Key Red Route Seized by Viets

Enemy Ambush Beaten Off; 559 Communists Die in Fights

April 30, 1968

SAIGON (UPI) - Elite South Vietnamese troops Tuesday cut the main North Vietnamese supply route into the A Shau Valley, then beat off a classic ambush in what was once undisputed Communist territory.

In a series of other sharp clashes involving both American and South Vietnamese troops, the Communists lost 559 killed, most of them units which had been supplied through the A Shau Valley.

The 2,000-man South Vietnamese force-one of the best in the South Vietnamese army-was airlifted through drizzling rain into the valley to seize the crossroads at Ta Bat, 28 miles southwest of Hue and eight miles from the Laotian border.

They took control of an airstrip, permitting easy landing of supplies and reinforcements, and linked up with elements of the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry Division which moved into the valley under conditions of extreme secrecy.

WESTMORELAND VISITS

The B52 raids in the north were in the general area of a visit Friday by Gen. William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in Vietnam. His trip seemed to emphasize his concern about the sector.

Field reports said he visited the "Flying Horsemen" of the First Air Cavalry Division and later the "Screaming Eagles" of the 101st Airborne Division, both units that have been fighting in the jungled vastness west of Hue and Quang Tri City.

U.S. intelligence sources disclosed that they believed there were 15 to 20 enemy battalions of infantrymen and sappers who could attack Hue "in a matter of a few hours."

REST AMID WAR RUINS

LANG VEI, South Vietnam-Weary members of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division take a rest beside a destroyed concrete bunker in the old Special Forces camp here. The camp had been overrun by North Vietnamese in February but was reoccupied by the 1st Cavalry later. The men were involved in Operation Pegasus.

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