Word: monsoonal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Cong units will soon be back to a favorite mode of transportation: elusive sampans. The riot of rain-fed foliage in the jungles and swamps provides better concealment for the Red guerrillas, while battle-weary government troops are compelled to slog through waist-deep mud. To both sides the monsoon brings misery: boots and web belts rot, weapons rust even under oilcloth, leeches drop from wet branches, and a thin green slime covers everything...
...Quangngai as a Red barrage from mortars, recoilless rifles and howitzers thundered against the Bagia redoubt. Reports from a detachment of montagnard mercenaries, who bravely scouted the area on bicycles, showed that the Viet Cong were less than a mile from the town. In the dark before dawn, monsoon clouds hung wet and heavy over Quangngai, but there was just enough room for a flight of C-123 "flareships" to sweep in under the ceiling and illuminate the area. They were followed by F-100 Super Sabres, Skyraiders and helicopters, which lashed the perimeter with rockets, napalm, and cannon fire...
...proudly triumphant over the "neutralist" forces of General Kong Le and threatening to overrun the entire country. To be sure, the Pathet Lao are still there-and stronger than ever. According to U.S. officials, the Laotian Reds have been bolstered by 10,000 North Vietnamese troops. But with the monsoon already hampering military operations, they have failed for the first time since 1960 to mount a spring offensive...
Unlike their Viet Cong comrades in South Viet Nam, the Pathet Lao are a conventional fighting force equipped with trucks and armored cars that bog down in the monsoon mud. Moreover, the Laotian anti-Communists now have effective insurgent bands afield in Red territory. They consist mainly of 6,000 American-supplied Meo tribesmen, tough little primitives skilled in the savage techniques of ambush and night assault. Meo loyalty has been sealed by a U.S. airlift of rice ($6,500,000 worth this year alone), which feeds 160,000 tribesmen. Along with the kernels come rifles, grenades and ammunition...
Tragic Crash. On the ground and in the air, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces also kept up their pressure on the Reds in a grim race against the arrival of the monsoon season. Fighter-bombers swarmed daily over North Viet Nam, blasting bridges, shooting up road and rail traffic, igniting petroleum storage tanks and striking within 55 miles of Hanoi. For the Americans, there were moments of tragedy: a pair of U.S. helicopters collided over Bienhoa airbase-the scene last month of an accidental chain explosion that killed 27 men and wrecked ten bombers. This time, nine Americans died...