5 More Yanks Slain by Cong

May 11, 1965 - A large Viet Cong force overran a provincial capital 52 miles north of Saigon early today, killing five U.S. military advisers and wounding 11 other Americans.

The Communists held Songbe, a town of 15,000, for seven hours before South Vietnamese Government forces reoccupied it under cover of a heavy air attack.

The casualties suffered by the South Vietnamese defenders were not known, but they were presumed to be heavy.

U.S. Air Force jets began pouring fire into the Viet Cong at first light and were met with withering ground fire.

One propeller-driven U.S. fighter-bomber was downed, but the pilot was reported to have bailed out and to have been picked up safely.

The attack, in regimental strength, was one of the hardest onslaughts the Viet Cong had mounted in the war.

One group of guerrillas invaded the mess hall of the U.S. Army advisory detachment, but all were reported killed in hand-to-hand fighting. A second group got into the mess hall and stayed long enough to loot it of food, military sources in Saigon said.

The invaders occupied the headquarters of the provincial headquarters of the provincial government and seized five armored cars there. With the captured cars, which are equipped with machine guns and sometimes with 37-mm. cannon, they smashed the local air strip half a mile away.

After they quit Songbe, the Viet Cong were reported to have dug in along a river a short distance northeast of the town. A major battle appeared to be developing.

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