Word: laichau
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...they had only an approximate idea of events that morning last week. Stretching out from the apex of the triangular French-held Hanoi delta to the China border is a string of hedgehog defenses: the Black River line. Three weeks ago, when Communist General Giap (TIME, Nov. 17) attacked Laichau at the westernmost end of this line, General Linares had thrown in Operation Lorraine. It was a counterpunch, aimed to throw Giap's armies off balance and to cut one of his main supply lines from Communist China...
...Communists struck towards the Thai capital, Laichau, with a force of three battalions, but the Thais, supported by Algerians, drove them back. Meanwhile, the main Communist force of ten battalions was snaking through the winding river valleys to the southeast toward the town of Nghia Lo. At dawn French-manned B-26 bombers and Hellcat and Bearcat fighters were roaring off the airfields of Hanoi and Haiphong, a few minutes later were diving between the mist-shrouded peaks surrounding the Nghia Lo basin to plaster the Viet Minh troops with bombs and napalm. Over the town of Nghia...