Page 315 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

additional arnrnunition frorn a fleet of Chinook helicopters.
At nightfall fighting was renewed throughout the city
but the enerny failed to achieve anything except setting a{ire a fortress
of.the B.12 cornrnand post and a building of the base carnp of Battalion
z /4?.

In the early rnorning of the {ourth day o{ year o{ the
Monkey two US cornpanies in conjunction with Battalion Z/+Z (-) and
a group o{ arrnored cars, reoccupied the Highland Laaguage School
and the area of Vo Larn, The enerny, however, still r:oz,de his presence
felt throughout the ciry with harassing fire directed at the adrninis_
trative headquarters and by sending a few rounds of nortar that
exploded near the c ornrnand post of B. IZ,

By noon that day a convoy of arnrnunition escorted by
tanks arriwed frorn Konturn. But according to the troops, a sensation
of apprehension prevailed all through the rnission as it was every-
oners guess that the cornrnunists rnay attempt to arnbush the rnowing
colurnn. No arnbush, however, was recorded.
At nightfall and later in the evening enerrly gunners
again pounded the city. Dozens of warheads exploded, especially in the
headquarters area o{ the Special Zone, resulting in the death of seven
corobatants, including two officers, they were Znd Lt. Huynh Trung
Trong frorn the 2Ist Dalat Military Acaderny c1ass, deputy .o..rp".ry
cornrnander, and 3rd Lt. Pharn Hong Duc from the Thu Duc Officersr
Training Schoolrs 25th class. Lt. Duc had done the fighiing for three
days only,

On the fifth day of Tet, Feb 3, the sweep operations
still continued throughout the city. Tanks opened fire on a nurnber
of civilian houses and the cityts Buddhist cornpound, which were
suspected of having a nurnber of Cornrnunist diehards. But these had
fled out o{ town sornetirne in the preceding night.

The enerny appeared to be unable to Iaunch any further
grotr.nd off ensive during the f ollowing days, but still rnaintained. pre s_
sures on the city with harassing shellings. These lasted rrrore than
one rnonth and rnostly happened at night. AII of the enerny shelling
attacks were conducted with short range rockets of the l0Z and tZZrnm
types, launched frorn a few jungie sites about ten kilorneters away.
One key rocket launching site was destroyed by a B.5Z blanket
bornbing strike, which resulted in six enerny killed. and a launching

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