Unabated raids on north

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32801, 29 December 1971, Page 1

Unabated raids on north

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyright)

SAIGON, December 28.

American pilots began their third day of round-the-clock bombing of North Vietnamese military targets today while ground crews slept at their posts waiting to refuel and check aircraft as they landed.

An American military spokesman confirmed that the raids into North Vietnam were still in progress and had not ceased since they began on Sunday. But there was still no official detail of the strikes.

Military sources said many of the pilots involved in the raids had had only a few hours sleep a day since Sunday when the first wave of bombers took off from airfields in Vietnam and aircraft-carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

The sources said that pilots normally spent some four hours in the air but on sustained bombing raids they often flew two or three such missions a day. After each mission ground crews refuelled and rearmed the bombers within minutes and performed a quick maintenance check, the sources said. The sources said that intelligence experts had already begun a preliminary study of photographs of the bombing. Some targets were bombed several times, after it was found they had not been destroyed or the photographs showed new targets, the sources said. They added that the bombing was expected to continue at least throughout today. Scores of planes As scores of United States planes took part in today’s raids, a United States military spokesman described the operation as the biggest against North Vietnam since the bombing halt ordered by President Johnson in November, 1968. The spokesman said it was the first time since November, 1968, that American planes had made three days of non-stop raids on North Vietnam although there had been several one and two-day strikes.

The main targets are believed to be North Vietnam's airfields and anti-aircraft installations which pose hazards for United States aircraft on reconnaissance missions over the North or heading for Laos to bomb the Ho Chi Minh supply trail. On the first day of the strikes the United States Command said that the raids had a time limit, were against military targets and were in retaliation for North Vietnamese activity endangering the dwindling number of United States troops in the South. Charges likely The attacks seemed certain to intensify charges by war critics that the Air Force is taking over the war as American troops are withdrawn from ground action. The Secretary of Defence (Mr Melvin Laird) clearly indicated at a press conference that North Vietnam would be hit by more bombing if it was considered necessary. Pointing out that American troops in Vietnam now numbered fewer than 160,000, Mr Laird said: “It is very important that we protect those

Americans ... we will continue to take those necessary military actions to protect our remaining forces in South Vietnam.” Mr Laird refused to discuss | operational plans, but said he i would not rule out future loperations. I Closely questioned about United States policy, Mr Laird accused the enemy of

violating the understandings never formally acknowledged by either side that led to bombing being halted in 1968. He said that cities had been shelled in South Vietnam and there had been violations of the demilitarised zone between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, particularly the construction of infiltration routes through the zone. “More attacks” Further, Mr Laird said, there had been no substantive peace negotiations as promised, unarmed reconnaissance planes had been attacked, and more planes of all types had been attacked in December than in the last three years. The attacks on the North came after an upsurge of anti-aircraft activity by the Communists in recent weeks. Before the present air offensive, six United States planes were lost over North Vietnam and Laos in two weeks and a half. Enemy MiGs have been challenging United States planes over Laos and United States pilots have been subjected to intensive anti-air-craft and missile fire from over the border in North Vietnam as they bombed infiltration routes and supported ground action in the Plain of Jars. In spite of charges that the United States is stepping up the air war as it wound down involvement on the ground, the Pentagon has insisted that both the tonnage of bombs dropped and the number of strikes are being reduced. The present air attacks on North Vietnam will revive the charges, observers believe. Senator’s view A quick reaction came from the Democratic presidential hopeful, Senator George McGovern, who described the attacks as a “shocking escalation” of the war. He said that the raids put another padlock on the cells of American prisoners of war being held in North Vietnam. The new offensive coincided with a series of anti-war actions round the country by Vietnam war veterans.