Hard Battle For Due Co

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30827, 12 August 1965, Page 13

Hard Battle For Due Co

(N.Z Press Assn —Copyright, SAIGON, Aug. 11. Viet Cong and Government troops reformed early today for | fresh onslaughts in the I battle of Due Co, ra- J pidly becoming the bloodiest single engagement of the summer. United States military spokesmen in Saigon said they had no reports of further contacts last night between Government forces moving overland to the relief of the camp and the strong Viet Cong units dug in along the way. The night also was report - ed quiet at the sand-bagged camp, where a small band of Americans and Government troops have been besieged for more than two months. Commands Highway However, major forces still were in the area and there was no indication that the fight for Due Co and the surrounding area was over. Reuter said that Due Co was a strategic outpost straddling the vital Highway 19. leading from Cambodia into South Vietnam’s central high lands. Reports from Due Co today said that the situation was quiet but there was no immediate word as to whether the Viet Cong had broken off the battle. United States officials have

not heard whether the relief column sent from Pleiku. which fought a savage battle with guerrilla units two days ago, has yet reached Due Co. Americans Awaited : A clandestine Viet Cong i Radio broadcast, monitored in Saigon last night, said guerrilla units in the Due Co area, 21 miles north-east of Saigon, were eager to fight American airborne troops

and had been awaiting their arrival. So far only Vietnamese paratroopers have been thrown into a series of battles for the key base—the prize target of the guerrilla campaign. Vietnamese airborne units are reported still in defensive positions around the camp, seven miles from the Cambodian frontier.