Page 443 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

is organized according to the needs of the battle front to which it is
assigned. Usually, one group consists of: 3 infantry battalions, one
sapper battalion, one artillery battalion, one supporting battalion,
I or ! spsqjalized cornpanies like the specialized units in an in{antry
regirnent, rein-forcing elernents such as a ranger unit, a worker unit
and vanguard youth elernents (depending on each battle front), and
special organization for arrns production, health, liaison and post-
offic e .

When the Cornrnunist general offensive began, 13
enerny groups had been set up, nurnbereC frorn l to 13. Their assign-
rnents were as follows :

Cornbat : Groups Z, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9.
Support artillery : Group 12,
Logistics and R-eserve : Groups 1, 3, 8 and 10.
Sapper action in the city : Group ll (Hue city unit)
In addition, Group 559 was in charge of lcgistics for
all battle fronts in I Corps,
Only Groups 5 end 6 plus part of Group 9 were involved
in the Cornrnunist attack againft Hue. In the face of fierce resistance
and counter offensive by governrnent troops backed by heavy air raids,
they had to withdraw after three weeks of flghting and as their nation-
wide general offensive carnpaign had failed.

As far as Saigcn was concerned, the attacking force
was n.: less sizeable. Three Cornrnunist divisions and rnany regional
units were deployed near the capital city or at about two days walk
frorn it. According to confirrned intelligence reports, the enerny
force consisted of Worksite 9 (a Worksite unit is sirnilar to a division)
cornprsed of the Q761, Q762 and Q763 R"egirnents based in the Hoc
Mon - Thu Duc area; Worksite 7 cornposed of the 165th, l4lst and
l0lst Regirnents stationed in the Lai Khe - Binh Duong area; Worksite
5 cornposed al the 274th and Z7Sth Regirnents operating in Bien Hoa;
the independent Dong Nai Regirnent on the Binh Duong - Bien Hoa
border; tlne Z67th and 259th Battalions beLonging to the rnain force of
Sub-Zone Z in Gia Dinh; and the F.40 Sapper Battalion in Saigon -
Gia Dinh.

In addition, there were a nurnber of regional units
such as the 506th Battalion in Hau Nghia, the 508th Battalion in Gia
Dinh, the Phu Loi Battalion in Bj.nh Duong, the Znd Battalion in Go

-446-