Page 212 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

breached.The airborne rangers and the Delta Tea'ns then closed with
the enerny in close cornbat, A nurnber of VC were killed, sorne
rernained confined in dug outs and others were split into Z g.rouPs to
fight and fired a bloody way out. At daybreak the objective was colr)-
pletely under c ontr oI.

Zr dead VC were left on the objective and I VC was cap-
tured. On our side, 9 airborne rangers died for the service of their
country. The prisoner of war conJessed that he was of the 1st battalion'
Dong Nai Regirnent infiltrated 3 days before.
This was the first night raid ever conducted in the ope-
rations on the fringe of the Capita..

After seizing the objective area around Duc Tin school
the airborne rangers and Delta Tearns controlled only one Part of
the zone of action 150rn deep frorn Hoang Hoa Tharn street to Le Quang
Dinh street. It appeared that rnore enerny reinforcernents were being
brought in. Unexpectedly 2 Airborne Ranger cornpanies positioned in
the Bonze Rest Center were encircled by the enerny troops corning in
frorn the northwest, Initially, at 1300 hours, the enerny opened fire
lr orn 2 high buildings, a garden thickly covered with trees siightly
opposite the gate and frorn the flank of the pagoda to harass our troops,
Lieutenant Binh then split his force into 2 elernents. One frorn the
opposite building opened fire on enerny positions while the other one
rnaneuvered directly frorn a corner of the pagoda towards the slightly
opposite building, The VC in the second building on the flank of the
pagoda joined those in the garden firing on our rnaneuvering elernent.
Lieutenant Binh sent a third elernent frorn the corner to the north
of the pagoda to launch a frontal attack on the garden. At the sarne
tirne, the first colurnn storrned into the building opposite the pagoda.
The VC were driven out leaving behind 6 dead. The rernaining VC
fled into the building on the flank of the pagoda.

The elernent attacking the garCen was held off by Z B'40s
positioned behind a tree. The airborne rangers launched 3.5 rockets
killing the 3 gunners on the spot. When they rnoved to capture the
B.40's, they found that these VC were chained together by the hands.

As to the building on the {Iank of the pagoda, lOrnrn guns
were used to blow openthe wall for the troops who had previously
seized the opposite building to assault through. The enerny fled to
the other side of Tran Binh Trong street leaving behind in the battle

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