Hue again under fire, Quang Tri fighting

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32959, 4 July 1972, Page 13

Hue again under fire, Quang Tri fighting

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAIGON, July 3. The old imperial capital of Hue came under North Vietnamese artillery fire today for the second consecutive day, as fresh fighting was reported along the new Quang Tri front established by South Vietnamese troops 30 miles farther north.

Fourteen rounds hit the city just after 7 a.m. but according to field reports they exploded harmlessly in rice paddies outside the walls of the citadel in Hue’s centre, and inflicted no casualties

Nearly 70 shells crashed into Hue yesterday in the first shelling of the city since North Vietnam’s general offensive began, killing 12 civilians and wounding 53. In the Quang Tri fighting, military spokesmen reported, South Vietnamese marines beat off attacks along the eastern flank of the 20,000man push that is closing in on Communist-held Quang Tri city. Aided by artillery and

fighter-bombers, the marines killed at least 100 of the attackers and destroyed four tanks, capturing another, the spokesmen reported. They put South Vietnamese losses at five killed, 17 wounded. While allied officers at Hue began a search for the longrange gun that is shelling the city. Communist rockets and mortars hit the forward staging base at Phu Bai, seven miles to the south, wounding four soldiers.

The gun has been tentatively identified as a Sovietbuilt 122 mm artillery piece. It has a range of about 13 miles and according to officers, is apparently concealed in a mountain position west of the city, not far from Firebase Bastogne.

“To get the gun into position was quite an achievement,” one officer said. “They may have brought it

up piece by piece and then assembled it at the site.”

The 122 mm gun has been used before in the northern region of South Vietnam and two of them were captured during a big combined United States-South Vietnamese operation northwest of Hue in 1969. Allied officials are determined to quickly capture or destroy the one now believed

to be in use against Hue, to avoid panic among civilians that might result from constant artillery fire. Nearly all of the city’s 200,000 residents fled in fear in early May when Quang Tri was captured by the North Vietnamese and it appeared the onslaught might continue to Hue. Since then, however, most of the city’s residents have returned.