Page 314 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

0050 Hours : Cornrnunist troops again assaulted the
residence of the local cornrnander and ihe southern section of the B'12
C ornrnand Post but were repeltred. In these attacks enerny troops
also used B.40 rockei launchers. Followi.ng this a lull of sorts
prevailed for about one hour.
0220 Hours : A final attempt was rnade against the
base carnp of. the ZZlst Artillery Battalion but it failed thanks to the
intense counter fire of the garrison.
0340 Hours : Cornrnunist gunners pounded the gasoline
depot starting an irnrnense fire' Following ihis, other cornrnunist
troops assautted the rrrilitarv section of the city but were soon
repelled. By early rnorning all was quiet in Konturn City'

In this first night of the cornrr:unist offensive, the
Special Zone headquarters and the B.l2 Cornrnand Post had respec-
tively ten and two soldiers wounded by rnortar expl'osions. As the
assailants approached their targets the local garrison, aided by point
blank artillery fire, killed a record nurnber of enerny soldiers.
The f ollowing rnorning rnernbers of the ZZIst Artillery
Battalion were the first to venture out to collect enerny weaPons. They
were to find two 75rnrn recoilless rifles, three 8Zrnrn rrlortar tubes,
two 5Ornm rnortar tubes, two anti-aircraft rnachineguns, one \4.79,
17 rnachineguns and 50 AK.47 and AK.50 autornatic ri{les. Troops
frorn BattalionZf42 only collected 1? individual weapons as the'f were
a little tate in getting out of carnp.
The cornrnander of the 2Z1st Artillery Battalion .I/as so
pleased with the war booty that he hirnself counted the weapons cap-
tured on that occasion. Un-f ortunately, he was wounded in the foot by
an accidental explosion. This did not dilute his joy at seeing ov'er 200
enerny soldiers lying dead all around his carnp. Those bodies becarne
a threat to public health and had to be burned and buried collectiwely'
In the rnorning of the third day of the Year of the Monkey,
rnany people frorn the suburb of Vo Larn entered the city following an
attack on the area held by ihe cornrnunists by Battation Z/42 (-) ar'd
Reconnaissance C ornPany 405'

A little before dark a grouP o{ F.105 arrived to relieve
enerrry pressure on the northeast front of the headquarters while the
local garrison continued to aweep the city for rernnants of the retreat-
ing Viet Cong. In the evening the artillery battalion received sorne

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