New Targets Hit By U.S. In North

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31501, 16 October 1967, Page 13

New Targets Hit By U.S. In North

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SAIGON, October 15. American bombers hit five new targets in the Hanoi and Haiphong areas of North Vietnam yesterday. All or most of the targets were previously on the Pentagon’s list of areas ruled out of bounds to American bombers.

Among the targets hit for the first time in the war were the Haiphong west shipyard and a sprawling storage area.

Both targets are less than a mile and a half from the centre of Haiphong and about two miles from the main docks.

The pilots reported heavy damage to the yards, which United States spokesmen said were capable of producing 10 per cent of North Vietnam’s steel barges. The barges are the principal carriers of munitions, fuel and other supplies used by the North Vetnamese on their many rivers and canals and along their coast in the Tonkin Gulf.

United States headquarters said other planes from the United States aircraft carrier Constellation hit at a Haiphong storage area about a mile south of the centre of the city, another target that was

attacked yesterday for the first time in the war.

A headquarters announcement said: “Pilots reported all buildings destroyed or damaged with one secondary explosion and residual fires sending smoke 3000 ft in the air.” It was also reported that 10 anti-aircraft gun sites in the Haiphong target areas were silenced by American planes. While carrier-based Navy airmen concentrated on Haiphong and its vicinity yesterday, Air Force fighter-bombers from Thailand bases struck in the area around Hanoi.

The Air Force Phantom and Thunderchief jets bombed two boat repair yards 27 miles and 31 miles west-north-west of Hanoi, the United States Command said.

In South Vietnam, no major ground fighting was reported, but Stratofortress bombers kept up their raids in support of the United States marines at Con Thien in the Demilitarised Zone area. In the only fresh ground action reported, American infantrymen said they killed 14 Viet Cong yesterday in a sweep 22 miles north-west of Saigon.