As the brigade had no heavy or mechanized forces and only a few Humvees and an artillery battery, heavier forces were attached to it in the form of two companies of M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, M1 Abrams tanks, and M2 Bradleys from a task force of 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor, which was attached to the brigade.
Simultaneously, a task force consisting of a reinforced infantry battalion, two battalions of heavy artillery and a tank destroyer battalion would advance down Highway 1 towards Los Baños to interdict any Japanese attempts to interfere.
Initially two Free French parachute battalions had been assigned to the task force, but they were withdrawn for a potential French airborne landing in the Massif Central.
Although he did not have any background in air/land warfare, Raw's main responsibility in this position was to coordinate helicopter support for the task force's two infantry battalions.
The following day, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam's (ARVN) elite 1st Airborne Task Force (the 5th and 8th Battalions) and the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry Division arrived to conduct search and destroy operations north and northeast of Kontum.
Although the Chinese believed RCT-31 to be a reinforced regiment, the task force was actually under strength with one battalion missing, due to the bulk of the 7th Infantry Division being scattered over northeast Korea.
Davidson commanded the task force, which was composed of the US 19th Infantry, less the 3rd Battalion, the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Infantry, the 13th Field Artillery Battalion, C Battery of the 15th Field Artillery Battalion, A Company of the 3rd Engineer Combat Battalion, the 9th Infantry Regimental Tank Company, two batteries of antiaircraft automatic weapons, and other miscellaneous units.
In terms of the number of Viet Cong bodies recovered compared to their own losses it was the worst result they had experienced in Vietnam to that point, while the task force had also been unable to destroy D445 Battalion.
However, as the Australian commitment expanded, by 2010 the task force had evolved into a combined arms battalion-sized battle group consisting of infantry, engineers, cavalry, artillery and logistic elements, usually based on a unit of the Royal Australian Regiment.
The 2nd Battalion of the 158th Infantry Regiment was held in reserve to reinforce the Director Task Force if required.
