Mass Attack On Viet Cong Training Camp

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30847, 4 September 1965, Page 15

Mass Attack On Viet Cong Training Camp

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) SAIGON, Sept. 3. Sixty Viet Cong guerrillas were killed yesterday when United States planes and massed South Vietnamese forces smashed a Chinese-equipped training camp 320 miles north-east of Saigon.

The Government forces seized Chinesemade equipment ranging from rifles and a sword to hammocks and water bottles, according to reports reaching Saigon tonight. They also captured grenades, 1251 b of T.N.T., detonators, ammunition and rice. The multi-battalion sweep force moved in on the stronghold at dawn yesterday. Several units were lifted into the area by helicopter. They' were quickly engaged by the guerrillas and heavy fighting ensued. Air strikes were called in and American jets and helicopters pounded the area as the sweep force advanced.

THICK JUNGLE Remnants of the guerrilla company retreated into the thick jungle to the west aftei inflicting only light casualties on the Government force. The engagement was only 10 miles south of the spot where American marines scored their first major vic-

tory in mid-August, routing a Viet Cong regiment. In other fighting, a United States marine patrol last night ambushed a Viet Cong patrol five miles south of the strategic Da Nang air base, killing three guerrillas and capturing three others. GRENADE ATTACKS In Saigon, officials announced today that a terrorist threw a grenade at the main gate of a United States Army base in the capital last night, seriously injuring an American sentry. There was no indication of what happened to the terrorist. Elsewhere, a force of about 1400 United States marines with 80 helicopters landed at Chu Lai, 50 miles south of Da Nang, yesterday to reinforce the marine-defended airfield there.

Altogether, 12 marine helicopter squadrons are now engaged in defending three enclaves on the northern coast. The Chinese Premier, Mr Chou En-lai, last night described in Peking United States proposals for peace talks on Vietnam as a “ludicrous swindle” because at the same time the United States was escalating its war of aggression. He again demanded a total American withdrawal from South Vietnam so that the 1954 Geneva Agreements could be put into effect. In Tokyo, the Kyodo News Service today quoted an unidentified Japanese in Peking as saying that American bombing missions on North Vietnam were losing their effect because the United States was now using more propeller aircraft than jets.