Saturday, May 13, 1972
Reds Launch New Tank Attack On An Loc
SAIGON (AP) --Tank-led North Vietnamese forces attacked the provincial capital of An Loc, 60 miles north of Saigon, from four directions early Thursday in renewed efforts to overrun government forces, field reports said.An Loc was reported under heavy artillery fire a few hours before dawn and North Vietnamese troops attacked from the east, south, southeast and west, the field reports said.Communist tanks were reported to the southeast.U.S. tactical fighter-bombers and helicopter gunships were called in to help the government forces.An Loc has been under siege since April 7 and has been receiving 1,000 or more rounds of shellfire every day, but Thursday's ground assaults were the first reported in several days.Intense U.S. air and naval bombardment continued against military targets in North Vietnam for the third successive day. The 7th Fleet said the most powerful cruiser-destroyer force assembled in the western Pacific since World War II was ranging up and down the coast hitting within four miles of Haiphong.The 7th Fleet said the targets of its cruisers and destroyers included North Vietnamese coastal defense batteries and other military positions on the Don Son peninsula.In the ground war, the South Vietnamese command said 10 of the enemy"s medium tanks were destroyed and one was captured in the assault of An Loc. Field reports said drivers of the tanks ran from their vehicles to escape the attack of U.S. bombers. The South Vietnamese reported 10 enemy soldiers surrendered, including the commander of a regiment.In the central highlands, the Ben Het border camp came under heavy shelling and ground assaults for the third consecutive night Wednesday. Field reports said an unknown number of enemy tanks led the attack, but U.S. and South Vietnamese gunship aircraft were called in, and the tanks pulled back. Firefights were reported still going on at dawn.Other ranger positions and outposts in the area north and west of Kontum were hit by mortar and rocket attacks.Meanwhile in Washington, Defense Department officials disclosed Thursday the United States was airlifting about 20 more M48 medium tanks to Vietnam as replacements for losses suffered by Saigon's troops in the current communist offensive.These are in addition to an unknown number of M48s flown in over the past week from U.S. stocks in the Western Pacific.The latest batch, from Army depots in the southern section of the U.S., were being loaded aboard giant C5 cargo planes at Barksdale AFB, La., for shipment to Vietnam."Reds Launch New Tank Attack on An Loc", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Saturday, May 13, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.