Sunday, June 4, 1972
Red Power Plant Smashed
SAIGON (AP & UPI) --U.S. warplanes smashed North Vietnam's second biggest power plant with electronically-guided bombs and wrecked a major railroad bridge on the line to China, military spokesmen said Friday.Navy pilots also destroyed two 450-foot supply ships about one mile off the coast as American pilots struck the north with 220 raids Thursday, many of them night strikes, the U.S. command said.Heavy monsoon weather blanketed three-quarters of South Vietnam and cut U.S. air strikes to the lowest level in seven weeks, and intelligence sources said Communist troops were being resupplied for a possible major drive in the far northern quarter.A U.S. Army UH1 helicopter was shot down Friday south of Kontum, killing one American and wounding four others aboard, spokesmen said. The spokesmen also reported that an Air Force F4 Phantom which crashed Thursday in Thailand had been hit by a surface-to-air (SAM) missile over North Vietnam. The two-man crew parachuted and were rescued uninjured.Striking in darkness with 2,000-pound "smart" bombs, Air Force Phantom crews heavily damaged the thermal power plant at Bac Giang, 25 miles northeast of the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. The U.S. command described the plant as "a major source of electrical power to war-related industries in the area."Other Thailand-based Phantoms dropped the two center spans of the five-span Cap Nung railroad bridge 52 miles northeast of Hanoi and 30 miles from the China border, spokesmen said. The bridge is a major link in Hanoi's rail system.Carrier-based Navy pilots spotted the two big supply boats near Hon Nhi Son Island about 180 miles north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Military sources said the ships were carrying stockpiled supplies from the island to the port of Thanh Hoa, 28 miles to the north.The Hon Nhi Son sector has not been mined by the United States but U.S. 7th Fleet vessels keep it under constant surveillance.Over South Vietnam, heavy rains and low-hanging clouds cut the number of jet air strikes to nearly half their normal level Thursday, spokesmen said.Only 219 bombing raids were made by the conventional jet fighters, the lowest number since April 13. During the past month, U.S. airpower has managed a daily average of 410 strikes in South Vietnam.The U.S. command for the second day in a row ordered heavy B52 bombing raids along the northern front. UPI Correspondent Donald A. Davis reported from Hue that the city's major airport was closed and between three and four inches of rain were expected to fall Friday night.Fifteen waves of the B52s pounded suspected Communist positions north and west of Hue.Eleven ships of the 7th Fleet -including the light cruiser Oklahoma City and 10 destroyers -lashed North Vietnamese positions along the South China Sea to help make up for the lack of warplanes, spokesmen said.The U.S. command said the ships and 79 jets that did manage to jam bombs under the low clouds Thursday destroyed or damaged 15 trucks and 17 small boats in the Hue area, a clear indication the Communists were moving supplies forward.A 1,500-man operation begun Thursday by government paratroopers to clear a Communist battalion from hills 20 miles northeast of Hue saw little fighting. A skirmish cost the South Vietnamese two dead and four wounded.Heavy house-to-house fighting continued in Kontum for the eighth day, with the Communists holding their three pockets inside the central highlands province capital, 260 miles north of Saigon.Spokesmen said fighting in the city throughout Thursday saw 124 Communist slain, while the government forces suffered 12 killed and 58 wounded.UPI Reporter Matt Franjola said from the highlands Friday that a small North Vietnamese probe hit Kontum's outer defenses early Friday in the first such attack in more than a week. Franjola reported the attack and later fighting killed 79 Communists and three South Vietnamese soldiers and wounded six other government troops.To the east, fresh fighting erupted in coastal Binh Dinh Province, already half-controlled by Communist forces. A l00-round mortar and recoilless rifle barrage hit a regimental headquarters near Phu My district (county) capital, spokesmen said.As South Vietnamese troops moved out to engage the North Vietnamese, refugees fled. But the Communists halted the refugee flow and turned it back, then killed three government soldiers and wounded two.South Vietnamese Marines cleared the last of an estimated 100 Communists from Dat Do district town, 40 miles southeast of Saigon. The Communists took over the town without firing a shot 10 days ago.Heavy fighting continued in An Loc Province capital, 60 miles north of Saigon, and along embattled Highway 13 to the south.A saboteur blew up the Binh Dinh Province command post and U.S. advisers evacuated a district headquarters Friday amid fears new fighting was imminent in the rich central coast region.A man identified by witnesses as dressed in South Vietnamese airman's uniform smuggled a 40-pound satchel charge into the bunkered command post at Qui Nhon, and was killed instantly, apparently because the device exploded prematurely.Field reports said the blast killed two others and wounded 15 South Vietnamese, three U.S. advisers and two South Koreans. It also wrecked valuable electronics gear at the provincial headquarters compound.Two American advisers were flown out of Phy My, 32 miles North of Qui Nhon, as North Vietnamese troops ringing the district headquarters closed in."Red Power Plant Smashed", by (AP & UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Sunday, June 4, l972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.