 During the early hours of December 28 , 1964 , elements of the Viet Cong 271st Regiment and the 445th Company , signaled their main attack on Bình Giã by penetrating the village 's eastern perimeter . There , they clashed with members of the South Vietnamese Popular Force <unk> , which numbered about 65 personnel . The South Vietnamese militia fighters proved no match for the Viet Cong and their overwhelming firepower , so they quickly retreated into underground bunkers , and called for help . Once the village was captured , Colonel Ta Minh <unk> , the Viet Cong regimental commander , established his command post in the main village church and waited for fresh reinforcements , which came in the form of heavy mortars , machine guns and <unk> @-@ less rifles . To counter South Vietnamese helicopter assaults , Colonel <unk> 's troops set up a network of defensive fortifications around the village , with trenches and bunkers protected by land mines and barbed wire . The local Catholic priest , who was also the village chief , sent a bicycle messenger out to the Bà Rịa district headquarters to ask for a relief force . In response , the Bà Rịa district chief sent out elements of two Vietnamese Rangers battalions to retake Bình Giã . On December 29 , two companies of the ARVN 33rd Ranger Battalion and a company from the 30th Ranger Battalion were <unk> into area located west of Bình Giã , by helicopters from the U.S. 118th Aviation Company to face an enemy force of unknown size . 
