BIG DRIVE BEGINS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30955, 11 January 1966, Page 11

BIG DRIVE BEGINS

Stronghold Of V. Cong Hit (N Z. Press Association—Copyright) TRUNG LAP, January 10. A lone American spotter plane circled on Friday over a maze of camouflaged tunnels and Viet Gong fortifications just south of the Saigon river 25 miles north-west of Saigon, Horst Faas, of the Associated Press reported. Faas, who went with an American division on one of the biggest operations of the Vietnam war, wrote that only the pilot and a few American officers knew the mission: to collect intelligence for what was to be the biggest and most ambitious United States operation of the war in Vietnam. A combat force of some 8000 paratroopers, infantrymen and artillerymen was to converge next morning on the bombscarred triangular-shaped Communist stronghold of 15 square miles.

The spotter pilot did not live to see it—a well-concealed Viet Cong anti-aircraft gun shot down his plane, and his body was recovered by helicopter.

Just an hour before the huge operation began, troops in the area were told what was planned. Units from three bases, each 30 miles apart, began to converge from midnight on Friday on the Viet Cong stronghold, which French and Vietnamese forces were never able to penetrate. Long Convoy A long convoy of heavy tanks, armoured troop carriers and trucks, left their base near Saigon during the night. They headed north-west towards Viet Cong territory near Trung Lap. American and New Zealand artillery took positions in the area and began firing at dawn. At the same time a fleet of some 80 helicopters started to ferry several battalions of the Ist Infantry, the 273rd Airborne Brigade and the Royal Australian Regiment into positions from which they could fan out to block off the triangle. . The wide and swampy Saigon river north of the triangle

was closed to all traffic. Loudspeakers from helicopters sent the message to hiding Viet Cong and their civilian supporters—it said anyone trying to navigate the river would be shot. Still, one large houseboat set out. From 3000 feet up, troops in the first swami of helicopters could see several persons feverishly paddling to get extra speed from the motorpowered boat. Like eagles, armed helicopters swooped down on the target. Before the boat reached midstream splashes from machine-gun bullets caught it. The craft floated free with the current. The engine had stopped and three bodies toppled into the muddy water. The helicopters then continued over the jungles on the northern bank of the river. Sharpshooters there who had plagued pilots for years were quiet, apparently silenced by the many Stratofortress strikes of past months, but as soon as the helicopters reached the southern bank small arms fire spat from the villages, paddies and plantations below. One helicopter was hit and plummeted into a field of ta-

pioca, but as it dropped, the blades continued rotating and kept it from crashing. The troops and crew on board were rescued by another helicopter. As the assault helicopters came down, the soldiers saw every surrounding building on fire from air strikes. A field of unharvested rice blazed and the draught of the many rotor blades fanned the flames 50 feet high. Troops had rushed to the perimeter of the landing-zone toward a long-abandoned rubber plantation. A few sniper shots cracked. As the first troops reached the plantation they pulled up short. Before them was a Viet Cong defence line such as they had never beforte encountered—a zig-zag trench about 300 yards long, hidden under brush and trees. It was empty. The trenches were six feet deep. Spaced along the bottom were steps on which sharpshooters could stand up and fire, then drop back under cover. A network of tunnels fanned out from the trench to outlyj ig machine-gun emplacements ‘and anti-aircraft pits.