The Communists' post-Tet offensive of 1969 ended its third week. .....

Some of the fiercest close-in fighting came at Landing Zone Grant, a U.S. fire-support base in III Corps near Saigon. The camp was hastily installed last January to block a vital junction in the Viet Cong's "Saigon River" infiltration route from Cambodia. Two weeks after the offensive began, no fewer than 800 Communist troops stormed Landing Zone Grant, charging through three rows of concertina barbed wire. In the battle, a rocket crashed into the command post, killing the base commander, Lieut. Colonel Peter Gorvad. Last week, armed with machine guns, satchel charges and flamethrowers, they tried again. This time the Americans were waiting: cranking down their huge 105 and 155 mm. guns, they opened up on the attackers pointblank. The two extended battles took the lives of 17 Americans and 285 North Vietnamese.

The vehemence with which the Communists troops tried to take Landing Zone Grant indicated to some that they desperately wanted to reopen the infiltration route that leads to Saigon. Other reports also suggested that key enemy units - including the elite 7th NVA division and the 9th VC Division, which had taken part in every recent attack on the capital - were moving out of their sanctuaries and toward Saigon.

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