Page 230 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

Houses in this area were devastated by the {ire. Black
decornposing charred bodies ernitted stinky odors. The firemen had
to wear rnasks and rubber gloves to pick up corpses and load thern
on trucks for burial elsewhere. Added to the ruins were scattered
burned civiLian and rnilitary vehicles.
Cn June 1st, hearing that the situation was irnproving,
the refugees began to return secretly to see if their horne s had been
darnaged. In total, 283 were killed by body count in this area' The
Marines captured ? crew-served and 40 individual weapons. On the
friendly side, 13 were killed and 53 wounded'

One of the Marine heroes was Corporal Le Thanh' 27.
While Thanh and three other Marine s were lef t on the roof of a build-
ing on Hau Giang Street without contact with their unit for 40 hours,
Thanh hirnselI achieved a record, killed 20 YC although he had been
wounded in the che st.
AIso on June lst the rangers and policernen repelled the
enerny as far as Ly Thanh Nguyen Street. But as darkness carne the
rangers and police had to pull back. The VC once again took advantage
oI darknese and the undefended area to return to hold positions in the
buildings. They pushed vehicles in the streets to set uP barricades.
On Sunday rnorning at ? otclock the oPerational forces
penetrated again into the battle area. Clashes followed. In Khong Tu
Street the enerny preasure was the heaviest then around Ly Thanh
Nguyen and Manh Tu Streets. The C ornrnuni sts organized defensive
positions in the building s frorn the Nghia Xanh Motorbike knport
Agency to the old Delta bound bus station.

Their fi.re was so violent that heavy tanks had to be called
in. A fire was touched off . Many wounded VC were burned alive in
the r oari.ng flarne s.
In the afternoon the enerny pressure was sti1l heavy in
Khong Tu Street. Gunships carne to strike at assigned target6. At
1800 hours the sky clouded over with scattered drops of rain. A US
gunships flew i.n frorn the left of Khong Tu Street and launched a
rocket which pierced the wall on the second floor of Phuoc Duc High
School at No 226 Khong Tu Street and exploded on the entrance stePs
of the ground floor. Irnrnediately following the explosion of the rocket
the helicopter hovered around to strafe with rnachineguns. Color
srnoke grenadeg were eet off to signal friendly positions. The helicop-
ter then flew away.
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