Saturday, May 13, 1972
Week's GI Battlefield Toll Rises To 19
SAIGON (AP) --The North Vietnamese offensive in Indochina sent American battlefield deaths to 19 last week, the heaviest toll in seven months, with a decrease in the number of South Vietnamese deaths, the U.S. and Saigon commands announced Thursday.While the U.S. command gave no breakdown, most of the American casualties were men aboard aircraft lost or damaged.Thursday's casualty report covered the week ending last Saturday and did not include a helicopter crash in which 32 Americans died Wednesday.The South Vietnamese command reported that 2,349 Communists were killed last week, a drop of more than 50 per cent from the 5,031 claimed killed in the previous week.The Saigon command said 603 South Vietnamese troops were killed last week, 2,028 were wounded and 737 missing in action. A week earlier, 769 South Vietnamese were reported killed and 2,794 wounded.The latest casualty reports raised to 54 the number of American reported killed in action in the first five weeks of the Communist offensive, and pushed the number of wounded for that period to 225.Cumulative totals for South Vietnamese forces for the offensive were raised to 4,610 killed and 14,093 wounded.The number of Communist soldiers reported killed during the offensive went up to 24,524 with Thursday's reports.The U.S. command said 1,578 Americans now are listed as missing, captured or interned, and increase of five over the total of the previous week.The allied commands have reported these total casualties for the war:American -45,734 killed in action, 303,045 wounded, 10,152 dead from nonhostile causes.South Vietnamese -141,977 killed in action, 361,048 wounded.North Vietnamese and Viet Cong -828,050 killed."Week's GI Battlefield Toll Rises to 19", 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.