Văn Tùng was the first unit to burst through the gates of the Independence Palace around noon. Tank 843 (a Soviet T-54 tank) was the first to directly hit and struck the side gate of the Palace. This historic moment was recorded by the Australian cameraman Neil Davis. Tank 390 (a Chinese T-59 tank) then crashed through the main gate in the middle to enter the front yard. For many years, the official record of Vietnamese government and international historical sources maintained that Tank 843 was the first one to enter the Presidential Palace. However, in 1995, French war photographer Françoise Demulder published her photo showed that Tank 360 entered the main gate while Tank 843 was still behind the steel columns of the smaller gate on the right hand side (view from inside) and Tank 843's commander Bui Quang Than was running with the NLF flag on his hand. Both tanks were declared national treasures in 2012 and each was displayed in a different museum in Hanoi. Lieutenant Bui Quang Than pulled down the Republic of Vietnam's flag on top of the Palace and raised the Viet Cong flag at 11:30 AM on 30 April 1975. The Tank Brigade 203 soldiers entered the Palace and found Minh and all members of his cabinet sitting and waiting for them. The political commissar Lieutenant colonel Bui Van Tung arrived at the Palace 10 minutes after the first tanks. Minh realised this was the highest ranking officer around then said: "We are waiting to hand over the cabinet", Tung replied immediately: "You have nothing to hand over but your unconditional surrender to us". Tung then wrote a speech announcing the surrender and dissolution of what remained of the South Vietnamese government. He then escorted Minh to the Radio Saigon to read it in order to avoid further needless bloodshed. The surrender announcement was recorded by German journalist Börries Gallasch's tape recorder. Colonel Bùi Tín, a military journalist was at the Palace around noon to witnessed the events. In his memoir, he confirmed that Lt.-Col Bui Van Tung was the one accepted the surrender and wrote the statement for Minh. However, in an interview with WGBH Educational Foundation in 1981, he falsely claimed that he was the first high officer met Minh and accepted the surrender (with Tung's words). This claim was repeated after his defection from Vietnam and sometimes cited mistakenly by