Page 333 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

counted. There were 1Z enerny captured along with four weapons,
including one rnachinegun, The attacking force suffered two killed and
four wounded,

A nurnber of enerny diehards continued to hold out as
night feII over the treasury building. Frorn this bui).ding, they opened
autornatic weapon fire on the provincial adrninistration cornpound and
forced the 702nd RF Cornpany guarding it to withdraw to the sector
cornrnand cornpound.
No infantry action was recorded during ti-re rest of the
night. The enerny again confined his actions to only sporadic harass-
ing shellings o{ night positions and rnilitary installations around
town. There were no signi{icant results. Major targets inclurled the
position o{ the 5I4th Transportation cornpany, the province adrninis-
tration headquarters, the Z3rd Division Cornrnand cornpound, the air-
fieid for L. l9 spotter planes and tbe 23td Reconnaissance Corrrpanyrs
dependent housing carnp.
Around daybreak on the third day of Tet, Feb. Ist, the
37?th and 70Znd RF Cornpanies assaulted the treasury office and the
provincial adrninistration heaciquarters. They were surprised to
Iearn that the enerny diehards, who had survived rnany assault waves
of arrnor supported friendly troops all the p::evious day, had evacua-
ted the area under: cover of night.
The 8th Arrnor Battalion and the Zf4 5fn Battalron also
conducted a sweep operation in the neighboring areas between 0800
hours and 1500 hours securing cornPlete control of aIl the thorough-
fares of this downtown area.

. On the sarne day the Z3rd Division C ornrnand devoted al'I
of its available garrison troops to the task of sweeping the southwest
ern section of the city surrounding the Cho Nho (Small Market) area'
The units involved included the 23rd Ranger Battalion and the 23rd
Reconnaissance Cornpany. The Major targets were the Protestant
Church, the Finance Office No 3, the Lasan hill and the Cho Nho
rnarket plus the adjoining areas. The action was rnarked by sporadic,
scattered clashes with rninor enerny elernents which were apparently
ieft behind to harass and delay. Fifty four enemy were killed, eleven
captured and sixteen assorted weapons seized. Friendly forces suffe-
red 1Z killed and 19 wouncied.

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