The walking wounded and most of the medics, excepting the surgical teams were taken away as prisoners of war At the Hotel Schoonhord the MDS was subjected to mortaring and some of the 300 casualties there were wounded for a second time, and the hotel was also captured.
42.
According to Morris, " The Haganah mortar attacks of 21 22 April [ on Haifa ] were primarily designed to break Arab morale in order to bring about a swift collapse of resistance and speedy surrender . [ & ] But clearly the offensive, and especially the mortaring, precipitated the exodus.
43.
The mortaring ceased at 04 : 00 and the attack was finally repelled by 05 : 40, with the South Vietnamese following up as the Viet Cong attempted to withdraw to south and south-east . 5 Airborne Battalion maintained contact with the withdrawing forces, while 11 Airborne Battalion moved north-east into a blocking position.
