 However , as soon as the soldiers from the 30th and 33rd Ranger Battalions arrived at the landing zone , they were quickly overwhelmed by the Viet Cong in a deadly ambush . The entire 30th Ranger Battalion was then committed to join the attack , but they too did not initially succeed in penetrating the strong Viet Cong defensive lines . Several more companies of the Rangers then arrived for an attack from multiple directions . Two companies of the 33rd Ranger Battalion advanced from the northeast . One of them came to the outskirts of the village but was unable to break through the enemy defenses . The other one , trying to outflank the enemy , had been lured into a kill zone in open terrain at the coffee plantation and were quickly obliterated in an ambush by the three VC battalions using heavy weapons . The two companies suffered a 70 percent casualty rate , and survivors were forced to retreat to the nearby Catholic church . The 30th Rangers had more success by assaulting from the western direction and succeeded in fighting their way into the village , aided by local residents . It however also suffered heavy losses , with the battalion commander and his American adviser severely wounded . The local civilians in Bình Giã retrieved weapons and ammunition from the dead Rangers , and hid the wounded government soldiers from the Viet Cong . The 38th Ranger Battalion , on the other hand , landed on the battlefield unopposed by the Viet Cong , and they immediately advanced on Bình Giã from the south . Soldiers from the 38th Rangers spent the whole day fighting but they could not break through their enemies ' defences to link up with the survivors hiding in the church , and fell back after calling in mortar fire to <unk> Viet Cong fighters moving to encircle them . 
