VC ki1led, 15 captured and a war trophy of 6 AK, I
carbine and I pi stol.

The battle of Tan Thoi Hiep
(Frorn May 8th to May I tth, 1968)
In execution o{ the plan of attack on the Capital, on the
night of May 8th and early rnorning of May 9th, the 101st Regirnent,
9th VC Division intended to infiltrate into the city through Tan-Thoi-
Hiep. This move was blunted by the 5th Airborne Battalion on the
outskirts of the c ity.

About 0I30h.in the rnorning, enerny troops rnoved close
to the Airborne defensive line. At first, they attacked the 5th company

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