 Four days would pass before they were at last able to punch a hole in the PAVN-VC lines and reach the MACV compound.South of the city, on 31 January Lieutenant colonel Phan Hu Chi, the commander of the ARVN 7th Armored Cavalry Squadron, attempted to break the PAVN-VC stranglehold.He led an armored column toward Huế, but like the other South Vietnamese units, found it impossible to break through.