The second wave of the Tet general offensive began at 04:00 on 5 May with a Viet Cong (VC) mortar attack on the Newport Bridge, a two-lane concrete and steel span that conveyed traffic across the Saigon River from the capital to Biên Hòa.

[1]: 563 As those two attacks were taking place, a company of People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) soldiers from the K3 Battalion, all wearing South Vietnamese uniforms, crossed the Saigon River in sampans.

Making it to the other side without being spotted, the disguised PAVN continued on foot to the Phan Than Gian Bridge (10°47′28″N 106°42′22″E / 10.791°N 106.706°E / 10.791; 106.706), one of the crossing points that spanned the canal that traced the northern edge of downtown Saigon.

Ambush patrols from the ARVN 30th Ranger Battalion screening the farmlands west of Phú Thọ reported numerous VC squad and platoon-size groups moving through their sector.

[1]: 564–5 While those preparations were under way, Weyand received word that Colonel Charles Thebaud’s 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, had engaged several enemy units between the Phu Loi and Dĩ An Base Camps.

The first battle had begun when a pair of companies from the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, had gone to the hamlet of Tân Hiệp (10°54′58″N 106°46′05″E / 10.916°N 106.768°E / 10.916; 106.768), three kilometers northeast of Dĩ An, to investigate a tip from local authorities about a VC ammunition dump.

The task force first surrounded Tân Hiệp and fought its way through the hamlet, which turned out to contain several battalions from the Dong Nai Regiment as well as support elements from the VC 5th Division.

[1]: 565 The second engagement in Thebaud’s sector took place south of Phu Loi when Troops A and B from the 1/4th Cavalry, discovered several battalions from the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 165th Regiment hiding in the hamlet of Xom Moi.

The bombardment lasted all day, and when the US cavalrymen and ARVN soldiers swept through the hamlet the next morning they found 500 PAVN dead in the ruins of Xom Moi, US casualties were 4 killed.

For the moment it appeared that the main battle of the offensive was going to take place in the five kilometers between Tan Son Nhut and Phu Lam, where the latest intelligence indicated that the VC 9th Division and the Cuu Long II Regiment were trying to push into the heart of Saigon.

After conferring with Khang, Weyand decided to move two battalions from the 199th Infantry Brigade currently stationed near Long Binh Post to the western side of Saigon to shore up the left flank of the Ranger task force.

Weyand instructed the brigade commander, Brigadier general Robert C. Forbes, to block Route 10 and Highway 4, which both entered the city through the suburb of Phu Lam.

[1]: 567 As soon as the 4/12th Infantry, had settled into Firebase Stephanie, located next to a Regional Forces post, Mastoris dispatched Company D to search the woods that lined Route 10 farther to the west.

[1]: 567–9 When Hurricane Forward became operational at Camp Lê Văn Duyệt on the morning of 6 May, General Weyand turned his attention to the other major battle that was developing in the western suburbs, a clash between the Cuu Long II Regiment and the 30th Ranger Battalion just southeast of Tan Son Nhut AB.

The Allies then doused the settlements with Tear gas, hoping to win them back without a destructive battle, but gusting winds dispersed the chemicals before they had any real effect.

The Rangers and armored vehicles faced steadily increasing fire the closer they got to the hamlet, first from mortars and recoilless rifles, and then from machine guns, small arms, and Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).

The VC, protected by a network of makeshift bunkers and trenches they had constructed since the previous day, shrugged off the suppressive fire that the US vehicle crews attempted to lay down to cover the advance of the Rangers.

The paratroopers spent the entire day battling those troops, killing 60 with help from helicopter gunships and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) A-1E Skyraiders, and capturing another 11.

South Vietnamese losses were light, though among the fatalities was Col. Luu Kim Cuong, commander of both the 33rd Air Wing and the Tan Son Nhut Special Zone.

The VC prisoners, all from the 9th Division, said that the cemetery had been designated as a waypoint for planned attacks on Tan Son Nhut AB, the Vietnamese Joint General Staff compound and Camp Lê Văn Duyệt.

From what General Forbes could determine, at least four VC battalions had congregated in the hamlet of Bình Trị Đông (10°45′47″N 106°36′43″E / 10.763°N 106.612°E / 10.763; 106.612) just west of the line held by the 4/12th Infantry and Troop D, 17th Cavalry.

Although soldiers from the Cuu Long II Regiment and the 9th Division were still fighting in the sector west of Phú Thọ and Phu Lam, they were no longer trying to reach the city; most were hunkered down in defensive positions and some were beginning to retreat.

The most visible sign of progress came late that afternoon when the 30th Ranger Battalion and the 3/4th Cavalry, regained the hamlet of Ap Thanh Hoa, killing a rearguard force of some 50 VC that had stayed behind to cover the withdrawal of the Cuu Long II Regiment’s headquarters.

After finding its way blocked by the ARVN 5th Airborne Battalion four kilometers north of Tan Son Nhut and just west of the Quang Trung Infantry Center (10°50′31″N 106°38′38″E / 10.842°N 106.644°E / 10.842; 106.644), the 101st Regiment attacked.

VC soldiers crept out of the bunkers and spider holes that had kept them alive during the last five days and began marching west in small groups, leaving behind a great deal of equipment and most of their dead in order to travel quickly.

[1]: 574 To expedite clearing operations in western Gia Định Province, General Mearns ordered the 4/9th Infantry, to establish a firebase approximately four kilometers west of Tan Son Nhut next to Route 234, a north-south road that crossed the enemy’s line of retreat.

Facing a storm of fire that included Beehive anti-personnel rounds from the 105 mm howitzers that filled the air with steel darts, the PAVN withdrew after losing 110 men.

The failed assault on Firebase Pike VI proved to be the last major contact in the western suburbs as the fighting thereafter gravitated into Hậu Nghĩa and Tây Ninh Provinces.