Word: mortars
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...fade. VC sappers dynamited a culvert on Highway 13, five miles north of Lai Khe, shattering the comforting illusion that the road was safe. Two patrols of airborne troopers marching toward An Loc were badly mauled in ambushes. Then at 11 a.m. the next day, enemy rockets and mortar shells pelted the column's artillery. ARVN tanks blazed back furiously, but with little success. An ARVN tank was hit by a B40 rocket and exploded into a blazing wreck. Tac air was called in, and for 40 minutes, VNAF Skyraiders, U.S. Air Force Phantoms and C-119 gunships bombed...
...ensuing lull, ARVN troopers scavenged sandbags from a bunker that had been blown apart by an enemy mortar round. Some soldiers dug their fox holes deeper while others stared impassively at the immobile grass. Over campfires fueled by empty ammunition boxes hung pots of homemade noodle-and-vegetable soup...
...offensive began in the sky-with a shattering barrage of at least 12,000 rounds of rocket, mortar and artillery fire across the Demilitarized Zone, which divides North and South Viet Nam. Said Specialist Fourth Class Michael Hill, a U.S. adviser with ARVN units in the area: "It was like nothing we ever expected and nothing we ever saw." Then came the ground attack. Some 25,000 North Vietnamese troops, with Russian-built tanks and artillery, swept down through Quang Tri province, sending 50,000 refugees fleeing south and U.S. advisers scurrying to their helicopters. As his stunned military forces...
...waiting for the signal to open their long-awaited dry-season offensive in South Viet Nam. Meanwhile, Communist units deeper inside Cambodia opened their own offensive. In midweek, a force of Communist artillerymen, perhaps no more than 200 strong, struck the capital with a devastating, 90-minute rocket and mortar barrage...
Nothing Left. By the Cambodian government's count, no fewer than 115 rocket and mortar rounds fell on the city and nearby Pochentong Airport, which had been the target of another well-planned attack 15 months...