Page 87 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

The battle of Hang Xanh had corne to an end. In the course
of 60 hours of uninterrupted fighting the enerny had lost 85 killed,
three prisoners, and a significant nurnber of weapons. The loss includ-
ed ZZ individual weapons, 5 B.40 individual rocket launchers and
another five crew-served weapons. On the friendly side twelve Rangers
were killed along with two rnernbers of the arrnored colurnn; another
25 were wounded and one M, 113 arrnored car was destroyed.
Most rernarkable of all was the srnall nurnber of civilians
killed during the long battle. Although Hang Xanh had an estirnated
i0,000 inhabitant s, only two were killed by stray bullets although sorne
5,000 were to becorne horneless refugees.

I
3. hg_PhC-! L9_B9!!19. In the Western suburb of phu
Tho the enemy strength consisted rnainly of Battalion Binh-Tan Six,
which had penetrated the city without encountering too rnany difficulties.
By 0330 hours the intruders had fu1l control of the race track and the
neighboring area. Frorn this vicinity they rnounted an attack on the
field police station but were repulsed, thanks to the strong fortifica-
tions within the police cornpound.
The Thirty-Eighth Ranger Battalion, which had been
assigned the rnission of restoring order in this region, had arrived on
the scene in the early hours of 31 January. Under the cornrnand of
Captain Dinh Trong Cuong the crack troops debarked on Tran euoc
ToanBoulevard and frorn there rnoved in the direction of the Nguyen
Tri Phuong lvfarket. At the corner of Petrus Ky and Tran Quoc Toan
Boulevards Captain Cuong ordered his troops to spread out and then
they attacked the Cornrnunists frontally and frorn behind.
The infiltrators, however, were not going to let govern-
rnent troops overiun thern easily. They had organized thernselves in
two or three-storied buildings, especially those bordering on srnall
alleys. They were strongest along Nguyen Tieu La and Nguyen Tri
Phuong Boulevards. When governrnent troops appeared in that general
area,a hail o{ bullets greeted the Rangers, starting one of the rnost
savage battles in Saigon.

iVhen the frontal assault troops {ai1ed to end Cornrnunist
resistance,the second Ranger colurnn hit the enerny frorn behind.
This-very iirst encounter in the Phu Tho area caused the Cornrnunists
to hastily withdrew in the direction of Trieu Da, Nguyen Kirn,
Nguyen Larn and Nguyen Van Thoai Streets,

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