One Bridge, One Buffalo

Even as a growing group of U.S. Senators complained that many of the most vital military and transportation facilities in North Viet Nam remain untouched, U.S. bombs rained down last week on a hitherto inviolate target: the one-mile Long Bien Bridge. Less than two miles from downtown Hanoi, the French-built bridge carries all the rail and road traffic between the North Vietnamese capital and China. U.S. Thunderchief and Phantom fighter-bombers scored four direct hits on the steel structure, sent a 300-ft. center span-splashing into the Red River. Elsewhere over the North, Air Force fighter-bombers pounded rail yards, and Navy pilots shot down two MIG-21s.

Aware that North Vietnamese regulars are concentrating troops in the A Shau valley 60 miles west of Danang, the U.S. sent B-52s to bomb the area. Air Cavalry troopers landed by helicopter on top of a nest of tunnels in the central province of Quang Ngai, rooted out the North Vietnamese defenders and blew up the bunkers. In the same province, 4th Division troopers flushed an entire North Vietnamese battalion and killed 65, losing only one man themselves.

Farther south in Hau Nghia province, a four-man U.S. patrol was attacked in a paddy by a water buffalo. Results of the action, according to a military spokesman in Saigon: "Four U.S. injured and one individual weapon lost to enemy horns." Added the officer, "About two hours later, a resupply helicopter spotted in the same area a water buffalo with an M-16 rifle hanging on its horns. The door gunners engaged the enemy. Final score: one enemy buffalo killed and one individual weapon recovered."

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