Page 419 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

B. 40 rocket and burned.

At dawn the Sector C ornroand {ound that aside frorn the
attack on i.ts headquarters the C ornrnunists had taken control of the
forrner Irnperial Residence Nurnber Three (since 0130 h. ), the oong
Tarn Harnlet, the transrnission center (abandoned by a Popular Force
platoon that fled into the Psywar College), and the Hoa Binh rnarket
plac e ,
The cornrnand irnrnediately held an elnergency rneeting
of all cornrnanding officers to discuss counter-offensive rneasures.
Shortly before the rneeting started three ARVN officers
were ki1led at the Hoa Binh square, Major Le Tap and two other o{fi-
cers of the Cornrnand Staff College were killed by enerny gun{ire as
thei.r jeep was passing the Hoa Binh Theater on their way to a restau-
rant near the rnarket. They had hot been aware of the overnight deve-
loprnents with the Cornrnunists taking control of the rnarket place.
Ki1led with Major Tap were Major Nong Van Thang and Capt. Vu Xuan
Sinh. Two other officers Major Nguyen Dinh Tai and Capt. Tran
Luong Dong who were on the sarne jeep escaped unhurt by running into
a nearby villa known as trLa Tulipe Rougerr.
Meanwhile, the cornrnand rneeting decided to dispatch
a cornpany of Dalat rnilitary cadets to the Hoa Binh rnarket place to
help clear the area, The cadets failed in their rnission.
Reinforcernents started arriving at 1300b . First to
rnove in was a Regional Force platoon of 25 rnen f rorn Da Nhirn and
two arrnored vehicles heli-borne into the cityrs stadiurn. With these
rein-f orcernents the 1oca1 cornrnand launched a counterattack at the
Hoa Binh Square area, but the advance was harnpered by enerny
snipers firing frorn civilian houses. It was only a-fter helicopter
gunships were ca1led in that our troops could proceed to destroy the
enemy gun positions one by one thereby regaining control of the
situation at about 1600h. The battle cost the enerny ZZ dead and a loss
of 16 weapons of various kinds. Friendly casualties were one kil1ed
and Z wounded. The Hong Chau photo shop was burned by gun{ire. The
rernainder of the enerny force withdrew to Phan Dinh Phung street
but no gowernrnent troops pursued them.
At I700h,the Regional Forces 306th Cornpany arrived
frorn Duc Trong district and the Sector Cornrnand sent the cornpany
of cadets back to their acaderny.

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