Laos retreat hampered by some panic

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32561, 22 March 1971, Page 15

Laos retreat hampered by some panic

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SAIGON, March 21. South Vietnamese troops have abandoned two more bases in Laos, retreating under heavy Communist fire in an airlift in which 34 United States helicopters were reported shot down. The United States Military Command said today six helicopters were lost in Laos yesterday, the losses reported by the command being only those helicopters that have been downed and are not recoverable either for repair or for scrap.

American crewmen flying the aircraft in the withdrawal operation and mechanics at the helicopter base at Quang Tri in South Vietnam said that 28 other helicopters were shot down during the rescue inside Laos yesterday but later were lifted out by other helicopters.

The command said that five crewmen were wounded and four missing in the six helicopter losses yesterday. The figures raised the official American toll in the 41-dav-old Laotian action to 81 helicopters lost, 53 crewmen killed, 69 wounded, and 24 missing.

Pilots flying the rescue mission yesterday described today some of the more than 2000 South Vietnamese troops flown out of Laos as “panic stricken” as they mobbed overcrowded aircraft. The returning crewmen had no estimate of the number of casualties in the 28 helicopters shot down and flown out.

In addition to the 28 shot down and later recoverable, 10 others were shot up so badly that they were classified as “non-flyable” after they returned into South Vietnamese territory with their -loads of South Vietnamese troops.

Inside South Vietnam. Communists shelled the main United States support base for the Laotian operation at Khe Sanh for the fourth time in two days, and a United States Army observation helicopter was shot down in the southern part of the country.

United States spokesmen said that the shelling of Khe Sanh caused light damage and no casualties. Two Americans aboard the observation helicopter were killed, they said.

The helicopter airlift yesterday removed troops from

the South Vietnamese fire base Brown, which was set up to protect the principal tank base at A Loui. South Vietnamese headquarters had said both bases were being

abandoned for tactical reasons.

The withdrawal was hampered not only by intense Communist ground fire, but also by South Vietnamese mobbing the helicopters, crewmen said.

I N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reported that the American Command fighter-bombers on Friday i destroyed three North Vietnamese tanks 11 miles west i north-west of the Laos border, in Savannakhet Province. Two other tanks sighted in the area were damaged. The South Vietnamese Command said today that Government forces on Friday killed 380 North Vietnamese in the vicinity of Route 9, about 10 miles west northwest of the border. The troops, who were supported by United States artillery and air strikes, lost nine killed and nine wounded. Fatal cure A' witchdoctor, Ranjesi Madeya, aged 55, has been sentenced to 20 years in gaol in Malawi for the death of a woman who drank a potion which he had prepared. The liquid was purported to remove evil spirits. Blantyre (Malawi), March 21.