SWEEP ON VIET CONG BASE

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30954, 10 January 1966, Page 11

SWEEP ON VIET CONG BASE

Heaviest Offensive Of Vietnam War

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright?

SAIGON, January 9.

American forces have launched their heaviest offensive operation of the Vietnam war to clear the guerrillas’ Ho Bo forest stronghold, 25 miles north-north-west of Saigon, it was disclosed today. More than 7000 American troops, helped by Australians and New Zealanders, converged on the Viet Cong stronghold yesterday morning after a strike by Stratofortress bombers and an artillery barrage unprecedented in the history of the war.

The American military authorities at the forward command post of Trung Lap, 24 miles north-west of Saigon, said that at least five United States Army helicopters were riddled with machine-gun fire as elements of the Ist Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade were lifted into landing zones both north and south of the forest.

Three of the damaged helicopters flew out under their own power, however. The other two and their crews were lifted out of the operation area by the larger H-37 , helicopters. ; Most of the battalions thrown into the offensive sweep—6oo to 800 men in each battalion —had clashes with the Viet Cong. The Australians were briefly pinned down by more than 100 Viet Cong troops, who raked their landing zone with fire from three sides. With artillery and air support, however, the Australians managed to overcome the guerrilla resistance to their airborne landing. Casualties Light United States and Australian casualties were light : throughout the first day of the i operation, according to the military command. More than 100 Army helicopters ferried American and Australian troops into landing zones dubbed “Jack” and "March.” both of which were located on abandoned rubber plantations north and south of the forest pounded by the Stratofortresses. Gunboats Sunk

Combined armouredinfantry elements were attempting to trap the Viet Cong in a giant horseshoe. The points of the horseshoe were to extend to the Saigon river, the eastern boundary of which was being patrolled by both fighter-bombers and rocketfiring helicopters to prevent the trapped guerrilla units from escaping. South Vietnamese Navy

gunboats last night sank two Viet Cong vessels running arms through the Mekong river delta south of Saigon

after a four-hour battle, a Vietnamese military spokesman said today.

The guerrilla boats fought back under cover of strong supporting fire from the bank of the river when they were challenged by a Naval patrol boat.

Twenty boxes of ammunition and 164 Russian-made weapons were found on them. Terrorists murdered a British missionary 380 miles north-east of Saigon and exploded a bomb near the My Canh floating restaurant in Saigon yesterday, the “New York Times” reported. The bomb attack on the restaurant, one of the city’s landmarks, was ineffective. It injured a Vietnamese policeman and two Vietnamese civilians on the street only slightly and did not harm the 60 diners. Last June the same restaurant was the object of a mine explosion that killed 40 people and injured 80 others.

The British missionary, John Haywood, aged 31, of Birmingham, was shot to death by machine-gun on a highway between Da Nang and Hue.

He had been following a South Vietnamese rice convoy when Viet Cong guerrillas ambushed the column and halted it by detonating a mine under the leading truck.