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Another 212 B-52 missions were flown within South Vietnam in support of ground operations during the campaign. [97] Ten B-52s were shot down over the North and five others were damaged and crashed in Laos or Thailand. Thirty-three B-52 crew members were killed or missing in action, another 33 became prisoners of war, and 26 more were rescued. [98]
The zenith of B-52 attacks in Vietnam was Operation Linebacker II (sometimes referred to as the Christmas Bombing) which consisted of waves of B-52s (mostly D models, but some Gs without jamming equipment and with a smaller bomb load). Over 12 days, B-52s flew 729 sorties [42] and dropped 15,237 tons of bombs on Hanoi, Haiphong, and other ...
To add conventional bomb capacity, Project Big Belly modified all B-52Ds to enable them to carry 30 tons of conventional bombs. By mid-April 1966, all B-52Fs were redeployed back to the U.S. and were replaced by Big Belly-modified B-52Ds. [citation needed] Later in the Vietnam War, the B-52G was also deployed with the B-52D. [2]
Newly inaugurated President Richard Nixon authorized for the first time use of long-range Boeing B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers to carpet bomb Cambodia. [2] Operation Freedom Deal immediately followed Operation Menu. Under Freedom Deal, B-52 bombing was expanded to a much larger area of Cambodia and continued until August 1973.
Operation Linebacker II was a strategic bombing campaign conducted by the United States against targets in North Vietnam from 18 to 29 December 1972, as part of the Vietnam War. This operation was a particularly dangerous and destructive two weeks for the B-52 and its crews.
Operation Rolling Thunder was a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the United States (U.S.) 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) against North Vietnam, China and North Korea from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968, during the Vietnam War.
The first mass B-52 raid directed against the north was conducted on 10 April when 12 B-52s, supported by 53 attack aircraft, struck petroleum storage facilities around Vinh. [31] By 12 April, Nixon had informed Kissinger that he had decided on a more comprehensive bombing campaign which would include strikes against both Hanoi and Haiphong.
On March 2, 1965, following the Attack on Camp Holloway at Pleiku, Operation Flaming Dart and Operation Rolling Thunder commenced. The bombing campaign, which ultimately lasted three years, was intended to force North Vietnam to cease its support for the Vietcong (VC) by threatening to destroy North Vietnam's air defenses and industrial infrastructure.