The Vietnam War, This Week, The Daily Notes, Canonsburg, PA
Vietnam War Weekly Front Pages
31 October 1965 – 6 November 1965
The Daily Notes, Canonsburg PA
More air strikes, in the north and south.
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Communist ground crews launched a barrage of 17 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) against an armada of US Navy and Air Force planes attacking a key bridge near the capital of Communist north Vietnam. The planes dodged the deadly missiles, but one, a Navy A4 fighter bomber, was brought down by conventional anti-aircraft fire in the raid Sunday 35 miles northeast of Hanoi. The pilot parachuted and was presumed captured. Three of the missile sites were positioned around a key highway bridge, on a major supply route to Hanoi, but despite the massive ground fire the bridge was destroyed.
On Wednesday, US Air Force B-52 bombers, flying at high altitude in waves of three, pounded a suspected Viet Cong stronghold north of Saigon on the fringe of the Communist area known as the “Iron Triangle.” The raid, the 58th of the war, was the second in the past two days against the target believe to be the staging area for Viet Cong troops. It was crisscrossed with tunnels and bunkers. Correspondants onboard observation planes recorded that at least 10 structures were destroyed in the saturation bombing. One body was seen on the ground.
Troops of the US Army’s airmobile 1st Cavalry Division killed an estimated 137 Communists in two bitter battles at close quarters Monday. There were indications that some of the enemy forces, wearing khaki uniforms, were regular units of the North Vietnamese army. The fierce hand-to-hand fighting broke out near the American Special Forces camp at Plei Me on the Central Highlands where US and Vietnamese forces cracked a determined Communist siege the previous week. The next day American infantrymen battled Communist troops in seven hours of bitter fighting during the night near the US camp. Casualties were reported on both sides. A US military spokesman said one planeload of American dead and wounded was flown to Pleiku after daybreak. Other wounded Americans were airlifted to a field hospital at Nha Trang. The Viet Cong finally broke off the engagement about 4 AM in the face of heavy American reinforcements. US troops pursued the fleeing Communists at first light, hoping to catch the main force before dark.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Canonsburg Daily Notes)