Tuesday, May 23, 1972
Allies Pour It On Enemy Near Hue
SAIGON (AP) --Allied bombers and naval gunfire smashed a tank-led North Vietnamese attack on the "Street Without Joy" north of Hue at dawn Sunday but fighting was continuing at mid-afternoon, military sources reported.Meantime, the South Vietnamese drive to break the 45-day siege of An Loc appeared to have slowed again, although advance elements of the relief force were reported within a mile of their goal.The An Loc push was being impeded by Communist harassing attacks on government troops on Highway 13 to the rear of the spearhead, field reports said.The U.S. command reported, meanwhile, that air strikes in Quang Tri Province in the last two days had damaged or destroyed a variety of Communist equipment, including four big 130mm artillery guns, a surface-to-air missile and a missile transporter.The command said the air strikes destroyed one and damaged three of the guns, the biggest in Hanoi's arsenal with a range of 17 miles. They have been used with devastating effect against South Vietnamese forces in the current offensive.The bombing report for the 24-hour period ending early Sunday also included two other artillery guns, four tanks, 29 trucks and several antiaircraft guns destroyed or damaged.Military sources said a company-sized North Vietnamese force using tanks launched the pre-dawn attack on the populated coastal strip called "Street Without Joy," crossing the My Chanh River in one of the most serious breaches yet of the key defense line 22 miles north of Hue.The attackers routed a provincial militia unit from its position and had partially encircled a South Vietnamese Marine outpost before the air strikes and artillery were brought to bear on them about daybreak.Field reports said at least 70 Communists were killed by the strikes. There was no report of South Vietnamese casualties.The air and artillery were believed to have broken the back of the attack, and most of the surviving North Vietnamese had been driven back, the reports said.By midafternoon, reinforcements still had not reached the Marine position but the situation was "easing up," military officers were quoted as saying."Allies Pour It On Enemy Near Hue", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes, Tuesday, May 23, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense Publication Copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.