Page 319 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

BideB of the rnarket. The sergeant and another rnan of his fired sorne
300 rounds of M79 grenades at the surprised enerny in the clash. Two
light rnachineguns of the arnbueh party also did a fine job. The enerny
fled, leaving behind his dead and 15 weapons, including one rnortar
and one heavy rnachinegun,

Major Dinh The Thoai, whe cornrnands the 42nd Regi-
rnent, ordered the collection of Viet Cong bodiee and weapons to be
shown to the public at the local stadiurn.

But a second battle was to take place in Tan Canh in
the f ir 6t hour s of the Year of the Monkey. As in Konturn city, the
people in Tan Canh had just celebrated the passing o{ the old year
and the advent of the new year when gunfire could be heard.
As on the previous occasion the enernyrs presence wa6
betrayed before he actually attacked GVN installations. The alert
was given when a governrnent soldier escaped frorn the Viet Cong
and inforrned the autorities of the advancing corning units. He had
been part of a five rnan antenna dispatched to watch enerny rnovernent6
frorn a pagoda just outside the srnall town.
In the cold night of the highlands, all the five rnen soon
entered the pagoda for their nightre A group of cornrnunist soldiers
"est,
who had been secretly following their rnovernent and irnm ediately
entered the pagoda and killed thern with knives, Of the five rnen, only
one escaped. He irnrnediately reported the incident to headquarters.

The sergeant who had been on duty that ni.ght at once
reported to his superiors, then he took a squad of troops to block
the infiltration route the enerny had used on a previous occasion.
He was killed in the ensuing battle, another hero sirnply known to
his cornrades-in-arrns as Sergeant Nganh, but the enerrly was
stopped.

Irnrnediately after reception of the report of an irnpend-
ing cornrnuni6t attack friendly artillery pieces had pounded at all
suspected enerny troop concentrations. By five orclock in the morning
a c orrlpany size reaction force entered the town.

The cornrnander of the 42nd Regirnent was personalLy
c ornrnanding this srnal1 force while his deputy took upon hirnself the
task of bringing to the barracks sorne of those on leave on that
sacred day.