WARSHIPS SHELL VIET CONG

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30767, 3 June 1965, Page 15

WARSHIPS SHELL VIET CONG

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright? SAIGON, June 2. Bombardments by waships of the United States Seventh Fleet today halted the Communist offensive in coastal areas of South Vietnam, United Press International reports.

United States military advisers said the off-shore shellings and anti-guerrilla tactics by South Vietnamese forces appeared to have dis-

rupted the Viet Cong timetable for a rainy season offensive after initial successes in the Quang Ngai area. The guerrillas inflicted staggering losses on Government troops earlier this week, then pulled back into the hills overlooking Quang Ngai—an important provincial capital on the shores of the South China Sea 340 miles north of Saigon. Some new fighting in the area was reported today. Three Vietnamese units were attacked south-west of Quang Ngai and another guerrilla band pushed to within two miles of the city’s airstrip before it was repulsed. Regular Troops Meanwhile, the controversy over whether or not North Vietnamese regular army units took part in the battle remained unresolved. Brigadier-General Nguyen Chanh Thi, South Vietnamese commander in the northern provinces, said captured documents proved three North Vietnamese regular battalions had been in action. To this assertion he added the charge yesterday that Chinese advisers were attached to the battalions. American officials declined to deny General Thi’s claim publicly. But they made it clear that the United States military command did not believe that any North Vietnamese regular units were in the fighting.