Page 306 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

in the district of Dakto, each side threw in an estirnated 15 battalions
and the battle raged lor over three weeks before it died down'

Following this, however, the C ornrnuni st6 withdreqr to
the border areas where they are kno$/n to rnaintain at least eight
regiments of troops used to secure their infiltration routes' The
p"!".r."" of so many Cornrnunists was viewed as indicating war rnay
erupt in Konturn at an)r time.
Kontum province is one of the largest adrninistrative
divieions of the land but it includes only 104, 000 people. Of these, the
GovernrnentofVietnamcontrolssorne82,000includingthe30'000
reeidents of Konturn city and its suburbe who are rnostly Catholic'
Governrnent control in the neighboring area prior to the Tet oflensive
can only be estirnated at one sixth of the provincial territory'
Friendly defense installations in Kontum province were
concentrated around two places : the city of Konturn and Dakto' A1-
though artillery pieces in either center: could not reach the other' they
facilitate the defense task to a gt ea-t extend as they could be used as
base areas {or operations reaching far into Comrnunist-held terri-
tory,
Kontum city was defended by three friendly forces' one
under the direction of the sector cornrnand, another belonging to the
24th Special Zone and the third being Arnerican troops' Besides' there
was another force of rninor special force rnanPower' called the 812

Detachrnent.
The sector cornrnand had 25 RF cornpanies with 2' 670
rnen plus 2,884 PF rnilitiarnen guarding outposts and distant villages'
Itrree pf companies were in charge of guarding governrnent offices'

Besides some specialized units tir,.e 24th Special Zoners
organic units were the 403rd and 406th Recon Cornpanies and the
oplrational control unit was the 42nd Independent Regirnent with two
batt"li.otts - one.standing by at the Special Sector headquarters and
the other stationed in Dakto, where the regirnent staff operated' The
SpecialZonetsforcealsoincludedt;neZZLslArtilleryBattalion'divided
into t*o elernents stationed in Konturn and Dakto' the 20Znd Engineer
Cornpany and an M4l tank squadron stationed in Konturn'
The American force included the 173rd Airborne
Brigade stationed in Dakto, a nurnber of arrned helicopters at the
KoJor., airfield, which was expanded recently, and a nurnber of CIDG

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