Page 252 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

On the tenth day of Tet Arnerican troops recaptured
the office of the Adrninistrative Delegate. The enerny continued to
hold out at the stadiurn, the railway station and the Phu Cam area'
A U, S. Marine force had been positioning their forces, opposite the
railway station at the end of Le Loi street, near the University

c ompound f or two daYs.
Friendly forces on the left bank rnade no progres6'
Arnerican troops, on the right bank of the Perfurne
River, successfully drove the enemy out of the stadiurn, the railway
station and Phu Carn on Feb. 9, 1968 - the llth day of the flrst lunar
rnonth. The C ornmunists 6p1it into smaller unitg and withdrew toward

Narn Giao.
Frorn Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, 1968' a ten-day period, the
enerny lost 934 killed, 4 captured, and had 30? of his weapons seized'
Arnerican casualties were 31 killed, 201 seriously and 80 lightly
wounded,
Although a Z4-hour curfew was irnPosed by the province
adrninietration and publicized by Hue Radio, rnany of the Cityrs
residents took advantage of the decreaeed intensity of the fighting to
return to their homea to fetch whatever belongings they could' There
were two refugee carrps on the right bank. One was located at the
Redernptorist church and the other at the Pilot School A third carnp
wa6 establiehed at Phu Luong.These carnPs were set up irnrnediately
after Arnerican troops started their counterattack . As friendly
operations advanced rnore and rnore civilians were liberated frorn
the c ornrnuniet s and transferred to the refugee camps. The re{ugees
prepared their rneals thernselves. They even tore down windows and
pl"ces of furniture to cook their rneals Bince they lacked firewood'

The bodies o{ the dead which had been left scattered
on war-torn streets and alleye of the ancient imperial caPital city -
Viet Cong as just plain innocent civilians - were not collected for

burialrrntilFeb'l0,lg58.Theodorofdecornpositionfilledtheair.
The burials were only ternporary. The bodies were rnerely buried on
the side of Etreets and alleys. The Thua Thien Sector C ornmand had
to call in a nurnber of Regional Force rnen stationed in Huong Thuy
dietrict and cadets of the Dong Da Training Center in Phu Bai to
Launch a aweep operation against enerny remnants and to resurne
control of all the rernaining populated sections of the city'

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