Word: mm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...American attackers know no such frugality of fire. The APCs grind to a halt; there is a rumble from the rear; and volley after volley of 105-mm. shells whispers overhead to crash down among the enemy in an endless, earthshaking, invisible whiplash of steel. Then the U.S. warplanes arrive, diving just ahead of the APCs to rend the forest with their 20-mm. cannon and 2.75 rockets. The APCs move forward into the smoke, are stopped again by a pocket of fire. The U.S. commander barks into his radio. In response, five miles away a battery of huge...
Speed & Surprise. North Viet Nam's first major surprise was the 1st Air Cav's ability to airlift its 105-mm. howitzers over trackless jungle and keep the guns supplied with shells. The division moved its guns 67 times during the campaign -and only once overland. Some 33,000 shells were fired, 6,500 alone during a single, intense 24-hour engagement. The 1st Air Cav's battalions were shifted 40 times by helicopter, and 13,257 tons of supplies were airlifted to its men before the remnants of the Communist forces scuttled to safety in Cambodia...
...soon; he retreated into the hills and paddies to reassemble his forces. The chance for annihilation came at Dienbienphu, when the French, thinking Giap still had no heavy artillery, dropped paratroops into a valley, hoping to draw Giap into combat. But Giap had obtained over 100 American 105-mm. howitzers from the Red Chinese, carted them through the jungle and over the mountains, and pounded the French forces to pieces in the valley below. In fact, at Dienbienphu he annihilated only 4% of the French force in Viet Nam, but it was psychologically the end for the French. They were...
...critical," noted another, "will have to cut ration below 500 grams. The word tonight is that there is no rice stored at the next two stations." And once Giap's men arrive, he must keep them supplied by the same tortuous, 800-mile route. Every pair of 81-mm. mortar rounds fired by Giap's men in the South represents a three-month hike down the trail...
...down the dark street, from both sides, intense automatic fire raged. Five of us dived for cover into one courtyard, the others into an adjoining one. Outside in the street, a tremendous explosion resounded-either an M-79 grenade or a 60-mm. mortar shell. Three of the other newsmen, peering out a door, were wounded by blast fragments. UPI photographer Steve Van Meter asked an old man in a nearby building for some mosquito netting to bandage our wounded. The man shook his head. We offered him 500 piastres. Still no. With that Van Meter brushed the man aside...