General and Commander-in-Chief Vo Nguyen Giap sent a telegram praising all officers and soldiers who won the victory in Phan Rang.
In the early morning of April 16, 1975, the forces participating in the attack on the US troops' Phan Rang defence line opened fire.
Regiment 101 of Division 325 had four PT.85 armoured vehicles leading the attack in Hoi Dien, An Xuan, then advanced towards the Ca Du intersection, Dai Son Hamlet. The US troops resisted weakly.
On Route 1, the US troops called in artillery and aircraft to fight back against Vietnamese troops' attacks. Vietnamese troops mobilised to chase the enemy on the ground and used machine guns and anti-aircraft guns to fight back against the aircraft.
Division 3 of Military Region 5 and Regiment 25 coordinated with Division 325's deep thrust to attack several targets in Phan Rang Town and Thanh Son Airport.
After two hours of fighting, Vietnamese troops controlled the town. A unit of Vietnam quickly went out to occupy Tan Thanh and Ninh Chu ports. A unit followed Route 1 south of the town and occupied the Dao Long Bridge, Phu Quy District.
At 9:40 a.m., Vietnam's tanks entered gate 1 of Thanh Son Airport. At 10:00 a.m., Regiment 101 and Division 3 defeated the US troops' counterattacks and occupied Thanh Son Airport. All of the more than 10,000 US troops in Phan Rang were destroyed and disintegrated.
Lieutenant General Nguyen Vinh Nghi - Forward Commander of Army Corps 3 of the Republic of Vietnam, and Brigadier General Pham Ngoc Sang - Commander of Air Division 6, along with many enemy officers and soldiers were captured alive. Vietnamese troops captured many weapons and war vehicles, including intact A37 aircraft. On the day Ninh Thuan Province was completely liberated.
The fall of Phan Rang weakened and shook the enemy's main defence line in the east from Phan Thiet to Xuan Loc, creating a position for the Liberation Army to continue along Route 1 to liberate Saigon.
At 10:00 p.m. on April 16, 1975, General and Commander-in-Chief Vo Nguyen Giap sent a telegram praising all officers and soldiers who had won in Phan Rang.
On the same day, the Central Military Commission sent a telegram to Army Corps 2 to remind them: Must quickly pursue the enemy, develop rapid, bold, and unexpected attacks to win new victories, urgently consolidate forces, continue marching and fighting, and take on the task of participating in the campaign to liberate Saigon in time.
On April 16, 1975, at the Command Centre in Dong Xoai, Corps Command 1 organised the assignment of tasks to its subordinate units. Several units of Corps 3, such as Artillery Regiment 675, Air Defense Regiment 593, Engineer Regiment 575 and Battalion 1 (Engineer Regiment 7), Signal Regiment 29, Special Forces Regiment 198 and the logistics force of Corps 3 were present at the assembly location and deployed preparations for the Ho Chi Minh Campaign.
