Page 351 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

When Maj Te the center superintendant and his rnen
reached the bridge, tine 4f4 Battalion Cornrnander, Maj Luong Van Hoi,
welcorned hirn into the carnp and positioned the rnilitiarnen along the
defense perirneter.

Around 0900 hours Col. Toan led a relief colurnn suppor-
ted by arrnored vehicles and Maj Hoirs under st r ength 4/4 Battalion
toward an assault on the enerny held hilltop training center. Two
gunships circled over the enerny positions and accounted for several
eaerny casualties, The enerny could not fight back frorn their exposed
foxholes on the hill. They ran for covet in the centerrs four bunkers
in order to fight the relief colurnn, Col Toan ordered the arrnored car-
riers to attack uphil1 but one received a direct hit frorn an enerny 57rnrn
recoilless cannon and burst into flarnes. The explosion scattered debris
and shrapnel for several rneters wounding the Battalionrg Arnerican
advisor, arnong others. The arrnored vehicles could not continue the
attack uphill any longer not only becauge of the heavy firepower frorn
enerny positions but also because of the hillrs fairly steep slope, Col
Toan ordered 4/4 Zattali,on to launch an assault within l5 rninutes and
recapture the hil1, The gunships continued to give close air support
{rorn the skies while the arrnored vehicles and other support units
provided covering fires to the assaulting force which was 1ed by Maj
Hoi. This assault force rnoved uphill fairly fast in lateral forrnations
and as soon as it reached the top o{ the hi1l, it used hand grenades and
wiped out a1l of the enerny diehards positioned in the four bunkers.
The entire enerny force originally cornrnitted to take this hill was
virtually elirninated. Besides recapturing all the equiprnent lost to the
enelny a few hours earlier, the assault force accounted for 9Z enerny
weapons, including I6 crew served weapons. One hundred and eighteen
enerny bodies were counted on the ground and in bunkers and foxholes.
Many of these casualties were credited to the effective strafing by the
two gunships, The {riendly troops suflered seven killed including a signal
Lieutenant Nguyen Duc Thu freshly graduated frorn the Thu Duc
I
Officers Training School.
The guns becarne silent all over the hill area around
1115 hours. The people of Quang Ngai heard of the victory and swarm-
ed to the area to see for thernselves. Sporadic fighting was still
going on elsewhere in the city with governrnent troops trying to des-
troy other pockets of enerny resistance. The entire city was back
under governrnent control in the afternoon. Friendly troops continued
their sweep operations against possible enerry relnnants during the
rest of the day and virtually controlled al1 of the cityrs strategic points,
bages and thoroughfare s.

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