Page 211 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

the operations to expel the enerny frorn Truc Larn, Linh Son Pagodas
and the Bonze Rest Center, the 9th Airborne Battalion had to halt
their advance and give way to the 8t st Airborne Ranger Battalion
which had to sw.eep the rernaining pof;tion of the zone of action at Duc
Tin school. This unit had just rnoved frorn Nhatrang and was cornmand-
ed by Major Que. The aPpearance of the airborne rangers rneant that
there had been a change in street fighting tactics to avoid darnages
caused to the people. Prior to their attack, they used lirnited supPort
of heavy weapons but crept and rolled into the battle area to search
and destroy the enerny because they were expert in close cornbat'

Joining the battle on the rnorning of June 8th, the 81st
Airborne Ranger Battalion departing frorn the Bonze Rest Center
rnounted a probing attack on eneiny positions in the vicinity of Duc

Tin sc hool.
The lst comPany was the advance guard. Two pointmen
Nguyen Linh Kiet and Ngo Van Hoa were killed by bursts of AR {ire
*hil. th"y were rnoving forward on a reconnaissance. 106rnrn recoil-
Iess rifles were also used to supPort the advancing elernents. By i400
hours a{ter finding the exact enerny positions the airborne rangers
suspended all reconnaissance rnissions and surrounded the objective
blocking aII avenues of aPProach.
At 1900 hours the airborne rangers started the attack
by opening up with a1l kinds of weapons fire on.the objective. 60mrn
rnortars pounded regularly every 5 seconds. M' ?9 fired in salvos of
8 rounds at a tirne.
The firing continued for 2 consecutive hours'
A11 at once, all fires were li{ted. So were enerny fires'

In the dirn light of a nearly full rnoon overcast by the clouds, the
battlefield was shrouded in gunsrnoke.

During this 1u11, I5 Airborne Ranger and Delta tearns
quietly rnoved on the attack, without field packs, encurnbrant equip-
rnent, but carrying their individual weapons and l0 grenades' They
crept silently into the objective in cells of three crawling like lizards
frorn every dir e c tion.
About lOrn frorn the enerny defens''ve positions they all
jurlped up together and attacked with grenades. The enerny in confusion
reacted with B,40 fire but these anti tank grenades used against Person
nel were not as effective as hand grenades. The enemy front line was

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