Air Attacks Assessed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31234, 5 December 1966, Page 17

Air Attacks Assessed

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Dec. 4. Air attacks and especially a series of deadly, sustained night raids have cut into North Vietnam’s capacity for trucking war materials to South Vietnam, says the Associated Press. This assessment was given by a high ranking military officer involved in the Pentagon’s day-to-day overseeing of the air effort. It is difficult to state accurately how North Vietnam’s war plans have been affected by United States strikes against truck convoys, barges, petroleum stores and road intersections, but the officer made these points: In a five-month period during spring and summer, United States Air Force and

Navy planes destroyed more than 1000 North Vietnamese trucks hauling supplies to South Vietnam. Night air attacks now make up one-third of the missions against North Vietnam, and “have had a definite bearing” in reducing movement of war materials to the south. Increasing the effectiveness of night missions is getting priority attention at the Pentagon, where major advances in detection gear are expected soon. Declining Scale There has been a declining scale of large unit actions recently, leading to the assumption that the Viet Cong are having trouble keeping their forces in South Vietnam supplied. There is no firm figure on the amount of goods needed by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, but military men estimate the volume at about 150 tons a day. The enemy have been getting half that.

“This is not the easiest thing to measure,” the officer said. “We can make the assumption that the enemy is short on supplies. Then there might be a large series of big actions—knocking your assumptions asunder. ’But each month that a big offensive doesn’t occur,” he added, “our assumption takes on added significance.”

The disclosure of 1000 enemy trucks being put out of action represented one of the few indications of how effective the United States air

campaign against North Vietnam has been. Night missions, conducted intermittently last year, have now become regular operations, complementing daylight attacks over North as well as South Vietnam.