Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
During those operations, the U.S. Air Force lost 31 B-52s; 18 were lost from hostile fire over North Vietnam and 13 from operational causes. [citation needed] The typical full bomb loads were: [citation needed] B-52D: 108 500-lb. bombs, or a mixed load of 84 500-lb. bombs in the bomb bay and 24 750-lb. bombs on underwing pylons.
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]
Head, William H. War from Above the Clouds: B-52 Operations during the Second Indochina War and the Effects of the Air War on Theory and Doctrine. Maxwell Air Force Base AL: Air University Press, 2002. Nalty, Bernard C., Air War over South Vietnam, 1968–1975. Washington DC: Air Force Museums and History Program, 2000. ISBN 978-0-16-050914-8
The bombing campaigns of the Vietnam War were the longest and heaviest aerial bombardment in history. The United States Air Force, the U. S. Navy, and U. S. Marine Corps aviation dropped 7,662,000 tons of explosives. By comparison, U. S. forces dropped a total of 2,150,000 tons of bombs in all theaters of World War II.
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.
On the same day, at precisely 16:00, B-52's first wave of carpet bombings fell about 7 kilometers west of LZ X-Ray while the 32nd Regiment held its positions at 12–14 kilometers. [82] At 16:30, Brigadier General Knowles, 1st Air Cavalry Division Forward, landed at the LZ X-Ray to announce the withdrawal of the 1/7th Air Cavalry Battalion set ...
During the Vietnam War, B-52D tail gunners were credited with shooting down two MiG-21 "Fishbeds". On 18 December 1972 tail gunner Staff Sergeant Samuel O. Turner's B-52 had just completed a bomb run for Operation Linebacker II and was turning away when a Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) MiG-21 approached. [178]