2 Gunners Killed

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30856, 15 September 1965, Page 1

2 Gunners Killed

(Special Correspondent N Z P.A.)

BIEN HOA, September 14. Two New Zealand gunners were killed instantaneously late this morning when their ammunition-laden Landrover was blasted apart by a Viet Congplanted landmine.

The blast of the mine blew all four occupants of the vehicle high in the air. Sections of the vehicle were strewn over a 30-vard radius.

The dead men are: Sergeant A. J. S. Don. married. of Porirua East, and Bombadier R. White, married, also of Porirua East.

The New Zealand Press Association correspondent in Vietnam. Christopher Turver. of Wellington, received a cut on his forehead which needed six stitches. Another New Zealander sitting beside him was unhurt.

Both were probably saved by sandbags laid on the floor as a protection against mines

Turver has been in South Vietnam about three months covering the activities of the New Zealand battery stationed at Bien Hoa, 15 miles north of Saigon. The Landrover was in convoy to an operational area outside Bien Hoa air base. The convoy ncluded elements of New Zealand's artillery batterey.

The landmine was believed to have been electrically detonated as the vehicle drove over it.

The convoy had been moving for about two hours when the explosion occurred. At the time it was roving slowly along a deeply rutted road. Gunners in another vehicle said the whole road was blasted apart. “There was a huge cloud of dust and out of that flew the bodies of the four people on the vehicle,” said one gunner afterwards. “Parts of the’F Rover went all over the place.” Bush Investigated Almost immediately after the detonation, Vietnamese Government troops patrolling the rord peeled off to investigate the surrounding clumps of bush. There were a few short bursts of firing. For a brief period, all traffic was halted. But quarter of an hour after the explosion the road had been cleared, and the convoy continued. The commander of New Zealand's V-force (Lieuten-ant-Colonel ’V. C. T. Foley) is making arrangements for the burial of the dead gunners.