First Battle of Saigon

Captain Smaldone spread Alpha Co 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry, out east for several blocks to north Plantation Road, then began moving north through the densely packed buildings. Dismounted infantry fought from building to building. The advance was slow and methodical.

Smaldone used two ACAVs with 106mm recoilless rifles to blast enemy strong points, the task force had to hold fire on several occasions as fleeing civilians ran past. The troops went house to house, blowing holes with plastic explosives to give themselves room to maneuver.

As told by Allen Clark MP, H&H Co. "When we got back to the racetrack to pick up the POWs, the 3rd and the 7th was getting ready for a full frontal assault, one of the few of the war, we were asked to stay there with them encase more POWs were taken. We broke up into three men units and each went with a different group."

The men of Alpha company charged the barricades. A deafening crescendo of machine-gun fire and grenades swept the avenue, leaving it clogged with fallen riflemen and discarded equipment.

The first American charge had been repulsed, but the company grimly regrouped to try again. The company decided to charge the racetrack from the southeast.

Gun-ships and recoilless rifles pounded the VC positions as the sweating infantrymen surged forward. By 1630 Alpha Co. had secured the Phu Tho Racetrack when a ACAV rammed the southeast corner of the racetrack making a hole in it through which the troops poured in to take up positions in the grandstands.

Lt. Col. Gibler choppered into the racetrack with B and C companies 3-7 infantry, having been relieved at Binh Chanh by the 5th Battalion 60th Mechanized Infantry of the 9th Division, and set up the CP in the director's office. The racetrack was vital as the only sizable landing field in Saigon.

On February 1, General Ware reinforced Lt. Col. Gibler with B and C companies of the 5-60th Mech, and the 33rd ARVN Ranger Battalion. Gibler immediately mounted a mech-infantry sweep to clean out enemy forces regrouping west of the racetrack.

Moving down a narrow street three blocks away from the racetrack. B Co. 5-60th Mech, having neglected to deploy dismounted security to its front and flanks as ordered, was ambushed.

The VC were entrenched in a cemetery on the company's right flank and occupied the buildings on the left. Suddenly the lead ACAV, and the last three ACAVs, were disabled by RPG and heavy machine-gun fire from the graveyard, one of which burst into flames.

However, its crew stood at their machine-guns firing into the tomb markers until their dead and wounded were removed.

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