Word: rocketted
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...week's end the Cambodian government was reported ready to cut down the trees lining Phnom-Penh's Democracy Boulevard so that the wide roadway can be turned into an emergency landing strip for DC-3s in case the airport is closed down by Khmer Rouge rocket attacks. Such a desperate ploy might extend the war for a few days, or even a week or two, but not for long. This week the city braced itself for the fifth anniversary of the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk, a date the insurgents have previously celebrated with heavy attacks...
...first rocket of the day fell on the fruit market and killed seven people. The second fell 30 meters from the tennis courts at the Cercle Sportif and thereafter, for once, the courts remained unused. Four hours later the bombshell hit: a 107-mm. rocket slammed into a crowded street in front of the Monerom Hotel, killing eleven people instantly and maiming a dozen more; a flaming Honda was catapulted onto a pedicab whose lone occupant was already dead...
...operations, Admiral Vong Sarendy, conceded that the situation on the Mekong was "hopeless." Meanwhile, the capital's sole maintaining lifeline of emergency supplies was the Phnom-Penh airport. Insurgents, dug in less than five miles from the airport, last week were shelling it with as many as 60 rocket and 105-mm. artillery rounds per day. One U.S. cargo DC-8 carrying rice from Saigon was hit by rocket fire. But after a brief halt, the airlift of food and ammunition continued...
Even though Phnom-Penh was subjected to daily rocket attacks last week, the Lon Nol government seemed blindly optimistic about holding out, apparently convinced that the U.S. will somehow pull it through. But there was little reason for confidence. Along the Mekong River, the government's position has steadily deteriorated. Instead of regaining some of the strategic river positions, as they had planned, loyalist troops have lost much of the ground they retook in late January and in the process have suffered heavy casualties. Some battalions were wiped out completely. Others returned with as few as a dozen...
...Force pilot who now flies for World Airways of Oakland, Calif., told TIME Correspondent Peter Range: "The best time to go into Phnom-Penh is right after they've taken a few hits. We've figured out that if you haven't had another rocket for ten minutes, then you probably won't have any more for at least an hour." Healy, who ferried supplies to the Nationalist Chinese in the 1940s, said of the 130-mile hops to Phnom-Penh: "This is just like China 30 years...