Page 407 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

- Friendly side : 99 killed, 344 wounded and two rnissing, including 6
Arnericans soldiers killed and 100 wounded; 36 weapons lost including
Z7 police weaPons, one MIl3 carrier was destroyed.
- Enerny side : sorne 450 killed including coolie laborers, Z8 captured'
three surrendered and l!! weapons and one AN./PRC-I0 radio seized'
The weapons captured included four recoilless rifles, two rnortars and
twelve 840 and 841 rocket launchers.

The enerny launched his second ground assault on Phan
Thiet city around 0100h.Feb 18. It was a two-Pronged action' The first
colurnn consisted of the 48Znd Battalion rein{orced by the 485th Artillery
C ornpany and a nurnber of sapPers and coolie laborers moved frorn the
,ro.theaite..r side of the city to attack the Quang Trung Carnp' This
carnp houses the staff of the Binh Thuan sector cornrnand and the city's
rnilitary cornrnand. The enerny rnight well be in a position to seize the
adjoining provincial adrninistrative compound if he could attack through
this carnp. The second colurnn, which was cornposed of the 840th
Battalion and a nurnber of sappers and coolie laborers, assaulted the
Sector Cornrnand headquarters and the jail, At the sarne tirne they
assaulted the police station which they had failed to attack during their
first assault over two weeks earller.
The enernyrs second colurnn did a better job than the first
one. It overran the jail easily, liberating sorne 700 Prisoners, and
then occupied the populated areas adjoining the sector cornrnand head-
quarters. The fighting resulted in extensive destruction of these resi-
dential sections. A recounting of their actions follows :
This colurnn {irst opened heavy weapon fire on one of the
two hal{-undergrounci bunkers guarding the entrance to the sector
cornrnand cornpound. The enerny followed this up with a ground assault
which brought hirn into the cornpound. One of the bunker guards was
killed. The few rernaining guards killed three enerny before withdrawing
in the {ace of the superior enerrry force. An estirnated two enerny
cornpanies overran part of the sector cornpound through this entrance,
A PF elernent, led by Nguyen Van Dai, was assigned to intercept the
enerny and slow down his invasion of the cornPound. It sirnply avoided
contact with the superior enerny force. Using heavy volurnes of srnall
arrns fire the enerny also pinned down the policernen rnanning the
nearby police station. The enerny rnain force, rneanwhile, storrned
into the jail guarded by one RF platoon which {ailed to react' After
liberating sorne of the prisoners and taking zway a nurnber of others
the enerny entrenched hirnself inside the jail and PrePared to attack

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