Monday, May 1, 1972
Thousands Flee Southward To Hue
SAIGON (UPI) --Vietnamese refugees jammed the "Street Without Joy" Friday, trying desperately to outdistance the Communist offensive.Tens of thousands were reported en route down Highway 1 from the northernmost capital city of Quang Tri to Hue, 35 miles to the south.The French called the highway the "Street Without Joy" because of the thousands of casualties they suffered while fighting up and down it from 1947 to 1954.Some of the refugees from Quang Tri traveled by bus, jeep, truck, on bicycles or in ox carts. Others walked, their belongings piled on their heads.Escape from the besieged provincial capital was no automatic ticket to safety.On Thursday, three escape trucks hit land mines four miles south of Quang Tri, killing 30 persons and wounding another 40.Victims included a boy who sat dazed in the sand along the side of the road, his hair partly burned, his mouth open in disbelief and his legs and face grimy from war.On Friday, the Communists pulled back long enough to let an estimated 10,000 refugees down Highway 1.Reports from Hue said the trickle of refugees had turned into a flood by Friday night, with thousands more still on the road leading into the old Imperial capital, scene of 24 days of heavy fighting during the 1968 Tet offensive.Refugees were jammed into the University of Hue and other schools, living and sleeping in classrooms. Huntley estimated they had already doubled the city's normal population of 150,000.Their next move was up to Communist troops who overran the protecting artillery fire bases of Bastogne and Checkmate, only 12 miles to the southwest, early Friday.In the central highlands, believed to be another key target of the Communist offensive, thousands of other refugees have taken over schools in the provincial capital of Kontum.In the adjoining highlands provincial capital of Pleiku, the families of South Vietnamese armed forces were being evacuated in government planes.One report said the well-dressed evacuees, apparently the wives of officers, were taking with them such items as electric fans and motorbikes."Thousands Flee Southward to Hue", by (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Monday, May 1, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.