RIPPLE SALVO… #676… GOING DOWNTOWN IS GETTING TOUGHER… HOW TOUGH IS IT?… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED SEVENTY-SIX of remembering OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER on the 50th anniversary of the air war fought over North Vietnam by America’s country-first, last, and always, military aviators…
12 JANUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a fair and cold Friday in the Empire State…
Page 6: GROUND WAR: “U.S. RIVER FORCES BATTLE FOE IN PADDIES OF DELTA, KILLING 42–AMERICAN DEATH TOLL PUT AT 11”... “Infantrymen of the American river patrol force report that they killed 46 Vietcong in a battle in the Mekong River Delta that ended at dawn yesterday (10th). About 800 men of the United States Ninth Infantry Division battled through the day yesterday in the marshy paddies near Caibe, 54 miles southwest of Saigon. A United States, command spokesmen said 11 American soldiers had been killed and 30 wounded in the fight.”… Page 4: “Casualties of Vietnam War Are Identified By Pentagon:… “…39 American soldiers were killed in action in Vietnam.”... Page 1: “Allied Ships Cut Enemy Supplies–Sinking of 1,400 Craft Off Vietnam In 1967 By Naval Patrol Is Reported”… “Warships of the United States and Australia, patrolling off Vietnam, have severely hindered North Vietnamese efforts to ship supplies toward the south…During 1967, destroyers and cruisers assigned to what is officially known as Operation Sea Dragon (HUMBLE HOST ASKS: WHY WAS “OPERATION SEA DRAGON” UNCLASSIFIED AND “OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER” HIGHLY CLASSIFIED FOR THE ENTIRE WAR???…Does anybody know??? ) sank about 1,400 North Vietnamese coastal craft attempting to work their way toward the 17th parallel boundary with South Vietnam…The destroyed vessels ranged from 50-foot barges to 125-foot steel-hulled trawlers. …the naval campaign had become a significant complement to the air war against North Vietnam. The over-all objective of both efforts is to bar the flow of supplies to the south to force North Vietnam into peace negotiations on American terms by graduating strangling its resources”…
Page 1: “Postmaster O’Brien Sees End of Air Mail Rate–He Will Request Single Fee to fly All Long-Distance Letters”…Page 1: “Aid Agency Told To Cut Spending Abroad By Third–Johnson Sees Savings Goal of $100-million to Improve Balance of Payments”… Page 1: “An Area In Old Jerusalem Is Expropriated By Israel–Government Seeking To Insure Settlements Of Jews In An 838-Acre Crescent–Homes, Institutions, Parks Planned”… Page 1: “Hanoi Pledges to Send Aid to Cambodia If U.S. Attacks”… Page 1: “Israel And Egypt Reach Accord to Trade POWs–International Red Cross Will Aid In Exchange at Suez Canal in Coming Days–Shift May Start Today–Total Of Egyptians Still Held Is Put at 4,000 Against 16 Israelis, Mostly Airmen”…
Page 2. “19-DEAD IN CRASH OF MARINE PLANE–SEARCHERS REACHED BURNED C-54 ON A NEVADA PEAK”... Battle Mountain, Nevada. “Two searchers struggled today up a snowy mountain and into a ravine where they found a fire-blackened Marine Corps transport plane and reported there were no survivors among the 19 men who had been aboard. The four-engine C-54 crashed in a blizzard yesterday afternoon near the peak of 9,976-foot Mount Tobin. It is the highest point in a desolate northeastern Nevada area 32 miles south of Battle Mountain. The climbers who reached the scene radioed back that they had found 11 bodies and were sure the eight others were in the snow. They planned to camp all night on the mountain and resume searching tomorrow … “…
12 January 1968… The President’s Daily Brief; NORTH VIETNAM: Reflections of the Political Attitudes on the War: Hanoi radio is an 11 January broadcast in English announced that the Liberation Front Committee for Solidarity with the American People recently sent a message to Dr. Benjamin Spock voicing high indignation at the “Johnson Administration’s prosecution against him and four other American intellectuals.” The message “warmly hailed the patriotic activities of these and other progressive Americans in their strong support for the anti-draft movement among American youth and their “active defense of the peace and justice-loving traditions of the American people.”
State Department, Office of Historian, Historical Documents , Foreign Relations, Vietnam 1964-68, Vol. 6. Document 10. Memorandum of Conversation, 12 January 1968. On 4 January a Soviet freighter was damaged by an errant American bomb. This is the inevitable conversation between senior diplomats that follows … Interesting exchange of notes and conversation at…
Doc 10. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d10
12 January 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (13 Jan reporting 12 Jan ops)… Page 2: “In the air war, another American plane was lost in North Vietnam– an Air Force jet (Captain Keith N. Hall and 1Lt Earl Hopper). It was the 785th (??) American plane lost in the North. A spokesman said that the jet was shot down by ground fire Wednesday and that both crew members were listed as missing in action. Poor weather again limited strikes against targets in the north.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 12 January 1967…
From the Compilation “34TFS/F-105 History“by Howie Plunkett; 12-Jan-68… “After dropping their bombs under Sky Spot control, ‘Hatchet’ flight from the 34TFS strafed a line of trucks in Mu Gia Pass. The flight took off from Korat at 0630. The flight line-up was: #1 Col James Stewart; #2 Major Sam Armstrong; #3 Major James Daniel Jr.; and, #4 Capt Douglas Beyer.” It was Major Armstrong’s 52nd combat mission… He wrote: “This was a divert to Cricket from the planned Pack VI strike. They joined us up with the two airborne spares for a 6-ship Combat Sky Spot on a target in the north of Mu Gia Pass. We dropped and watched the bombs impact in a wooded area with no explosions from secondaries. Jim Daniels looked down and saw some trucks in the pass. We came back and made some strafe passes on the trucks. Jim went in first and got one burning. I came in next and set 2 or 3 afire right next to his. We damaged 4 or 5 more. We then saw some 12 more north but couldn’t strike them. I fired 783 rounds. The mission lasted 3 hours.”… “Also under Cricket control, LCOL Rufus Dye, Jr., 34TFS, flew as Ozark 02 against a road segment in RP-2. BDA ‘100% Road Cut.’ It was his 31st combat mission.”…
RIPPLE SALVO… #676… COMUSMACV 1967 Year End Report… “The Enemy’s Situation at Year’s End”... Page 110-111 of 1340 pages…
(S) The campaign against the power system resulted in reduction of power generating capability to approximately 15 percent of original capacity. Successful strikes against the Thai Nguyen iron and steel plant and the Haiphong cement plant resulted in practically total destruction of these two installations. NVN adjustments to these losses have had to be made by relying on additional imports from China, the USSR, or the Eastern European countries.
(S) Strikes over NVN, particularly in the vital NE sector, have encountered increased opposition from NVN. The net result for the year however has been a reduction in NVN’s fighter aircraft capability and frequent disruption of operational airfields. At the beginning of the year, some 72 MIG fighters were in-country. They used the following airfields: Phuc Yen, Kep, Gia Lam, Cat By, and Kien An, and later Hoa Lac. By late October, strikes had been authorized and conducted against all of these airfields except Gia Lam. By the end of October and through December, only some 20 fighters were operating from airfields within NVN, with the balance operating from Chinese bases. From 1 January to 18 December 1967, the ratio of US aircraft to MIG aircraft downed in air encounters was about 1:3 (25:78) compared to the 1966 ratio of 1:2.5 (9:22).
(S) Probably the most positive reaction to US bombing strikes has been the enemy buildup of the ground components of the air defense system: SAM, AAA, and the aircraft control and warning facilities. Although the estimated number of SAM sites discovered by the beginning of the year was 151. By mid-December, the total SAM sites discovered had risen to 270, a net gain of 119 sites; however 41 of these are not currently in use. Although some 3,400 SAM visual firings were noted from 1 January through mid-December (compared to only 990 firings from 1966), SAM results actually declined as evidenced by the average number of SAMs expended to down one US aircraft (36:1) in 1967 compared to the ratio of 1966 (33:1). The total number of AAA weapons increased from 7,126 to 7,939 for 1967, as an addition fo some 830 guns, mostly in the light caliber range (37mm and 57mm). In the vicinity of the DMZ, 85mm AAA guns were used for the first time as a threat to higher altitude operations. NVN electronic Order of Battle declined from some 400 to 300 radars during 1967, however, the effectiveness of the radar system continued to improve.
(1) In CY67, known enemy losses were 145,200 and there were in addition at least 24,000 non-battle casualties for a minimum total 189,200. although CY67 infiltration figures are not yet firm, utilizing our best estimate for the last half of CY67 we calculate a total enemy input of 113,700 for the year. That results in a known net loss of 55,500. Although the differences varied a good deal, in every month of CY67, the enemy forces in SVN sustained losses grater than input.
(2) The enemy has been forced into areas along the borders where supply lines are shorter and he finds sanctuary from Allied forces.
(3) Enemy plans were preempted in many instances such as his planned attack against Quang Tri City. His major operations during the period have consistently failed as evidenced by defeats in the DMZ, at Loc Ninh and DAk To. His attempts to disrupt the GVN elections in September were equally unsuccessful.
(4) The war is increasingly an NVA war in the South. As his recruitment in the South dries up as he is forced to replace losses in VC units with NVA troops. As the NVA takes over the war, Laos and Cambodia become increasingly important to him for sanctuary, supply bases and routes of infiltration.
RTR Quote for 12 January: WU CH’I, The Art of War: “Employment of troops must be in accord with determination of the enemy’s strong and weak points, after which you speedily attack his critical positions.”…
Lest we forget… Bear