CHOPPER TAKING OFF FROM LAI KHE, AERIAL VIEWS OF BINH LONG, SOUTH VIETNAMESE TANK BURNING ON HIGHWAY 13, AERIALS OF AN LOC, SOLDIERS RUNNING TO COVER FROM HELICOPTER, SOLDIERS IN AN LOC DIGGING IN AND WAITING, AIR STRIKES, CHOPPIER TAKING OFF AND BACK TO LAI KHE, WOUNDED CARRIED OUT OF CHOPPER AND DEAD BODIES ON LANDING PAD.




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Background: A Visnews television crew flew out of Lai Khe on Saturday (8 April) to get the first available film of An Loc, the besieged provincial capital of Binh Long.

Binh Long province is currently holding a communist advance from the northern front. Most of the province has already been overrun, but An Loc is proving to be a difficult obstacle for the communists.

South Vietnamese Government sources say the communists could either launch a massive offensive against the town itself, or completely bypass it if the advance south continues.

For the ARVN soldiers in An Loc, the day is spent digging further defences, or taking over from the constant mortar attacks.

Communist forces are in the jungle all around the town, and when the weather permits, airstrikes are the town's only effective method of defence. Most of them are American and they are having limited success against the unseen enemy around the town.

Casualties are flow out by helicopter, but this too is a riskey business. The Communists have the helicopter landing pads zeroed in which mortars, and two machines have already been shot down trying to evacuate wounded ARVN troops.