Page 477 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

Soc Trang, Vinh Long' Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, and Rach Gia' The corn-
rnand head.quarters of the IV Corps suffered heavy losses; the corn-
rnand headquarters of the 14th, 16th and 32nd Regirnents were des-
troyed. 6,200 enerny soldiers were captured' 25,000 enerny soldiers
and cad.res were put out of cornbat. Eight regular battalions were
decirnated as were the 43rd and 44th Ranger Battalion, the Zf3lBat-
talion, the Engineer Battalion at Can Tho, the 4h4 Battalion, the
1/15 Battalion, and the 3f3z Battalion. In Vinh Binh alone, l,200
security and police agents de{ected and 1, C00 weapons of all kinds
were seized. Our forces attacked 7 airfields, inflicting crippling
darnages to the Lo Te, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh and Ca Mait airfields'
100 planes were shot down and hundreos of rnilitary vehicles were des-
troyed includ.ing 4O arrnored cars- Tens of vessels were captured,
a6 were the two junk bases of Yinh Long and Tra l'/inh' The enerny
pressure on rural areas was Iifted the whole of Soc Xcar i{lwn was
liberated, and more than 200 posts were srnashedrr.

The enerny c ornrnand in charge of Thua Thien - Hue
also issued a c ornrnunique with the following contents :
rrFrorn 31 January to 9 February 1969, our forces
liberated the Thua Thien - Hue area through lT5 battles not taking
into account hundreds of other battles fought by regional guerilla
units. We overran 53 enerny positions, destroye<i two prisons, captured
m.ore than 10,000 enerny soldiers including 1,800 Arnericans' The
?th Arrnor Regirnent was anlihilated as'were 6 enerny battalions
including 2 riot police battalions, I' rnechanized transport battalion'
1 engineer battalion, Z tnlantry battalions and 17 Arnerican cornpanies'
The lst Infantry Division was decirnated, with its lst and 3rd Regirr-rents
losing up to 3/4 of their rnen. The Paratroop Brigade was put out of
action. The whole popular force structure including 16t regirnents, 18
Rewolutionary Developrnent cornpanies were destroyed' 118 planes of
all kinds were shot down or destroyed, 250 rnilitary vehicles including
50 tanks, and 20 artiilery pieces of the 175-rnrn, I55 rnm and 105 rnm
types were destroyed. 1O war vessels and junks wer:e sunk' 10 arrns
and arnrnunition depots were seized, along with 2,000 weapons of all
kinds. 12 bridges were blorvn up. Tens of thousands of l:eop1e wel-
corned the forrnarion o{ a revolutionary governn-renr' Youths, studen"s
and school boys received arrns to forrn cornbat units which were
ready to fight the enerny a{ter intensive military training' The Ame-
ricans are now reinforcing the puPpet regirners troops in an attemPt
to recapture Hue. They have su{fered heavy casualties and will

c ertainly be def eated rr.