Friday, May 12, 1972
Gun Down 7 MIGs
SAIGON (AP & UPI) --U. S. warplanes shot down seven enemy MIGs Wednesday while carrying out the deepest and heaviest air strikes inside North Vietnam in more than four years, the U.S. Command announced.The downing of seven MIGs in one day is a record for the Vietnam war.The U.S. aircraft attacked both Hanoi and Haiphong, while hitting at widespread areas of North Vietnam, the command said.It made no mention of any U.S. air losses.The aircraft streaked to within 60 miles of the Chinese border to attack North Vietnam's northwest rail link to China.Meantime, President Nguyen Van Thieu proclaimed a state of martial law throughout Vietnam effective at midnight Thursday, and the mayor of Saigon, Do Kien Nhieu, went on television to warn residents that an attack on the South Vietnamese capital was imminent.Nhieu unveiled a new emergency plan for coping with a major attack, asked residents to sandbag their homes, and issued detailed instructions for personal safety during shelling and rocket attacks. Nhieu also said he was setting up classes to teach first aid and emergency evacuation procedures.It was not immediately clear what the effect of the martial law proclamation would be, but there has been discussion in the Vietnamese National Assembly for two days of giving Thieu "special powers."There already have been widespread roundups in Hue and Da Nang of persons whose loyalty was considered suspect. Field reports said about 3,000 persons being held in Hue were transferred to Da Nang two days ago.On the war front, military sources reported new attacks west of Hue near the government bases of King and Birmingham, and a brief but intense shelling attack with 130mm artillery against Marine positions along the My Chanh River front line, 20 miles north of Hue.In the Saigon area itself, Communist gunners pumped another 980 shells into the embattled provincial capital of An Loc, 60 miles north of the capital, and there was more heavy fighting around paratrooper positions on Highway 13 leading south to Chon Thanh, 20 miles away, spokesmen said.But the major attention focused on the U.S. air strikes in the North. Hundreds of tactical fighter bombers flying from 7th Fleet carriers in the Tonkin Gulf and U.S. air bases in Thailand and South Vietnam participated in the raids, U.S. sources said.Radio Hanoi said the strikes began about 9:45 a.m. and sources said they continued in waves throughout the day.The North Vietnamese claimed American bombs fell on historical monuments, populated areas and hospitals and caused heavy civilian casualties. The charge that the Americans were bombing historical monuments was a new one, but every previous raid has produced charges that hospitals and civilian targets were hit.A destroyer task force also bombarded the Haiphong area.Hanoi Radio claimed that 14 U.S. planes were shot down and "many pilots were captured alive."The U.S. Command refused to comment on the Hanoi claim and gave no details of the raids, saying only that air and naval strikes were continuing against North Vietnam. But it is the command's policy to withhold announcement of plane losses until the search for missing crewmen is completed.The U.S. Command did announce the loss of four more aircraft since Sunday, including the crash 20 miles northeast of Saigon Wednesday of a big U.S. Army helicopter in which 32 Americans were killed.Radio Hanoi claimed that nine American planes were shot down in the Hanoi area Wednesday three in the Haiphong area, and two in Yen Bai, the province northwest of the capital through which the railway to China passes.The broadcast charged that the raiders did great damage to hospitals, schools and residential areas in Hanoi and caused many casualties.Informed sources in Saigon said as many as 200 strikes were flown Wednesday against North Vietnam. The sources said that for the first time since before the partial bombing halt on March 31, 1968, U.S. planes attacked the northwest railway over which China ships some of the arms and ammunition it supplies Hanoi. The line was reported hit around Yen Bai, 90 miles northwest of Hanoi."Gun Down 7 MIGs", by (AP and UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Friday, May 12, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.