Page 412 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

school and the end of Tran Cao Van Street were burned down. Not one
house on either side of Tran Cao Van Street rernairled standing. Sorne
thirty concrete houses on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street were rrrore than
30 per cent darnaged, A great rnany of the slurn houses within 250
rneters of the Forestry Service O{fice were levelled to the ground
while the houses between this of{ice and the police station were aknogt
total losses. In the Binh Hung area rnany houses which were adjacent
to the jail, the public works service and the rnilitary dependentsl
quarters were gutted. Several houses which had been lightly darnaged
during the enernyrs first assault $/ere now totally destroyed.
The three days of street fighting cost the friendly forces
43 killed including 13 Arnericans, 168 wounded including 46 Arnericans.
There were three weapons lost, two arrnored vehicles darnaged and
80, 000 litres of fuel destroyed, The enerny lost sorne 200 killed, Z0
captured and 78 weapons, including I7 crew served. One AN/PRC l0
radio and one rnovie carrlera were seized.

The enernyrs third attack on this highly vulnerable city
took place on Feb 25 and 26, only four days after his second attack
ended. His attacking force included elernents of the 482nd Battation
and the 48Oth Regional Guerrilla Cornpany reinforced by sorne srnall
support units. These elernents attacked the city on two fronts, one
frorn the inside and the other frorn the outside.
The {irst enerny colurnn included two cornpanies of the
48zth Battalion. It attacked the Phu Long Special Zone rnore than 10
krns northeast o{ the city. The second colurnn, which included a srnall
elernent of the 482nd Battalion and the 480th Regional Guerrilla
Cornpany, attacked the Vietnarnese force positioned at the Y gate area.

Oposing these enerny attack colurnns were the 443rd and
51Oth RF Cornpanies plus the Ninth PF Platoon in the Phu Long Special
Zone and the l27th RF Cornpany at the Y gate,

According to captured enerny docurnents the enerny
sought to ovexrun the Phu Long cornpound in order to obtain badly
needed foot and m ecicine.

The enerny attacked these two areas sirnultaneously
around 0800h.Feb 25, At the earne tirne a srnall enerny unit initiated
harassing and diversionary actions in the northwestern euburbs of
the city.
In the face of stiff resistance frorn the defenders Ied by
3rd Lt Hai the hero of the counterattack, the enerny attack on Phu

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