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Page 8
15January 68
3RD BRIGADE KILLS 382 VC IN BATTLE NEAR SOUI CUT Four battalions of Main Force Viet Cong attempted to overrun a 25th Inf Div fire support base on Jan. 1 and 2, and lost 382 men in the abortive attack. The battle took place at Soui Cut, some 90 kms from Saigon. The enemy launched their attack on the afternoon of Jan. 1, hours before the termination of their announced New Year's truce period. The Div's fire support base had been set up only three days earlier.
The attack began with mortar and rocket grenade attacks in the afternoon and evening. Then shortly before midnight, still well before the end of the truce, four enemy battalions from the 271st and 272nd Main Force Viet Cong Regiments, launched human wave assaults against the fire support base perimeter.
The defenders were members of the 25th Div's 3rd Bde who were in the process of setting up a powerful fire support base at Soui Cut, only 12 kms from the Cambodian border. (See Map Page 8)
The enemy was repelled with small arms, automatic weapons, hand grenades and supporting fire. The tubes of the 105mm howitzers were lowered and fired directly into the Viet Cong attackers.
It was only last March that men of the 3rd Bde, then the 3rd Bde. 4th Inf Div, had killed 647 communists of these same Viet Cong Regiments in the battle of Soui Tre. That battle is still the biggest one-day victory of the war.
Additional fire support for the battle at Soui Cut was provided by Army helicopter gunships and Air Force tactical aircraft hitting enemy positions from which they launched their assaults, and later enemy escape routes.
When the Viet Cong attempted to flee to the south and west at daybreak on Jan. 2, these aircraft sprayed the jungle with thousands of rounds of machine gun fire and air-delivered rockets.
The infantrymen found most of the enemy dead around the base camp perimeter. U.S. casualties were listed as 23 killed and 153 wounded.
In addition to the 382 Viet Cong killed, the enemy lost 87 individual (rifles, carbines and sub-machine guns) and 29 crew-served (machine guns, mortars and recoilless rifles) weapons.
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Just a few of the weapons that were captured after the battle of Soui Cut by the 3rd Bn, 22nd Inf “Regulars.” The condition of the weapons shows that the Viet Cong were well equipped. (Photo by MAJ Bernard Rhees)
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This is a map of the 10-hour battle of Soui Cut. At least 382 Viet Cong of the
271st and 272nd Main Force VC Regiments were killed in their abortive attempt to overrun the fire support base.