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132 Muõ Ñoû 72
was unbelievable, one of
those impossible to accept
horrors of war.
There it was, right before
your eyes - a convoy of
death. Fifty motobikes, 75
trucks, 100 bicycles - and
200 bodies of soldiers and
civilians rotting in the af-
ternoon sun.
A company of South Viet-
namese paratroopers taking part in the government’s three-day drive to
retake Quang Tri Province stumbled over the convoy Friday on Highway
1 just outside the town of Thon Giap Hau.
It did not take long to piece together what had happened. Just a check
through the papers of the victims and a look around the area.
Paratrooper offcers at the scene said the convoy apparently left Quang
Tri city April 29 with 400 persons - many of them wounded soldiers and
feeing civilians - while North Vietnamese troops were encircling the pro-
vincial capital.
The North Vietnamese overran Quang Tri city two days later, quickly oc-
cupied all of Quang Tri Province and pushed government troops down to
the My Chanh River along the border with Thua Thien Province.
The convoy was within sight of safety - only a half mile of My Chanh -
when tragedy hit. The Communists blew up the bridge over the O Khe
River forcing the convoy to grind to a halt along Highway 1.
Then, as offcers reconstructed the incident, the Communists opened up
with everything they had - rockets, mortars, rifes, machine guns.
At least half of the people in the convoy were killed. You can still see their
bodies - or what is left of them - hanging out of windows, lying in the road,
huddling in seats. The rest of the people managed to run off in to the sur-
rounding underbrush.
Nhöõng ngöôøi vôï lính - Vaän nöôùc, phaän ngöôøi
was unbelievable, one of
those impossible to accept
horrors of war.
There it was, right before
your eyes - a convoy of
death. Fifty motobikes, 75
trucks, 100 bicycles - and
200 bodies of soldiers and
civilians rotting in the af-
ternoon sun.
A company of South Viet-
namese paratroopers taking part in the government’s three-day drive to
retake Quang Tri Province stumbled over the convoy Friday on Highway
1 just outside the town of Thon Giap Hau.
It did not take long to piece together what had happened. Just a check
through the papers of the victims and a look around the area.
Paratrooper offcers at the scene said the convoy apparently left Quang
Tri city April 29 with 400 persons - many of them wounded soldiers and
feeing civilians - while North Vietnamese troops were encircling the pro-
vincial capital.
The North Vietnamese overran Quang Tri city two days later, quickly oc-
cupied all of Quang Tri Province and pushed government troops down to
the My Chanh River along the border with Thua Thien Province.
The convoy was within sight of safety - only a half mile of My Chanh -
when tragedy hit. The Communists blew up the bridge over the O Khe
River forcing the convoy to grind to a halt along Highway 1.
Then, as offcers reconstructed the incident, the Communists opened up
with everything they had - rockets, mortars, rifes, machine guns.
At least half of the people in the convoy were killed. You can still see their
bodies - or what is left of them - hanging out of windows, lying in the road,
huddling in seats. The rest of the people managed to run off in to the sur-
rounding underbrush.
Nhöõng ngöôøi vôï lính - Vaän nöôùc, phaän ngöôøi
