RIPPLE SALVO… #524… PAUL DOUMER BRIDGE ON FRIDAY, CANAL des RAPIDES ON SATURDAY… back-to-back trips “downtown” for 355 TFW, 388 TFW and 8 TFW… thanks to Howie Plunkett, Historian…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR of a trip back to the 3-year air war over North Vietnam called ROLLING THUNDER and fought by men with boundless fortitude…
12 AUGUST 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny Saturday in the Bronx…
TOP NEWS: Page 1: “Moscow Indicates Readiness To Join In An Atom Draft–Inspection Issue Would Be Omitted In U.S. Soviet Plan To Bar Weapon Spread–Note Sent to Foster: American Negotiator–Urged By Russians to Return to Geneva Urgently”… “William Foster, the Chief United States disarmament negotiator announced today that the Soviet Union had advised him it might be ready to join the United States in presenting to the Geneva conference a draft treaty to prohibit the spread of nuclear weapons.”…
VIETNAM: Page 1: “Senators Deplore Fraud In Vote Drive in Vietnam”... “A dozen senators from both parties charged today that the South Vietnamese presidential election campaign was being turned into a ‘fraud,’ ‘farce.’ ‘charade,’ by the ruling military junta…some said that if elections were not conducted fairly, the administration should begin making plans to get out of Vietnam”…a rising storm of congressional criticism.”… Page 1: “Thieu Vows To Try a Bombing Pause If He Is Elected–Saigon Chief of State Urges Weeks Lull After Voting as Peace Bid to Hanoi”... “Lieutenant General Nguyen Cau Thieu the chief of state and the military’s candidate for president said he would try to arrange a one-week pause in the bombing of North Vietnam if he won the election September 3…’an additional gesture of good faith.’ Washington said they would probably take a look at another bombing pause but said it was unlikely.”… Page 3: “Army Compounds Attacked”… “Vietcong guerrillas attacked four South Vietnamese army compounds in Quangtri province early today. In one case they penetrated the defense line and inflicted heavy casualties on the defense.”...Page 3: “Reds Report B-52 Downed in South–U.S. Denies Vietcong Felled a Bomber Near Saigon”… “TASS the Soviet press agency said today that Vietcong guerrillas had shot down a U.S. B-52 on July 21. The Pentagon denied the claim…no B-52s have been shot down since their first mission from Guam on June 18, 1965.”…
12 August 1967… The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief: HONG KONG: The British are still being hard pressed. Yesterday, and again early today, mobs of Chinese stormed across the border. They attacked a police post and clashed with British troops before being pushed back into China. The British have closed most border crossing points. Communists inside the Colony continue sporadic bombing and isolated mob violence despite police raids on suspected centers of the terrorist apparatus. Chinese Red Guards are obstructing the shipment of food supplies into the Colony, but this has not yet led to serious food shortages….
12 August 1967: State Department Office of the Historian…FRUS, 1964-68, Vol V, 1967, Document #277: Concurrent with the expanded targeting of North Vietnamese Henry Kissinger was on his horse as McNamara’s agent in attempting to get a peace initiative with North Vietnamese in motion. The super secret initiative was code named Pennsylvania. On 12 August a final memorandum of instruction was sent to Kissinger specifying the message for delivery to Phan Van Dong, Ho Chi Minh’s main man in Hanoi. Instructive ….read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d277
AMONG THE BRAVE… AT THE BRIDGE CANAL des RAPIDES… ON 12 AUGUST 1967…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM…MAJOR PAUL F. KOELTZOW, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE… the AIR FORCE CROSS…12 AUGUST 1967…HANOI, NORTH VIETNAM…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to PAUL F. KOELTZOW, United States Air Force, for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM in military operations against an opposing armed force as an F-105 pilot in action over North Vietnam on 12 August 1967. On that date, Major KOELTZOW led his force of twenty aircraft against the most heavily defended target complex in North Vietnam. hampered by marginal weather, mechanical failures and heavy and accurate hostile fire, Major KOELTZOW led his force to the target, although his aircraft was damaged by flak at the start of the bomb run, he overcame tremendous obstacles and continued his attack, destroying the target. Despite extensive damage to his aircraft, he engaged a flight of hostile aircraft and thwarted their impending attack on a crippled F-105. Through his EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, Major KOELTZOW reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”
12 August 1967… Operation Rolling Thunder… New York Times (13 Aug reporting 12 Aug ops)…Page 8: “In the raid today a plume of black smoke could be seen rising several hundred yards in the air from the left bank of the Red River after attacks by two waves of United States planes after 3 PM. As missiles exploded with a bright orange flash near a United States plane flying about 3,000-feet over Hanoi. North Vietnamese soldiers on the roofs and the crews of the light artillery batteries cheered as the plane came down. Another American fighter-bomber escaped toward the horizon pursued and sometimes preceded by puffs of white smoke from anti-aircraft guns… Meanwhile, private sources said that a 20-yard section of the Paul Doumer bridge apron was destroyed yesterday. The bridge is still barred to traffic this morning. Access to the bridge itself–which normally carries rail and road traffic from Hanoi to the northwest and northeast–was forbidden to all persons including correspondents.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were four fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 12 August 1967…
(1) LCDR FOSTER “TOOTER” TEAGUE was flying an F-8C of the VF-111 Sundowners embarked in USS Intrepid with a strike group that hit the highway bridge at Ke Sat ten miles southeast of Hanoi. As the flight retired they were taken under fire by surface-to-air missiles. LCDR TEAGUE maneuvered to dodge the SAMs but incurred AAA damage in the effort. He was required to eject just off the coast about 15 miles south of Haiphong. A Navy SAR helicopter braved the hostile environment and won a race with an NVN coastal defense boat to make the rescue…
(2) CAPTAIN THOMAS ELMER NORRIS was flying n F105D of the 469th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat in the strike group tasked to drop the highway and railway bridge at Canal des Rapides five miles from the center of Hanoi. CAPTAIN NORRIS was hit by ground fire in the target area after delivering his weapons on the target. His effort to fly the faltering Thunderchief clear of hostile enemy territory fell short. He was forced to eject 17 miles northwest of Hanoi and was captured. CAPTAIN NORRIS was released and returned home in March 1973.
(3) CAPTAIN EDWIN LEE ATTERBERRY and CAPTAIN THOMAS VANCE PARROT were flying an RF-4C of the 11th TRS and 432nd TRW out of Udorn and tasked to obtain battle damage photography following the Canal des Rapides strike. While flying at 18,000-feet and preparing for the photo run the aircraft was taken under fire by surface-to air missiles. CAPTAIN ATTERBERRY’s evasive maneuver was a zig when a zag would have been better and a SAM took the tail off the Phantom. Both CAPTAIN ATTERBERRY and CAPTAIN PARROT safely ejected but were quickly captured and interned as POWs. CAPTAIN ATTERBERRY escaped captivity in May 1969, but was recaptured after 12 hours of evading and was beaten to death as a consequence of the heroic effort. His remains were returned in 1974 for burial in the United States. CAPTAIN PARROT was returned in March 1973…
(4) An O-1C of MAG-16 at Marble Mountain stalled and crashed on take-off. The two-man crew survived.
RIPPLE SALVO… #524… (JCS 13) The highway and railroad bridge over Canal des Rapides…
The following is extracted from “34 TFS: F-105 History,” a compilation of historical fact, oral history, and archival documents posted by W. Howard Plunkett… thanks Howie…
“12 August 1967… One day after their attacks on the Paul Doumer bridge over the Red River in Hanoi, both the 355TFW and the 388 TFW struck the railroad and highway bridge over the Canal des Rapides, five miles northeast of the center of Hanoi. This bridge on the Northeast rail line (RR2), first struck by F-105s on 26 April 1967, carried the only rail line heading northeast from Hanoi as well as highway Route 1A. The bypass rail bridge was also hit… The center span of the bridge swings open to allow ship passage on the canal that runs parallel to the Red River. It is the only railroad line extending north from Hanoi and is also the highway bridge for Route 1A… “
“Morning and afternoon strikes were carried out against the five span, 738 by 20-foot steel and concrete structure. Pilots flying F-4 Phantoms from the 8 TFW and F-105 Thunderchiefs from the 355 and 388 TFWs reported seeing 750 and 3,000-pound bombs hit the center and northeast sections of the bridge. One approach was cut.”
“It was the second day in a row Air Force pilots were subjected to the heavy enemy defenses of the city. The flak was heavy, you could just about walk on it, Major Ronald Catton…an F-4 aircraft commander from the 8 TFW said…Clouds especially on the morning strikes, dust and the presence of SAMs hampered complete bomb damage assessment. ‘We had a lot of clouds over the target area,’ Lieutenant Colonel Obie Dugan said, ‘but we were able to roll-in and I saw the bombs go off along the bridge.’ Col Dugan was a flight leader for F-105s assigned to the 355 TFS”…
“Thunderchief pilots were able to successfully drop their ordnance as F-4s from the 8 TFW approached the area. Catton saw his bombs walk across the northeast end of the bridge and two other bombs hit the center of the structure before his flight of F-4 s was jumped by three MIGs “We were able to shake the first three and rose to 12,000-feet only to be jumped by three more MIGs. They chased us back down again. These spiraling chases went on three different times after our third go around, we were getting low on fuel and had to leave.”
“Wing commander Colonel Robin Olds…’We must have done such a good job yesterday that they were pretty mad today. We went around and round with the MIGs firing at each other.’ No aircraft on either side were downed during the brief dogfights (7 different engagements in 15 minutes)… F-105s from the 388 TFW made the final afternoon passes over the bridge Major Donald Revers from the 34 TFS said: ‘The entire area was so covered with smoke and spray we had trouble seeing the bridge. I’m sure those bombs hit right on the bridge, because that wasn’t all that I saw coming up after the bombs exploded… “
“Strike Photography showed the southern half of the main bridge covered by smoke from bomb impacts. Post-strike photography revealed a span near the center of the bridge was down and two spans on the south end of the bridge were extensively damaged. The bypass bridge appeared to be serviceable. BDA photos on 12 August showed the bridge with 2 spans destroyed but the bridge was being bypassed by a rail bridge and rail ferries… “
MAJOR PAUL KOELTZOW from the 354th TFS was awarded the AIR FORCE CROSS…as posted above… when the Major moved on to another stateside billet he was interviewed by the Wichita Eagle and gave this version of the day at Canal des Rapides…
“The weather was marginal and when we encountered rain, three of the planes experienced mechanical failure and had to return to base. Of the 17 remaining planes, 13 of us were headed for the railroad bridge near Hanoi while the other four hit a secondary target. The flight of four encountered ground-to-air missiles. The bridge was defended by heavy antiaircraft fire and MIGs’… ‘We were the third flight in on the bridge that day, but after the first two attacks the bridge was still standing.’… Koeltzow’s plane was heavily damaged by flak as he started his bomb run but he pressed the attack and the force succeeded in dropping one span of the bridge.
” ‘As we started out of the target area the wingman from the last flight over the target called that he had MIGs on him. He was critically damaged from the flak and couldn’t defend himself.”…”despite damage to his own plane, which slowed his airspeed considerably, Koeltzow and his flight dropped their wing fuel tanks and turned back to engage the enemy planes.”
” ‘The MIGs broke for cover when they saw us coming,’ Koeltzow said. But the crippled plane they had turned to assist was unable to recover. The pilot Captain Tom Norris from the 469th TFS ejected and was captured by the North Vietnamese. ‘The price was high; one man missing, one plane down, seven heavily damaged, and three malfunctioned. But the mission was accomplished, a vital supply and communication line for the enemy was destroyed.”…
RTR Quote for 12 August: HORACE Satires b.1: “In one short hour’s space comes swift death, or joyful victory.”… (Humble Host notes: sort of like an Alpha in the Red River Valley)
Lest we forget…. Bear…