Page 76 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

possible exception of very few high-ranking officers and sorne of the
indispensable sta{f elernents. It was not rare to see rnajors serving as
squad leaders and lieutenants serving as ordinary foot soldiers.
On 7 February 1968 the group was presented to General
Vien and then irnrnediately went on operation. It was called the Tran
Hung Dao Group. Its four battalions were known as the Ly Thuong Kiet,
Le Loi, Nguyen Hue and Le Van Duyet battalions,

Except for Zone rrCrr and rrEtt police elernents in all other
areas were put under operational control of the local rnilitary cornrnandg.
Zone F. Zone rrFr', assigned to the Arnerican troops,
included as of 9 February the area south of the Kinh Doi Sanal' and west
of Phu Tho Hoa. Outside this zone the Arnerican High Cornrnand had
organized a security belt with t:he IfZT Battalion operating in Hoc Mon
district t ZfZT Battalio n and Cornpany A of the lf+ Arrnored Battalion
in the area of Binh Loc ;3f27 Battalion in conjunction with the J.60
Mechanized Cornpany and an APC group in the area southwest and wegt
o{ the Seventh Precinct t Z/237 Battalion in Nha Be district ; and a task
force consisting of I/78 Battalion and sorne tanks in Thu Duc and the
Giong Ong To area.

Offensive r6surn6

With opposing forces deployed as presented in the prece-
ding pages, what did the friendly forces and the Cornrnunists do during

the critical days of the rnonth of February ?
I. Ttre Western Front. Two Viet Cong battalions (Z67ttr
and Z69th) reinforced by elernents of the First Battalion, Regfunent Z7I,
CT. 9 Division, appeared in the area of Ba Queo at the very beginning
of the {ighting, corning frorn outlying subrrrbs to the west of the capital'
An initial strike force of about 100 rnen was soon followed by lhe Z67th
and Z69th Battalion . This task force was put under the cornrnand of a
headquarter group that quartered at the Vinatexco textile cornpany in
preparation {or the advance on the Tan Son NhutAirport'

At Approxirnately 0345 hours the First Cornpany of
Battalion 269 volunteered for an attack on both towers OF. 5l -51 and
OF.49-50. They rnet with Etrong resistance florn the garrisons, Una-
b1e to penetrate the air base through that gate,they cut a route through
the rnine field with the intention of destroying the two towers at any

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