End of the Lull

War in Viet Nam has its own cruel rule: after any lull, the fighting resumes with much greater ferocity than before.

For Delta Company of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, the two-month-long election lull ended last week in a hail of mortar shells that thudded down just after the company had dug in for the night near the town of Que Son, 30 miles south of Danang. The company commander radioed battalion headquarters that he had been jumped by a company of North Vietnamese regulars. It was nothing that he could not handle, he said. But he was dangerously mistaken. Facing his 100 leathernecks were some 1,000 North Vietnamese regulars, and they were primed for a fight. "Those people had brand new field telephones, new gas masks, pressed uniforms and shiny weapons," explained a division operations officer later.

The Marines contracted their lines into a tight perimeter, then called in artillery and air strikes to shield them. Helicopters dumped nausea gas directly onto the enemy. Though its lines were breached at several points, Delta Company held its ground, and by next morning, two Marine companies were helilifted to the rescue. They caught the North Vietnamese as they attempted to retreat and killed 130 of them.

Spooked by Spooky. As the North Vietnamese fled south toward the rising foothills of the Central Highlands, the Marines, now six companies strong, took off in pursuit. But the North Vietnamese were retreating to an area where at least a full regiment of more than 1,000 men was already entrenched in dugouts and caves. At dusk, the Communists struck back at the outnumbered Marines. Bayonet-wielding North Vietnamese soldiers charged the U.S. positions; some got within 15 feet of Marine machine guns before they were cut down. Marines snatched grenades from their dead buddies and hurled them without taking time to aim. By midnight, the attack faltered; the North Vietnamese filtered back toward their hilly hideout. In the engagement they lost 184 men. The Marines' losses: 70 killed, 184 wounded.

Elsewhere, the action was equally violent but less prolonged. In an unsuccessful attempt to capture Tarn Ky, the capital of Quang Tin province, 40 miles southeast of Danang, the Viet Cong lost 210 men to withering fire from South Vietnamese troopers and the "Miniguns" of a U.S. C-47 gunship called "Spooky." Near the DMZ, a battalion of North Vietnamese regulars ambushed a tank-escorted Marine convoy on its way to the "Rockpile" strongpoint that overlooks infiltration routes from North Viet Nam. Two Marine companies barreled up the road 'from either direction, catching the North Vietnamese in between. Result: 92 enemy and five U.S. dead.

New Numbers. U.S. intelligence officials now believe that Communist combat manpower in South Viet Nam may not be as high as present official estimates indicate. A study of recently captured documents and interrogations of prisoners suggests that the number of hard-core Viet Cong fighters should be scaled down somewhat from the present figure of 65,000 and that the roster of local guerrillas should be reduced slightly from the current 120,000 total. No matter what the numbers, though, the enemy still shows a willingness to fight--at least when he has managed to concentrate a superior number of troops against his American and South Vietnamese opponents.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.