WAR IN INDOCHINA

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26671, 4 March 1952, Page 7

WAR IN INDOCHINA

REBEL ATTACK NEAR HANOI REPULSED SAIGON, March 2. The French High Command announced to-night that it had smashed an attempt bv elements of two Com-munist-led Vietminh divisions to gain a foothold in the Red Riyer Delta. 30 miles south-west of Hanoi. The command stated that hand-to-hand fighting and attacks by mobile units of artillery and. tanks and aeroplanes dropping napalm bombs, had resulted in the killing of 500 Vietminh soldiers and the wounding of 1000 others. ~ , , , Fourteen thousand Vietminh troops had tried to cut the delta in attacks from north and south of the Red river. The French aim to consolidate their own positions preparatory to launching an offensive against the Vietminh. A High Command spokesman asserted that the French had withdrawn from Hoabinh on the Black river so they could retain the initiative of action through the regrouping of their forces in the Red river Delta and build up for an offensive. The spokesman said that the loss of Hoabinh had created alarm in Washington, London, and Paris, but he said that future developments would prove the soundness of the French strategy.