25th

31 January, 0110 hours Tet Offensive At 1:10AM the 7th Cu Chi Viet Cong (VC) Liberation Front Infantry Battalion, reinforced, launched a ground and mortar attack on the town and subsector headquarters.  The VC penetrated the Military Assistance Command (MACV) compound and opened the jail.  About 50% of the compound was burned.  Local RFPF  units, supported by ARVN and U.S. artillery, defended. The attack was turned and the fighting ended 1830 hours (6:30PM).

TET New Years Offensive After Action Report by II Field Forces Command III Corps Tactical Zone, Republic of South Vietnam

IIFF

Commanding General United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam.

The excerpt below was edited from the original report ~ to view the entire report click HERE.

Note: The enemy objective in the attack was to take and hold the city of Cu Chi.

0110 hours [1:10 AM], The 7th Libiration Front (LF) Battalion, reinforced, launched a ground and mortar attack on the town and subsector headquarters.  Viet Cong (VC), penetrated the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), compound and opened the jail.  About 50% of the compound was burned.  Local Regional Forces/Popular Forces (RF/PF) units, supported by ARVN and US artillery, defended.  

0320 hours [3:20 AM], The 25th Infantry Division base camp just to the north received a heavy attack by fire.  Ten rounds of 122mm rocket and two-hundred rounds of 82mm mortar fell, resulting in one killed in action (KIA), and twenty-eight wounded in action (WIA).

     The Viet Cong in Cu Chi began to break contact at 0500 hours [5:00 AM].  At 0530 hours [5:30 AM], D Company 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry, with one platoon of 4/23 Mechanized, was engaged by VC blocking forces while moving south out of the base camp to relieve the town.

0730 hours [7:30 AM], The 2nd Battalion, 49th ARVN Infantry, moving to the north toward Cu Chi engaged VC blocking forces. It was reinforced by the 3rd Battalion, 49th Infantry and 1/10 Cavalry.

     Both US and ARVN units reached the center of town by 1030 hours [10:30 AM].  The VC forces withdrew from the area at 1145 hours [11:45 AM], but contact continued by ARVN until 1830 hours [6:30 PM].  There were forty VC KIA in Cu Chi and twenty-five others outside, eleven of which were killed by artillery.  Heavy civil damage was done to the center of Cu Chi.

27 November C Company transferred two Noncommissioned Officers (NCO’s) and twenty enlisted men (EM) from Long Binh Post to the 25th Infantry Division base camp at Cu Chi. The Detachment was assigned to supplement the 25th Infantry Division, 25th MP Company.

       The Detachment provided 2 to 3 daily motorized roving road patrols nicknamed the "Rat Patrol" on Highway QL-1 and 8-A . They would travel northwest from Cu Chi Base Camp to Go Dau Ha village, east towards Phu Cong Village, and southeast towards Saigon. The duties varied from setting up checkpoints to road patrol and Traffic Control Points (TCP) at two defiles, one between Trang Bang and Go Dau Ha and the other at the Phu Cong Bridge for the Dau Tieng and Tay Ninh convoys.

       The MP’s also filled in where needed as escorts on the Dau Tieng, Trang Bang and Tay Ninh Convoys. Cu Chi Convoy was part of the larger Tay Ninh Convoy. A separate serial of trucks would separate from the larger convoy when they approached Cu Chi.

26 February A group of approximately 34 Viet Cong Sappers attacked the flight line of the base camp with explosive charges and Rocket propelled Grenades following an early morning mortar attack. The attack was centered along the outer perimeter in the area of the 554th Engineer Battalion. A total of 14 GI's were Killed In Action with approximately 40 Wounded In Action. Nine Chinook helicopters of the 269th Combat Aviation Battalion, 12th Combat Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade were destroyed and another three were severely damaged.

May-July Combined Patrols Enhanced Combined police patrol operations were expanded and enhanced when the battalion, in cooperation with the Vietnamese National (Cahn Sat) and Military Police (Quan Cahn) in Military Region III, increased the number of operating patrols in conjunction with the concept of Vietnamization of stabilization operations. New Quan Canh (MP) detachments were established at Phu Loi and Cu Chi and additional personnel and material resources were added at several other existing locations.

QC