Hanoi’s Supply Trails Bombed

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31502, 17 October 1967, Page 17

Hanoi’s Supply Trails Bombed

(N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright) SAIGON, October 16. United States Stratofortresses have struck for the first time this year at the key Mu Gia Pass, deep in North Vietnam, which leads to Hanoi’s main supply trails to South Vietnam.

The eight - engined bombers dropped hundreds of tons of high explosives on the pass yesterday, a United States military spokesman said in Saigon today.

It was the first raids by the Stratofortresses on the pass since last December, he added. Targets for the planes included lorry parks and petrol dumps in the pass—a frequent target for the United States fighter-bombers.

No United States raids were reported in the HanoiHaiphong areas yesterday, but carrier-based Navy planes struck the Bai Thuong airfield storage area 21 miles from the North Vietnamese town of Thanh Hoa. Smoke hampered bomb damage assessment

Roads, bridges and river traffic were among other targets struck in the southern areas of North Vietnam, and a large secondary explosion was reported after a raid on a cave storage area near Vinh, the spokesman said. V. Cong Attack In the South, the Viet Cong launched a ground attack behind a barrage of mortar and rifle grenades on the command post of the United States 101st Airborne Battalion in Quang Tin province yesterday.

Six Americans and six Viet Cong were killed and 21 paratroopers injured in the attack, some 355 miles nor-east of Saigon. The attack was beaten off, the spokesman said. The commander of the United States Seventh Fleet, Vice-Admiral John J. Hyland, said today that Navy bombing had turned Haiphong into a “virtual island,” leaving war supplies stacking up in North Vietnam’s main port. “Our bombing effort on Haiphong is to isolate it from

Hanoi and points south,” he said“By exceptionally accurate bombing we have been able to knock down all four bridges involved in Haiphong’s transport of war supplies inland. It is virtually an island.”

Admiral Hyland said that the destruction of the bridges did not cut off the port entirely. “But aerial photos show lots of materials and supplies stacking up in Haiphong,” he said.