gm 32 remained static in khong sedone into the first week of july. communist artillery fire began to fall on gm 32. meanwhile, troops from the 39th regiment conquered ban napheng. the attacking royalists took advantage of the poor communist dispositions to inflict an estimated 300 pavn casualties. however, during the second week in july, intercepted communist signals traffic disclosed that the pavn 39th regiment had orders to hold the old rla camp at all costs. gm 32 was ordered into the attack, with the royal lao air force (rlaf) delivering close air support and a 75mm recoilless rifle platoon firing support. even though intercepted radio messages revealed the pavn was suffering heavy losses, the communists hung on until 18 july before staging a fighting withdrawal over phou khong. encroaching royalist irregulars killed the pavn defensive rearguard in their bunkers. the guerrillas also reported finding 60 fragmentary corpses of communist soldiers killed by rlaf strikes. the pavn 39th regiment was through as a fighting force.