the ferocity of the air strikes and artillery fire, the PAVN managed to break through the Company 104 area, forcing the defenders to retreat into the 2nd and 3rd Combat Reconnaissance Platoon positions behind them. By 01:15, the PAVN had captured the entire eastern end of the Special Forces Camp and, from the Company 104 area, began pouring fire on Company 101. At the opposite end of the camp, three PT-76 tanks rolled through the barbed wire barrier in front of Company 102 and 103. Point blank, the tank crews destroyed several bunkers with their guns, forcing the soldiers of Company 102 and 103 to abandon their positions. Those who survived the onslaught either retreated to the reconnaissance positions, or along Highway 9, toward Khe Sanh in the east. About 800 meters to the west, Sergeant First Class Charles W. Lindewald, an adviser to the Mobile Strike Force, also reported back to Willoughby that the early warning outpost was in danger of being overrun. To save it, Lindewald directed artillery strikes on the PAVN troops moving up towards his outpost, but he later died from a gunshot wound to the stomach as the PAVN overran the outpost. At about 01:30, Shungel and his hastily organized tank-killer teams were busy engaging the tanks that were roaming the Company 104 area; on many occasions the M-72 rockets fired by the Americans either missed completely, jammed, misfired, or simply failed to knock out the enemy tanks. By 02:30, the PAVN had broken through the inner perimeter of the camp, and began harassing the soldiers trapped inside the tactical operations center, which included Willoughby along with seven other Americans, three South Vietnamese special forces, and 26 CIDG soldiers. Above ground, U.S. and ARVN soldiers who had escaped death or capture tried to escape from the PAVN. From the team house, a group of four Americans and about 50 CIDG soldiers held a quick conference and decided that they would leave the camp through the northern perimeter, where there was no visible sign of the PAVN. Without much difficulty, the Americans and the CIDG soldiers were able to make it through the barbed-wire barrier, but PAVN soldiers on the eastern side of the camp detected their movement and began firing on the group. Ultimately, only two Americans and about 10 Vietnamese soldiers managed to escape from the camp, taking refuge in a dry creek bed