Tân Định, Saigon

3 February 1968

by W.S. McCallum

Tân Định (District 3) is the inner city suburb just north of downtown Saigon. During the early days of the Tet Offensive, survivors of the VC Sapper Teams involved in the initial assault on South Vietnamese and US facilities in District 1 are now “bugging out”. They have chosen Tân Định as their escape path.

Tân Định is a district bounded by a shallow canal to its north. The VC Sappers hope to elude the Free World Forces hunting for them by evading them through this inner-city maze of buildings before crossing the canal, where they can regroup with other VC units covering the canal. But Free World units are on the prowl…

ARVN Rangers with tank support move in, heading towards the market.

They are probably going to do a sweep along this main thoroughfare before turning northwards towards the ARVN troops holding the bridge across the canal.

Ahead of the ARVN Rangers, the streets are empty and silent.

At the same time, American infantry move in from the western side of District 3, hoping to do a sweep along the canal’s southern bank.

Ahead of them, a tall pagoda looms.

Their platoon’s HQ shelters in a nearby mansion.

While the rest of the platoon searches the back yard for any lurking VC.

Back in the temple gardens, the lead elements decide to move forward and search the pagoda, but before they can move out, 82 mm mortar rounds start falling from across the canal.

The fire is devastating.

A whole squad is wiped out.

In the property behind the mansion, another platoon is also searching the grounds for VC.

Further away from the canal, coming to meet the ARVN Rangers, is another US platoon which immediately receives fire.

A VC Sapper unit on the cinema roof brings the them to a halt, with multiple hits.

Out of sight from these VC, the US platoon clearing the grounds across the road breaks through the wall and begins exploring the back alleys on the other side.

The ARVN Rangers continue their advance. Things are too quiet….

Not wanting to be hit from their flank, squads search adjacent buildings from ground floor to rooftop.

Their comrades wait in the street below while the buildings ahead are cleared.

With that flank clear, the Rangers on the other side of the boulevard decide to move forward.

The parked Citroën they pass turns out to be wired with explosive and it is remotely detonated at the worst possible moment.

There is more to come: An RPG team appears on the rooftop ahead.

Unfortunately, they were unaware of the Rangers in the building across the way.

They manage to fire one rocket that misses the M41 Walker Bulldog tank, which returns fire, along with the Rangers on the roof.

Several Rangers were killed by the exploding Citroën, which is now burning furiously. The survivors keep moving forward, not wishing to halt in a kill zone.

The market building offers a commanding view of the boulevard and square: it is here that a VC Sapper unit reveals itself, opening fire with an RPG and AK-47s.

The M41 is the next thing that explodes after being hit by a rocket.

Its crew manage to climb out safely - they shelter behind the tank.

Having finished off the leading elements of the US platoon that advanced up the boulevard behind the cinema, a VC sapper squad there bolts across the boulevard in order to occupy the old French mansion there.

What they don’t know is that the US infantry who cleared the mansion’s grounds have taken up position in the concrete block overlooking the grounds.

They open fire. VC start falling.

Although pinned down, the VC sappers return fire and soon there are US casualties too.

Meanwhile, down the other end of the boulevard, the VC team there are now exchanging fire with the sheltering tank crew, who are suppressed.

In the ongoing heavy fire, all but the tank commander are killed.

VC sappers in position at ground level also fire from the market building, wiping out the remainder of the Rangers hit by the car bomb.

Street level and rooftop VC then pour withering fire into the building on their flank where the other ARVN Rangers are. The building offers no great protection and the Rangers are soon wiped out.

On the far side of the French mansion from where the pinned VC sappers are still exchanging fire with US infantry, a squad is hurriedly moved up to secure the mansion, but falls victim to 82 mm mortar fire from across the river. Just where is the VC forward observer that he can see into the mansion’s grounds?

With them pinned down by mortar fire, the decision is made to send in another squad on the other side of the trees. They are not spotted.

In an attempt to surround and capture the pinned-down VC sapper squad, another squad is sent up the boulevard behind them, but this is met with fire from VC sappers in the Catholic church.

This was a foolish move: the Free World Commander must have assumed that there were no more VC in the cinema: he was wrong. They open fire and catch the US squad in crossfire, wiping them out.

Back at the French mansion, the pinned-down VC sapper squad, seeing US troops entering the building from the other side, tosses a satchel charge through a window, causing a large explosion and forcing the grunts to hastily exit the now fiercely burning building.

The VC on the cinema roof cannot see what is going on there, but they can see the remaining US infantry in the neighbouring concrete block, so they focus their fire on them.

The steady, accurate VC fire causes several casualties.

A US forward observer takes up position to call in an airstrike on the cinema.

A Cobra gunship dives for a rocket strike…

and is KO’ed by return fire from the VC sappers.

It makes a hard landing; miraculously the crew manage to get out alive.

The US observer does not even have the chance to radio in news of the downed Cobra: more VC fire takes him out.

The downed Cobra crew are between a rock and a hard place…

And there is no one left in the concrete block to even provide fire support - just one pinned-down squad leader.

Heedless of what just happened to the Cobra, the ARVN Rangers call up support from a Huey Hog.

Perhaps their Commander thought that he had dealt with the last rooftop RPG in the vicinity? He was wrong….

The RPG team misses, with the rocket going wide. The Hog pilot pivots and lets loose with his mini-gun, knocking out the rooftop RPG team.

He then pivots again and begins opening fire with rockets at the market building.

The VC sappers immediately start losing men.

The Hog fires more rockets, causing terrible damage to the market rooftop and the VC on it.

But that was not the last rooftop RPG team; another pops up on a rooftop on the other side of the boulevard.

Their rocket fire goes wide. The Hog pivots once again and fires more rockets.

A direct hit!

Further reinforcements arrive in the form of a troop of M113s.

It looks like time is running out for the VC sappers in the market building.

While the tracks advance, the Hog fires more rockets at the market.

The remaining VC on the rooftop are killed.

The Hog then starts firing at the VC sappers in positions on the ground floor.

The Free World Forces Commander musters his forces for the impending attack.

Down the other end of the boulevard, the VC sappers returning from the burning French mansion mop up the Cobra crew: they are not in a position to take prisoners.

VC units in the vicinity of the cinema and the church all flee the scene: they need to find another way to the canal as this one is clearly too dangerous.

A detachment attempts to cross the boulevard over an intersection behind the market.

The lead M113 opens fire at them.

Two VC go down, and the remaining one is pinned.

The VC Commander is perplexed. How is he going to get out of this one?

The M113 machine gunners repeatedly attempt to hit the pinned VC squad leader but end up missing. Getting distracted with such a minor target was a fatal mistake. Upon gaining initiative, the VC on the ground floor of the market reply with volley automatic fire and hit the Hog:

The Hog tumbles out of the sky, but due to its low altitude the crew survive the hard landing. Two helicopters lost in what was supposed to be a simple search and clear operation - not a good look for the Free World Commander.

Keeping the pressure up, an RPG team pops out of a door from the building behind the market, kneels, loads and fires at the lead M113.

It misses the APC, but does have the Free World Commander asking “Just HOW MANY RPGs do you have?”

“You’ll be wanting to know what Uncle Ho has for breakfast next…” comes the reply from the VC Commander.

The lead M113 fires with its MG, pinning, surpressing and then killing the RPG team.

Stepping out the purple door comes another RPG team, which calmly kneels, and fires another rocket at the M113.

This one hits.

The crew survive - they huddle behind the knocked out M41 with the ARVN tank commander.

Return fire from the second M113 takes out the RPG team.

While this is going on, a US squad has fanned out from the boulevard and is doing a search through the adjacent streets leading to the canal. The Free World Commander looks visibly nervous as they pass a parked station wagon, but it does not explode.

They keep moving towards the river, searching for roaming VC.

And then head up a back alley that leads towards the square near the bridge.

Where’s Charlie?

There he is - a sniper opens fire at them.

The lead team ducks for cover.

Unfortunately the sniper has revealed himself to the ARVN guarding the bridge.

In response to the exchange of fire on their flank, a US detachment is sent off to climb up to rooftop level.

But it is the ARVN guarding the bridge who suppress the sniper.

Wanting to finish off the VC Sappers still holding out at the market, the Free World Commander sends in 3 M113s to assault their position.

The Sappers do not flinch, raking the tracks with automatic fire; suppressing all the machine gunners and forcing them to duck inside their vehicles.

And, to the Free World Commander’s dismay, ANOTHER RPG team steps out of a side door at the other end of the building behind the market and opens fire.

It misses. The ARVN Rangers to the track’s rear all open fire…

And the RPG team goes down.

The M113 crews rally and get ready for the final assault on the remaining defenders at the market.

Meanwhile, the VC forward observer on the pagoda decides to ruin the day of the ARVN firing at the sniper by bringing down mortar fire on them.

He however, is soon suppressed himself as return fire in the form of M60 rounds hit the top of the pagoda.

Back at the market, the advancing M113s are pouring machine gun fire into the remaining defenders.

The sustained fire is more than they can take.

They are finally wiped out.

At this point, the VC Commander threw in the towel. Unbenownst to the Free World Commander, he had already managed to evacuate nearly two thirds of his VC Sapper force off the table, although not via the canal, so he failed to achieve his objective. His losses however were comparatively light: Although he had lost the Sapper Team defending the market, two of his three Sapper Teams were still intact and got away.

Although he prevented the VC from escaping over the canal, the Free World Forces Commander experienced very heavy losses: 2 helicopter gunships, 1 tank, 1 APC, and he had lost nearly 3 of the 5 platoons he had at his disposal. With their stubborn resistance, rooftop snipers, RPGs, satchel charges and car bombs, the VC Sappers had shown they were a small but dangerous force.

© W.S. McCallum 12 July 2020

Web site © Wayne Stuart McCallum 2003-2020