Under cover of a mortar barrage VC sappers set fire to houses and killed civilians either by shooting or throwing explosives into their shelters.

Phu Thanh village, a complex of several hamlets, straddled Highway 1 about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Landing Zone Baldy.

Just to the north of the village, the Highway crossed the Ba Ren Bridge, one of the vital links on the land lines of communication between LZ Baldy and Da Nang.

The command post of the 1st Platoon of Company A, which controlled several CUPPs along the highway north of LZ Baldy, was located near the RF compound.

[1]: 177–8 For several weeks, rumors had circulated in the village that the VC were planning to attack the Ba Ren Bridge, but neither Marines nor Vietnamese saw any reason to expect an assault on the hamlets themselves.

The mortars, located north and south of Phu Thanh, dropped a total of 200-250 high explosive and white phosphorus rounds on the village.

Most began burning houses and hurling their grenades and satchel charges into family bomb shelters filled with civilians who had fled to them for protection from the shelling.

Then, accompanied by the platoon's Vietnamese interpreter, the squad returned to the burning hamlets and began urging the people to bring their wounded to the bridge.

[1]: 178  The mortar bombardment ended at about 04:00 and by daylight all the severely wounded civilians had been evacuated and a team of doctors and corpsmen from LZ Baldy had reached Phu Thanh and had begun treating the minor casualties, over 100 in all.

After the fight, the defenders found four dead VC in the wire around the RF compound and the 1st Platoon command post and they captured one prisoner and one Chieu Hoi.

[1]: 179 Soon after the attack, the VC began spreading the report that their objective really had been the Ba Ren Bridge and that Phu Thanh and its people merely had been caught in the crossfire.

"[1]: 179 On 15 June the South Vietnamese Government issued a note to the International Control and Supervision Commission protesting the massacre and asking it to undertake an investigation.