Du revealed that tracked vehicles were positioned near his unit, but a planned attack was canceled twice for unknown reasons. Battle In response to the threat posed by the PAVN, Willoughby stepped up daytime patrols and night ambushes around his camp. On the morning of February 6, the PAVN fired mortars into the Lang Vei compound, wounding eight Camp Strike Force soldiers. That afternoon, Lt. Col. Daniel F. Shungel, commander of Company C, 5th Special Forces Group, flew into Lang Vei from Da Nang as a diplomatic gesture towards the Laotian commander Lt. Col. Phetsampou. At 18:10 hours, the PAVN followed up their morning mortar attack with an artillery attack from 152 mm howitzers, firing 60 rounds into the camp. The bombardment wounded two more Strike Force soldiers and damaged two bunkers. Then at 23:30, PAVN artillery started pounding the camp, which covered the movement of the 24th Regiment and the 3rd Battalion, 101D Regiment. From an observation post above the tactical operations centre, Sergeant Nickolas Fragos saw the first PAVN tanks moving along Lang Troai Road, attempting to breach the barbed wire in front of Company 104. He immediately went down to the tactical operations center and described what he had witnessed to Willoughby; Shungel then advised Willoughby to concentrate all available artillery and air support on the PAVN formation just in front of Company 104. Soon afterwards, three PT-76 tanks were knocked out by a 106 mm recoilless rifle manned by Sergeant First Class James W. Holt, but the barbed wire in front of Company 104 was quickly overrun by the combined PAVN tank-infantry attack. Meanwhile, from inside the tactical operations center, Willoughby was busy calling in air and artillery support. He also radioed the 26th Marines at Khe Sanh to request the deployment of two rifle companies as part of the reinforcement plan, but his request was denied. Believing that the attack on Company 104 was the enemy's main effort, Willoughby concentrated his artillery support there during the early stages of the battle. About 10 minutes after the artillery had begun firing, a U.S. Air Force forward air-controller arrived over Lang Vei along with a flareship and an AC-119 Shadow gunship. Willoughby then requested air strikes on the ravines north of the camp, on Lang Troai Road, and the areas west of the early warning outpost manned by the Hre soldiers of the Mobile Strike Force. Despite