South Viet Nam: The Quickening Pace

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More than 13,000 rounds of artillery had pocked the ridge north of Kontum, and more than 100 fighter-bomber strikes had added their bite. But the three battalions of North Viet Nam's 24th Regiment still clung to the high ground as Operation Hawthorne—and the first major battle of 1966 for the critical Central Highlands—entered its second week.

To avoid the heavy casualties of an uphill infantry assault, U.S. commanders devised a wily plan. While the men of the 101st Airborne and 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) stood back, poised to pounce, 900 tear gas grenades blossomed on the ridge to flush the Reds out of their tunnels and bunkers. As the enemy came up for air, the overcast and seemingly empty sky began raining bombs. For 47 minutes they fell in lethal, patterned precision, laying open the ridge in a giant surgical slash. The bombs came from 24 high-flying B-52s guided in from Guam by "sky spot" radar controllers on the ground. Within five minutes after the last bomb had burst, G.I.s were swarming over the ridge—or what was left of it. The scattered pockets of resistance that had survived the lash of destruction were soon wiped out.

Still continuing, Operation Hawthorne has thus far killed some 1,000 North Vietnamese regulars in a spoiling operation designed to throw off balance any enemy monsoon offensive plans. All up and down South Viet Nam, the U.S. has been out hunting in a record number of battalion-size or larger operations (25 last week). Significantly they are making contact, after nearly eight months in which North Vietnamese General Giap's forces and the Viet Cong were notably reluctant to fight. Yet another sign of the quickening war: Giap has moved two fresh regiments from staging areas in Laos into the Central Highlands, the 34th and 88th, totaling some 3,000 men.