Striking in the Air

South Viet Nam's political crisis slowed up the war effort--at least on the ground. Military land action decreased 20% last week, largely because many Vietnamese units were either transferred from field positions to watch-and-patrol duty in the restless cities or preferred not to launch any new attacks while the situation in Saigon was uncertain.

Huge Avalanche. In the air, the U.S. offensive continued without abatement. Chief target was one land action that has not slowed down: the steady flow of supplies and men from the north. American airmen have long been frustrated by the fact that the F-105 and F-4B fighter-bombers used for strikes against North Viet Nam are too small to haul enough bombs to completely smash roads and bridges. Last week the U.S. sent winging from Guam to North Viet Nam just the planes for the job: eight-engine B-52 jet bombers, armed with 630 tons of bombs. It was not only the B-52s' first strike into North Viet Nam, but also one of the largest bombing raids since World War II.

The planes spot-bombed Mu Gia Pass, 230 miles south of Hanoi, one of the three most important supply funnels to the south. The bombs sent huge avalanches cascading into the pass, blocking the vital artery. As a bonus, some of the bombs were equipped with time fuses set to explode days after impact and thus inhibit digging-out operations. The word was that from now on, the B-52s will be used over the north whenever needed. Taking advantage of the traffic piled up behind Mu Gia by the avalanches, U.S. planes periodically bombed and strafed stalled convoys, sending gigantic fireballs into the air and, in one raid, destroying 42 trucks--a record number for the war.

Deadly Accuracy. The Viet Cong, for their part, showed that they have not lost their sting. In their most successful attack of the war on an American installation, they launched a daring nighttime hit-and-run mortar barrage against crowded Tan Son Nhut airbase three miles north of Saigon, which serves both commercial and military traffic and is the world's busiest airport (1,512 landings and takeoffs a day). Firing with deadly accuracy, they lobbed 200 shells into the base in 20 minutes, ignited a 420,000-gallon fuel tank, smashed the enlisted men's transient billets, and destroyed four parked aircraft and damaged 29. The Viet Cong escaped without a scratch, leaving seven Americans and a Vietnamese dead, 182 wounded.

Surprise also proved deadly in the jungles of Phuoc Tuy province, 40 miles east of Saigon, where a rifle company of the famed 1st Infantry Division ("the Big Red One") was ambushed by the Viet Cong while engaging in a 10,000 man search-and-destroy sweep called Operation Abilene. Outnumbered 4 to 1, the Americans fought amid the cries of their wounded until the Viet Cong finally withdrew. Army spokesmen described the U.S. losses as "heavy," indicating that at least a third of the 178-man company was killed or wounded.

Elsewhere, other elements of Operation Abilene fared better. As the operation concluded at week's end, units of the Big Red One, the Royal Australian Regiment and New Zealand Artillery Battalion counted a total of 59 enemy killed, 22 captured, and a 900-sq.-mi. area cleared of Viet Cong--at least for the time being. That left two major sweeps still in progress: Operation Nevada, a search-and-destroy mission by several U.S. Marine battalions in the Cape Batagan Peninsula, which has so far killed 42 Viet Cong, and Operation Fillmore, a sweep through Phu Yen province by the 101st Airborne Division, whose troopers have killed 149 of the enemy in the past 20 days.

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