Word: mortaring
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Between the flat, metallic blasts of occasional mortar shells, the only sound in the camp was the rustle of rats shuffling over sleeping men. In the rifle pits behind the sandbagged perimeter of Plei Me, weary defenders sniffed the sour stench of cordite and unwashed clothes and grumbled about the duty. "Shut up," said a grizzled major. "This is what we're getting paid for." An enlisted man chuckled in the darkness. "Yeah, anybody who don't like the cooking can go right out the gate...
...kill ratio over the enemy, have spread their original beachhead until now they control 400 sq. mi. of territory. When a bad bit of intelligence unloaded the 101st Screaming Eagles from their helicopters right into a battalion of Viet Cong near An Khe, the Eagles fought hand-to-mortar until the field was theirs. Soon the increasing aggressiveness of American ground troops everywhere was adding yet another dimension of fear and uncertainty for the V.C., already long harassed by U.S. air and sea power...
Stalled Column. From there it was only four miles to Baraka, but hardly had Hoare's men moved out than their charge began to stall. On the outskirts of town, two battalions of Simbas rained mortar, bazooka and machine-gun fire on the commandos. A spearhead led by Hoare's two armored cars finally broke through, but it was two long days before he was in firm control of Baraka, and then only after most of the town had been destroyed. Death toll: five commandos, 215 Simbas...
...Sundra, a caravansary in the salt wastes of the Thar, Pakistani irregulars were doing their laundry one morning when an Indian 3-in. mortar shell slammed into their midst. Killed: a brown goat. The Paks - camel-riding Indus Rangers and bearded Hur rifle men - ducked behind mud walls and blazed back in the best Gunga Din fashion. A strafing run by Indian Vampire jets failed to dislodge the Pakistanis -indeed, they reported, did not even disturb the vultures circling overhead...
...creaking back-country bus filled with women and children suddenly explodes; a small town echoes to the shrieks of the dying as mortar shells are casually lobbed into its midst; a plastique charge shreds a Saigon café. Common enough events in South Viet Nam, they are part of the Viet Cong's conscious policy of killing and maiming civilians. Last year alone, some 11,000 innocent civilians were killed or kidnaped by the Viet Cong in their calculated campaign of terrorism...