Page 356 - The Viet-Cong Tet_Offensive_1968

Nha Trang

A. - THE BALANCD SHEET

During the Tet offensive, Nha Trang as well as Qui
Nhon are two first coastal provinces which were unexpectedly attacked
by the enerny in the very rnidst of Tet truce - Tet eve.. Nha Trang
eastern and western villages are cornposed of 119,000 people which
rnay total nearly 200,000 when the suburban people are included.

Nha Trang, like rnany other cities of South Vietnarn,
suffered darnage during the offensive but the darnage here was relati-
vely less than in other cities. Civilian suffered 3Z killed, 137 light
and severe wounded and 3,I92 people were rnade horneless. An
estirnated 600 houses were destroyed.

On rnilitary point of view, Nha Trang is an important
city with several installations and rnilitary carr-rps. During Tet offen-
sive not a single allied installations was attacked. The enerny was
only attacking a f ew Republic o{ Vietnarn Arrned Forc e s (RVNAF
)
installations and was able to break into the Sector Command, the
Province Administrative I-Ieadquarters and the 5th Logistics C ornrnand.
He was repelled at other cornpounds.
The fighting lasted for two days but twelve hours after
the offensive was initiated RVNAF regained cornplete control of the
city and twenty eight hours later every enerny was cleared frorn the
c ity.

The casualty Iists of the two sides were as follows :
Friendly side : 88 killed and 220 wounded in action, 130 weapons
were lost including two which were crew served. Arnong those killed
were six officers, l7 noncorns, 2 PF squad leaders and 63 soldiers.
Those wounded included 9 o{ficers, lZ noncorns, 3 squad leaders and
197 soldiers,

Enerny side : 377 kitled, 76 captured, one surrendered, 196 weapons
were seized, including 23 crew served weapons.

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