Word: 26s
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...divisions crack the northeast strongpoint, overrun three of its five or six outposts. Then the Communists take Bald Head. At 2200, French Commanding Colonel Christian de Castries calls for air support. Privateers, B-26s, Bearcats, even DC-3 transports sprinkle high explosive and napalm into Red infantry support zones, but the enemy holds its gains. French HQ later admits: "The first news...
...making only minimal public acknowledgment of it. In an age of atom and jet. there is no thought of the atom bomb and not a jet in the country. Over the only existing live war against the Communists, the weapons are those of World War II: U.S.-made B-26s. Bearcats and Corsairs. Talk of American air armadas to a French air commander, and he answers that he hasn't the bases, hasn't the crews and hasn't the mechanics to service them. And he adds that, except for the occasional battle of position, like Dienbienphu...
...March, Leriche was put to work on a road that was under daily attack by French bombers. "It was fascinating. One day the B-26s made a series of direct hits on the road, converting hundreds of meters to a mass of rubble. When a Viet Minh officer said it must be repaired for use that very night, we thought he was joking. But before long, thousands and thousands of people began converging on the road. The Communists evidently collared the whole population for miles around, peasants, coolies, children, women with babies, old people, everyone who could walk...
Savannakhet is a handsome, quiet, palm-shaded town on the banks of the broad Mekong, on the border between south-central Laos and Siam. Nearby is the big Seno airfield, which can handle B-26 bombers and C-47 transports. Last week, while the B-26s roared out with bombs and napalm, the transports unloaded supplies. Gangs of French Union troops, stripped to the waist, toiled feverishly to build log bunkers and put out mines and barbed wire...
...France's West Point. Aside from the toll of blood from a nation that had bled so much in two world wars, the war was costing France a staggering sum-$1.3 billion last year, of which the U.S. supplied $400 million plus direct delivery of war goods, B-26s and Flying Boxcars, World War II Bearcats and Hellcats...