Page 301 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

five enerny killed, and eix friendly troops killed, eight wounded. It
ended before sundown and the city again virtually returned to norrnal.
On the rnorning of Tet Day or a few hours before the
enerny broke contact, a nurnber of civilians gathered at the provincial
Buddhist pagoda and atternpted to hold an anti - gove rnrnent rnarch.
Pol.ice rushed in and dispersed the crowd. Da Nang was irnrnediately
placed under a round-the-clock curfew and its garrison was placed
on a 100 per cent stand by alett.
The enemy defeat was general.ly blarned on the assailantsl
prernature action - one day before schedule and while their rnain as-
sault force was in the Thanh Khe and Dai Khe areas. It was also
blarned {or the ensui.ng defeat of the enerny in his second atternpted.
assault on this sea and air base city,

The second atternpted assault happened on the night
of Tet Day or Jan 30. It started with an enerny attack on the perirneter
outpost at the foot of Hai Van Pass. Counterattack and sweeps in the
Narn O and Lien Chieu areas resulted in heavy fighting between the
5th Airborne Battalion and a battalion size elernent of the enerny 4th
Regirnent. This enerny elernent had been assigned to spearhead the
first assault on Da Nang city but its tardy arrival affected adversely
its fel1ow assault force on the night of Tetrs Eve. The Narn O battle
resulted in 150 killed and 18 captured by the airborne.

In addition to his attacks, the enerny conducted terror
shellings against Da Nang. On the third day of Tet, he slarnrned ten
rounds o! lZZrnrn rocket fire into the Da Nang airbase. Two nights
later, he slarnrned another 30 rounds of rocket fire into the airbase,
The carnpaign caused the populace to engage in a shelter building
spree which caueed the price of sand bags to soar. At stages the bags
were harder to find than food. Generally, observers could tell a rich
frorn a poor Da Nang citizen, an average frorn a hurnble one, just by
having a glance at his farnily's shelter.

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