Defector Shows Way

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32178, 23 December 1969, Page 26

Defector Shows Way

J (N.2.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) q NUI DAT, Dec. 22. A smiling Viet Cong ! guerrilla who surren-, dered quietly late on < Saturday led five New 1 'Zealand soldiers to i cache of 30 weapons ( hidden in a cave in the I ! May Tao mountain. 1 The Viet Cong handed his i i loaded rifle and a grenade to i Major Larry Lynch, aged 34, j

of Christchurch, New Zealand, who almost walked on top of the guerrilla as he led the group of 30 Australian and New Zealand soldiers along a disguised mountain track. Major Lynch, the officer commanding the Kiwi Victor Company of the 6th Battalion, had dived to the ground shouting when he spotted the Viet Cong. Three other Viet Cong fled into thick bush as members of the group flung themselves to the ground. No shots were fired. The Viet Cong, with a New Zealand corporal, Gordon Benfell, aged 21, also of Christchurch, close behind him, then guided a patrol to the cache about 100 yards away. The guerrilla, who had been a party member for the last two years, said he wanted to surrender after hearing a voice aircraft broadcast that seven wounded Viet Cong captured the day before had been taken to the Australian hospital at Nui Dat for treatment. ' Another enemy defector, a North Vietnamese, Sergeant Chu Khac Triau, was with the Anzac group. Chu surrendered a week ago suffering from light shrapnel wounds he had received three days earlier in a clash with Australian soldiers. Hospital Found After hospital treatment at Nui Dat he offered to guide Australian intelligence officers to a large Viet Cong hos pital. The 200-bed hospital was found by Victor Company on Friday hidden among giant

trees and boulders. Forty i buildings were spread over a I 600-yard area. About 5001 b of i medical supplies and a large > quantity of clothing were left i when North Vietnamese staffing the hospital abandoned it • 12 days ago. • Chu, who had worked in the , hospital’s orderly room for I six months, showed Austra- > lian officers the administrat tive section, wards and wing ; quarters for the staff of 100, , including 11 nurses. i He said the hospital, which was for seriously ill patients, , had only 30 patients when the t Australians began "Operation • Marsden" in the mountains i on December 1. During the , last six months other patients , had been transferred. Chu said food in the hospiI tai had been scarce for the , last three months.