On 13 December, as the available air sorties dwindled, a Hmong guerrilla company assaulted Phou Pha Thi from the southeast. Shunning guerrilla tactics, the hill tribesmen surged up the hill in a frontal assault. Trapped on a trail on the southeast face by enemy fire, they spent 24 hours pinned down before retreating under 12.7mm machine gun fire from the summit. The machine gun was subsequently knocked out of action by artillery fire, but the Hmong were unable to regain the hill.