Despite the steady communists advance in the northern reaches of South Vietnam, below the Demilitarized Zone, ARVN troops continued to hold the town of Dong Ha on Wednesday (5 April).

??? concentrations of communist troops were reported to be only a few miles from Dong Ka -- once a town of ten thousand people. When South Vietnamese engineers demolished the only bridge from the north over the Dong Ha River into the town itself, the communist troops were forced to attack the town on foot. There was no massed assault on Wednesday however,just a handful of snipers who had managed to cross the river and find cover among the houses.

The South Vietnamese soldiers moved through the streets all day, using M-16'3 against the hidden snipers. There was no indication of how many of the communist troops were in the town, but the Dong Ha River was being closely guarded in case reinforcements tried to swim over.

Meanwhile, the refugees from the northern areas of South Vietnam continued to move south in a steady stream. Special camps providing limited rations and medical care were set up along the routes.

They had travelled in buses and cars, on motorcycles and on tractors. Many of them had lost relatives in the fighting since the Easter weekend, and there were reports of orphaned children making their own way south. Many had left their homes too rapidly to take food or possessions, while others -- veterans of hasty evacuations -- carried all they could manage.