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The 2d Bn, 174th NVA Regt and local forces attacked the Kontum Subsector Headquarters and the town. Prior to the attack, local VC infiltrated the city. About 25 percent of Tanh Canh was destroyed in the battle and the 2/174th suffered heavy casualties, probably as high as 50 percent. After the battle 167 NVA and VC bodies were removed from the city.

At about 0200 hours, the 5th Bn, 95th NVA Regt attacked the Tuy Hoa airfield, the provincial prison, and American artillery positions. C Battery, 6th Bn, 32nd Artillery, an 8 inch and 175mm composite battery, was one of these positions. They were located at the Tuy Hoa North Airfield, on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Tuy Hoa. At about 0700 hours, a reaction force arrived from the 4th Bn, 503rd Inf, 173rd Abn reinforced by a battalion from the Korean 28th Regt. The RVN prison camp was just south of the artillery battery. The NVA had suffered very high casualties during the night and holed up in a little refugee village just south of the prison camp. The battalion commander of the 4/503rd landed and personally led a charge against the surrounded NVA which resulted in 19 US KIA and 39 WIA. The brigade commander had him pull back and had the fast movers from Tuy Hoa Air Base annihilated the survivors of the NVA battalion. There were less than a half dozen wounded survivors. The NVA were supported during the Tet attack by a local Viet Cong battalion which escaped almost unscathed. It was this VC battalion that conducted two attacks against the city of Tuy Hoa and were repulsed by two battalions of the ARVN 47th Regt. The ARVN moved against the remaining enemy strongholds in the center of Tuy Hoa on 5 Feb and captured it on the 6th.

• Pleiku: The VC 15H LF and 40th Sapper Bns attacked cross an expanse of open field at great cost. Heavy fighting raged around the Pleiku sector headquarters, the MACV compount, the 71st Evac, the POW compound, both airfields, and a Montagnard training center. The 3d ARVN Cav Sqdn and the 22d ARVN Ranger Bn backed up by a company of the 1/69th Armor responded immediately. Two mobile strike force cos from B/5th SF were added to the street fighting. Finally the 4th Eng Bn, as infantry, were added. By 3 Feb this amalgamated force was mopping up.

• Kontum: The 24th NVA Regt, the 304th VC Bn and the 406th Sapper Bn attacked the MACV compound, post office, airfield, and 24th ARVN STZ headquarters. Some of the most ferocious combat of Tet-68 transpired in Kontum city. The initial assault was met by two Montagnard scout companies which were rapidly brushed aside and the 2/42d ARVN Regt which fell back. The B-24 SF Det compound was penetrated at several points. At noon the Americans rustled up the ground elements of 7/17th Air Cav, fused them with 1/22d Inf and C/1/69th Armor. This composite task force was shoved into the heart of the city but the fierce tempo of urban fighting was sustained five more days.

• Ban Me Thuot: The 33d NVA Regt and the 301E VC LF Bn attacked the 23d ARVN Div headquarters, the MACV compound, both airfields, and numerous other targets including the bank. Initially they were opposed by only the local RFPF force and the SF B-23 Det. By midday on the 30th, the 8th ARVN Cav Sqdn and the 45th ARVN Regt were also engaged. The house-to-house fighting was so intense that the 23d ARVN Ranger Bn was committed on 1 Feb. These rangers were quickly consumed by the slaughter and the next day the 1/503d Airborne Battalion, 173d Airborne Brigade was flown in from Pleiku. Four major NVA assaults were hurled against Ban Me Thuot during the course of the battle, but by 6 Feb the town was cleared. Over one third of the city had been reduced to smoking rubble. In Code-Name Bright Light, we learn that several ARVN, Montagnards and three American civilians were captured by the NVA during the battle. Mike Benge, the head of USAID and one of the senior ranking Americans in Ban Me Thuot, was captured as he drove his jeep around the city collecting Americans and taking them to the MACV compound. He was unaware that various parts of the city were in NVA hands. Two American missionaries, Henry Blood and Betty Olsen, were also captured.