Thursday, June 1, 1972
Green Nva Troops Puzzle Observers
By Barney Seibert
SAIGON (UPI) --The North Vietnamese army is fighting as hard as ever but not as well as ever in its current South Vietnam offensive, U.S. military sources said Tuesday.Intelligence data indicates that many of the NVA regulars thrown into the battles for An Loc, Kontum and Hue are newly drafted and below or above the age of the tough veterans of other campaigns."They are boys aged 15 to 17 and men over the age of 27," a military source said. "All of them have new uniforms and new gear."U.S. sources say platoon and company grade officers and perhaps even battalion officers of the North Vietnamese units in the offensive may lack battle experience too.A source cited the behavior of North Vietnamese battalions involved in an attack on a South Vietnamese marine position in the "Street Without Joy" area northeast of Hue."They came in battalion strength in close formation in broad daylight without artillery preparation, and they got blown away," the source said. "That night they fired some shells into the marine position but there was nothing more until the next day, when they tried the same thing again with the same result."The U.S. military sources are puzzled at the apparent use of fresh troops in the offensive and they wonder what became of the NVA veterans of previous campaigns. The North Vietnamese have suffered heavy casualties the last two years but not that heavy.Captured communications indicate the North Vietnamese themselves are concerned about the lack of coordination between units in the current offensive, particularly the lack of coordination between infantry and armored units, U.S. sources say.The poor coordination of North Vietnamese attacks has aided the allied air effort, the sources say. It enabled controllers to concentrate massive air strength as needed.That might not have been possible if attacks had occurred simultaneously."Green NVA Troops Puzzle Observers", by Barney Seibert, published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Thursday, June 1, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.