#VietnameseSkyraiders rent the air with ferocious whines as they dive-bombed sections of the city, notably the #Chinese quarter of #Cholon, which was honeycombed with #VietCong. The planes sent #refugees scattering in all directions and plumes of smoke shooting into sunny skies that mocked the city's agony. In six of #Saigon's nine districts, 24-hour curfews were still in effect, meaning that those districts harbored at least small bands of #guerrillas still operating as units.
Flak-jacketed [#AmericanMPs, weapons at the ready, roared along the tree-shaded boulevards. #TriggerHappy#police fired frantically in the air to halt vehicles approaching #checkpoints and #barricades strung about the city. Tough #ARVN#marines and #paratroopers blasted their way through narrow alleys in running gun battles with the #VietCong, 700 to 1,000 of whom were believed still mingling with the city's population.]
Although #GeneralWestmoreland had at first acceded to #SouthVietnameseArmy wishes to clear the city with #ARVN troops, by week's end U.S. help was clearly needed; soldiers of the U.S. #199thInfantryBrigade were helilifted onto the racetrack turf to join the battle.
#TaskForceGibler and #33rdRangers moved north through #Cholon and as they approached the Racetrack they began to take fire from #VietCong in windows and on rooftops of the 2-3 storey row houses lining the road. The #USA#ARVN infantry fanned out into alleys and side-streets to engage VC, while #M113s continued down the road firing on the VC with their machine guns, with the command vehicle being knocked out by an #RPG.
#USA#ARVN forces now supported by #helicopter#gunships began blasting #VietCong in the Racetrack's concrete stadium building with 106-mm recoilless rifle fire while also engaging them with machine gun and rifle fire. By late afternoon the VC abandoned the Racetrack, exfiltrating in three-man groups into the residential neighbourhood to the west, pursued by the Rangers and Republic of Vietnam National Police.
On 4 February the residents of #Cholon were ordered to #evacuate the area and it was declared a Free-fire zone allowing the full weight of #USA & #SVA air and artillery support to be directed against the #VietCong still holding out there.
#VietCong were #entrenched in the pagoda and in #bunkers and #tunnels in the adjacent cemetery. In a day of hard fighting #TaskForceGibler supported by fire from #M42Dusters overran the position killing 49 VC and capturing four together with maps, radios and other equipment for the loss of six U.S. soldiers killed.