Part of the Vietnam War (1968)
The Battle of West Saigon took place from 5–12 May 1968 during the May Offensive of the Vietnam War as South Vietnamese and United States forces countered the main thrust of the offensive against the western suburbs of Saigon.
Background.
The second wave of the Tet general offensive began at 04:00 on 5 May with a Viet Cong (VC) mortar attack on the Newport Bridge, a two-lane concrete and steel span that conveyed traffic across the Saigon River from the capital to Biên Hòa. When the barrage ended a few minutes later, several hundred soldiers from the 4th Thu Duc Battalion and the 2nd Battalion, 274th Regiment, emerged from a nearby rubber plantation and assaulted the men from the South Vietnamese 5th Marine Battalion that were guarding the eastern end of the bridge but the assault was repulsed. The VC made a second attempt to cut Saigon off from Biên Hòa at 05:00 when elements from the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the Dong Nai Regiment attacked the Binh Loi Bridge (), where Highway 1 crossed the Saigon River approximately two kilometers northwest of the Newport Bridge. Troops from the South Vietnamese 6th Marine Battalion prevented sapper teams from getting close enough to destroy the bridge with Satchel charges. The VC eventually withdrew after losing 54 killed and 5 captured. Within a few hours, both of the major bridges between Saigon and Biên Hòa were open for military traffic.
As those two attacks were taking place, a company of People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) soldiers from the K3 Battalion, all wearing South Vietnamese uniforms, crossed the Saigon River in sampans. Making it to the other side without being spotted, the disguised PAVN continued on foot to the Phan Than Gian Bridge (), one of the crossing points that spanned the canal that traced the northern edge of downtown Saigon. Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Regional Force soldiers and Marines guarding the bridge challenged the new arrivals. Unable to give the correct password, the PAVN opened fire and stormed the bridge, but the South Vietnamese repulsed the assault. When more government troops arrived on the scene, the PAVN fell back to the suburb of Thi Nghe () where they continued the fight. A few hours later, National Police commander General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan arrived with more policemen and took charge of the clearing operation. As he was leading his men a bullet struck him in the thigh. The wound nearly proved to be fatal, Loan lost his leg and the injury forced him to resign as National Police director.
As the fighting got under way on the eastern side of Saigon, II Field Force, Vietnam commander Lieutenant general Frederick C. Weyand and ARVN III Corps commander General Lê Nguyên Khang learned that the enemy had entered the western outskirts of Saigon. Ambush patrols from the ARVN 30th Ranger Battalion screening the farmlands west of Phú Thọ reported numerous VC squad and platoon-size groups moving through their sector. When fired upon, most of the VC tried to evade contact and continued moving toward the city. When the ARVN Airborne Task Force north of Tan Son Nhut Air Base and Allied forces south of the city reported little or no enemy activity, General Khang concluded that the main effort was indeed originating from the west. He moved the 33rd Ranger Battalion into Phu Lam (), three kilometers south of the 30th Ranger Battalion, to block Route 10 into Chợ Lớn and ordered the 38th Ranger Battalion to move from southern Saigon to fill the gap between Phu Lam and Phú Thọ.
At II Field Force headquarters at Long Binh Post, Weyand ordered his deputy, Major general John H. Hay, to establish a forward command post at Camp Lê Văn Duyệt, just as Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware had done during the Tet Offensive, to control the US units that would soon be fighting on the periphery of Saigon. Hay and some staff from II Field Force flew into Saigon at around 07:00 to organize "Hurricane Forward", which Weyand planned to activate by the morning of 6 May.
Battle.
While those preparations were under way, Weyand received word that Colonel Charles Thebaud’s 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, had engaged several enemy units between the Phu Loi and Dĩ An Base Camps. The first battle had begun when a pair of companies from the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, had gone to the hamlet of Tân Hiệp (), three kilometers northeast of Dĩ An, to investigate a tip from local authorities about a VC ammunition dump. The troops came under heavy fire from machine guns and recoilless rifles as they tried to enter the hamlet. Thebaud dispatched two more companies of the 1/18th Infantry, along with several troops from the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment and Troop D, 7th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment. The task force first surrounded Tân Hiệp and fought its way through the hamlet, which turned out to contain several battalions from the Dong Nai Regiment as well as support elements from the VC 5th Division. When the fighting ended that evening, the Americans had killed 260 VC and the remainder retreated from the hamlet in disorder.
The second engagement in Thebaud’s sector took place south of Phu Loi when Troops A and B from the 1/4th Cavalry, discovered several battalions from the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 165th Regiment hiding in the hamlet of Xom Moi. After giving the residents a chance to flee, the province chief authorized air and artillery strikes. The bombardment lasted all day, and when the US cavalrymen and ARVN soldiers swept through the hamlet the next morning they found 500 PAVN dead in the ruins of Xom Moi, US casualties were 4 killed. The commander of the 165th Regiment, Col. Phan Viet Dung, was so disheartened that he turned himself over to the Americans, telling them what he knew about COSVN’s plans.
By the afternoon of 5 May, the fighting had died away on the eastern side of Saigon and there were no indications of an assault along the southern edge of the capital. North of Tan Son Nhut, the ARVN Airborne task force had skirmished with reconnaissance elements of the PAVN 101st Regiment, but those fights had been brief and the main enemy force had yet to appear. Moreover, the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division had intercepted six PAVN/VC battalions that had been headed toward the northern side of Saigon, meaning that any future thrust from that direction was likely to be relatively weak. For the moment it appeared that the main battle of the offensive was going to take place in the five kilometers between Tan Son Nhut and Phu Lam, where the latest intelligence indicated that the VC 9th Division and the Cuu Long II Regiment were trying to push into the heart of Saigon. After conferring with Khang, Weyand decided to move two battalions from the 199th Infantry Brigade currently stationed near Long Binh Post to the western side of Saigon to shore up the left flank of the Ranger task force. Weyand instructed the brigade commander, Brigadier general Robert C. Forbes, to block Route 10 and Highway 4, which both entered the city through the suburb of Phu Lam.
On the morning of 6 May, trucks from the 48th Transportation Group carried the infantrymen over the Newport Bridge and through the heart of Saigon before depositing them at their destinations. The brigade’s forward command post and the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant colonel Kenneth W. Hall, occupied Firebase Horseshoe Bend () on the shoulder of Highway 4, two kilometres southwest of Phu Lam, while the 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. William Mastoris Jr., manned Firebase Stephanie () on Route 10 two kilometers west of Phu Lam. Six 105 mm howitzers from Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 40th Artillery Regiment, four M109 howitzers from Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 35th Artillery Regiment and mechanized Troop D, 17th Cavalry Regiment, strengthened the position at Stephanie. General Forbes also regained from the 9th Infantry Division operational control of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. William C. Carper III, which operated from Firebase Smoke ten kilometers south of Horseshoe Bend.
As soon as the 4/12th Infantry, had settled into Firebase Stephanie, located next to a Regional Forces post, Mastoris dispatched Company D to search the woods that lined Route 10 farther to the west. After moving around 200 meters, the company spotted a VC force moving east toward the city and opened fire. The firing drew in more VC, and soon Company D found itself outnumbered. Artillery fire from Firebase Stephanie and helicopter gunships from Troops C and D, 3/17th Cavalry, based at Tây Ninh Combat Base, more than evened the odds, and Mastoris soon sent another company to assist the one in contact. The fighting ebbed and surged throughout the day, with the VC repeatedly attempting to push up Route 10 toward the city. When darkness fell, at least 139 VC soldiers lay dead on the field, while US losses amounted to 4 killed.
When "Hurricane Forward" became operational at Camp Lê Văn Duyệt on the morning of 6 May, General Weyand turned his attention to the other major battle that was developing in the western suburbs, a clash between the Cuu Long II Regiment and the 30th Ranger Battalion just southeast of Tan Son Nhut AB. Weyand gave Hay control over the 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry (minus Troop C), from the 25th Infantry Division, with instructions that he use the tanks and armored personnel carriers to support the 30th Ranger Battalion as it tried to retake a pair of hamlets, Ap Binh Long () and Ap Hoa Thanh (), that the Cuu Long II Regiment had turned into makeshift fortresses. Led by Lt. Col. Glenn K. Otis, the 3/4th Cavalry, travelled south from Cu Chi Base Camp along Highway 1, reaching the air base at around 08:30 without incident. While Colonel Otis developed an attack plan with the commander of the 30th Ranger Battalion, government officials armed with loudspeakers spent several hours calling on the VC in Ap Binh Long and Ap Hoa Thanh to surrender. None did, but many civilians fled the hamlets. The Allies then doused the settlements with Tear gas, hoping to win them back without a destructive battle, but gusting winds dispersed the chemicals before they had any real effect. The cavalrymen and Rangers began their assault late in the afternoon, moving south across a field toward Ap Binh Long. The Rangers and armored vehicles faced steadily increasing fire the closer they got to the hamlet, first from mortars and recoilless rifles, and then from machine guns, small arms, and Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). The VC, protected by a network of makeshift bunkers and trenches they had constructed since the previous day, shrugged off the suppressive fire that the US vehicle crews attempted to lay down to cover the advance of the Rangers. Realizing the gap could not be closed without taking excessive casualties, Otis and the Ranger commander pulled their men back. Unwilling to let the VC hold a position so near to Tan Son Nhut Air Base, General Khang authorized the use of air strikes and artillery to evict the Cuu Long II Regiment from Ap Binh Long and Ap Hoa Thanh.
As the fighting intensified at Ap Binh Long and Ap Hoa Thanh on the morning of 6 May, South Vietnamese officials received word that VC troops had been spotted in the old French military cemetery () just south of the main gate of Tan Son Nhut. General Cao Văn Viên ordered a company from the ARVN 7th Airborne Battalion, barracked on the southern side of the air base, to investigate. Upon reaching the cemetery, a rectangular park lined with white tombstones and surrounded by a wall of two-story shanty houses, the paratroopers discovered several dozen VC armed with light machine guns, small arms, and a few mortars. The paratroopers spent the entire day battling those troops, killing 60 with help from helicopter gunships and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) A-1E Skyraiders, and capturing another 11. South Vietnamese losses were light, though among the fatalities was Col. Luu Kim Cuong, commander of both the 33rd Air Wing and the Tan Son Nhut