Page 243 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

the Rangers. The policernen of the 5th, 6th and 8th Precincts pressed
the enerny into a quarter of Nguyen Van Thanh Street. The firefight
Iasted frorn noon tiLl dark and burned down all the huts along the sides
of the c r eek.

Also on this day the colurnn of the 38th Ranger Battalion
operating on Tong Doc Phuong and Hoc Lac Streets added 4 rnore VC
killed and 3 AKs, one 8.40 captured,

The VC troops and cadre who rallied or were captured
in Go Cong Street declared that they belonged to the 308th VC Battalion
except 2 who were frorn North Vietnarn" They had inJiltrated frorn
Long An into Cholon since May Z8th. One of thern revealed that they
had infiltrated frorn Long An into Cholon since June 7th, This indicated
that these VC fighting in the Truong Van Ben Soap Factory were frorn
a recently c ornrnitted unit.

During the nlght th-e Rangers continued to surround the
areas in Khong Tu, Go Cong, Ngo Nhan Tinh, Van Tuong Streets. The
VC were trcut uprr into srnal1 groups and isolated frorn one another.
Their fighting becarne disorgani.zed and desperate since they knew
they had no hope of finding a way out.
On the rnorning of June 7th when tine 4f 38 C ornpany was
searching in this area the first of 17 VC surrendered in Khong Tu
Street with two 8.40s, 20 rninute s later another 13 VC laid down their
weapons in Go Cong Street. The prisoners were then allowed to call
out to their cornrades to surrender. 33 isolated VC responded to the
call among whorn was one wolnan cadre. Most of thern were natives
frorn Vinh Long and Tra Vinh and belonged to the 6th and 308th VC
Battalions. They also discLosed that their cornrnander had lost contact
of thern 2 daye ago. The cornrnander did not know whether they were
still alive or not, The 308th Battalion Cornrnander had been wounded
in the head sorne days earlier.

After this surrender of VC troops and cadre the battle
of Cholon ended on June 7th, 1968 with Z enerny battalions destroyed
and nurnerous weapons c aptur ed,

The heavy weapons used in this trattle were :

9Ornrn guns rnounted on US M,1I3 and M.4g .
I06rnrn recoillees rifles rnounted on US jeeps,
76rnrn guns rnounted. on RVNAF M. 4I.

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