RIPPLE SALVO… #527… INEFFECTIVE BOMBING… In response to a query… how many North Vietnamese civilians did we kill with our bombing in the North, and wouldn’t our bombing have been more effective if we went after the enemy’s resolve? … Humble Host answers… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN of a recall of three years–one day at a time– of the air war over North Vietnam called Rolling Thunder…
15 August 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a pleasant Tuesday in Central Park…
VIETNAM: Page 1: “Mansfield Terms Raids Near China A Dangerous Step”... “Senator Mike Mansfield, the Senate Majority Leader said today that the administration’s authorization of air attacks within 10 miles of the Chinese border was ‘a very dangerous extension of the war’ in Vietnam. ‘It brings us that much closer to the brink of possible confrontation with China which could be made probable through a miscalculation, an error, or otherwise,’ the Montanan said in a speech in the Senate. The President’s decision got warm support from former President Eisenhower, Senate John Stennis, Chairman of the Senate Preparedness Subcommittee, and several House members, including Jerry Ford. However, for the most part doves were more vocal than the hawks.”… Page 1: “Joint Chiefs Warn That Arms Aid Cuts Invite Aggression”...”The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned Congress today that deep cuts in foreign military aid and restrictions on arms credits sales were an invitation to increased subversion and open aggression by the Soviet Union and Communist China. The cuts have been made by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”… Page 3: “In the ground war, the start of two operations in the northern provinces of South Vietnam was announced...A multi-battalion force swept an area 10 miles southwest of Tamky in Quantin Province; 35 enemy soldiers were killed in the most significant engagement at a loss of 2 Americans dead and 19 wounded…In Quangnam Province tow Marine regiments swept an area 13 miles southwest of Anhoa. They were reported to have killed 13 enemy soldiers. Two Marines died in the skirmishing and 22 were wounded. The Marines also fought the Vietcong 4 miles southwest of Donha in Quantai Province.”…
SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: Page 23: “My God, ‘I’m Dead’ Bear’s Victim Cried”…”Two grizzly bears killed two and injured 1 at Glacier National Park”… Page 33: “30,000 In Capital At Free Concert By Joan Baez–Folk Singer Chides DAR, Which Protested U.S. Site”... “Joan Baez, the folk singer and peace activist, gave a free and controversial concert for 30,000 people who jammed an outdoor theater area near the Washington Monument…the crowd made up of folk music lovers, hippies and swarms of teenagers cheered loudly and frequently as Miss Baez smoothly worked her way through a program dominated by songs of peace, brotherhood and love. The Daughters of the American Revolution protested the concert…Miss Baez: ‘The main point where the DAR and I differ is that the nation comes above all. The whole problem is that 123 nations feel the same way.’ Among peace songs she sang was one entitled ‘Saigon Bride.’ One of the lines goes: ‘How many children must we kill before we make the waves stand still.’ “… Page 35: “800 In Mississippi March On Capitol–Troopers Stop Negroes Who Say they Go Hungry”...”…protesting that they were gong hungry staged ‘A poor people’s march.’ Charles Evers, state director of the NAACP led the peaceful demonstration.” Page 35: OPED “Riots and Elections”…”Politicians of both parties believe President Johnson has been seriously damaged by the summer’s urban race riots.”…
15 AUGUST 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (16 Aug reporting 15 Aug ops)…Page 3: “American officials disclosed that a United States reconnaissance jet had been shot down within 10 miles of Communist China’s borders as it flew below cloud cover to photograph damage after raids in the North Sunday. In the meantime Navy pilots reported the destruction of one span of a second bypass railroad bridge over the Kycung River near the Langson railroad yards. The $13 million Vigilante, an RA-5C, was the 642nd American plane lost in the North. Its two man crew is listed as missing (LCDR LEO HYATT and LTJG WAYNE GOODERMOTE captured and are POWs for duration of the war). Over the rest of North Vietnam United States jets flew 134 missions.”...Page 3: “B-52s Bomb North Vietnamese In Buffer Zone–Troops, Guns and Bunkers are struck in three raids.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) there were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 15 August 1967… oohrah
RIPPLE SALVO… #527… INEFFECTIVE BOMBING… Humble Host responds…
Dutch and Shadow… the best wag on Vietnam civilians killed by American bombers has been put at 50,000, give or take 20,000. That includes both North and South Vietnam… By all reports by international press –e.g., Harrison Salisbury– from North Vietnam, everybody was armed and trained to put rounds of ammo in the air to repel the aggressor Yankee Air Pirates… from my point of view this made them armed participants that gave up civilian status and rated killing… the roof tops in Hanoi bristled with guns that added barrage fire to the formidable sites of 37, 57, 85-mm that we never did very well suppressing…
Shadow, your conclusion that our bombing would have been more effective if we had targeted the “will of the enemy” is appropriate. The key to winning wars is the destruction of the enemy’s will to resist– his resolve. A good case can be made that our State Department was more interested in saving the lives of North Vietnamese civilians than saving the lives of our Rolling Thunder pilots… SecState himself was a leaker who alerted the NVN what the hot targets were so they could reduce the exposure of civilians, and oh-by-the-way, double the 57-mm barrels on that site… Our bombing was ineffective for many reasons…
(1) they had a better repair capability than we had destructive capability…
(2) they sustained a throughput rate far in excess of what was required — we could stop 80% of what they put in the pipeline but they only required the 20% to fight the rope-a-dope guerrilla war in the South…
(3) they dispersed their people and war making industry increase our targeting problem… best example POL… 55-gal drums everywhere and 80,000 gallon and larger tanks out of commission…
(4) they took advantage of our ROE and hid their trucks, SAMs, etc, in small villages… example: trucks parked against the walls of the Catholic Church and the ancient Citadel in Vinh…
(5) 50,000 Chinese laborers to immediately repair or bypass what we busted…
(6) weather always favors the defense, especially in monsoonal weather zones…
(7) as they built up their defenses we devoted more and more of our available combat sorties and weapons to suppression, and fewer sorties to the JCS Targets…
(8) defenses pushed release altitudes higher with resultant decrease in accuracy of weapons deliveries…
(9) a prevalent– at least 50% of strike-fighter pilots–expressed an attitude that “there is no target over here worth the life of one pilot”…
(1) all six guns are back to shooting at us,
(2) the 4 strings of 6-MK-82s mostly made holes in the water close enough to douse the target with a heavy spray of Song Len water… only the first set of bombs hit the bridge (but didn’t collapse a span, the division coming in from the North did a tickle job, too, and the bridge was still whole as we went feet wet– That is the definition of “ineffective bombing!”)… and
(3) the tailpipes of my three wingmen were a couple thousand feet above me and at least a mile ahead of me headed feet wet… attitude problem: “No target over here is worth my life, therefore, I will pickle high and get the hell out of here.”… YGTBSM! (You’ve got to be shitting me)
Note: That never happened again on one of my flights!
But the fact remains, not everybody is imbued with the spirit of attack born in a brave heart…and where this becomes a significant problem, mission effectiveness and shared success gives way to self-preservation and different set of priorities….
RTR QUOTE for 15 August: F.E. COATES, The Unconquered Air: “Fear is the fire that melts Icarian wings, Who fears not Fate, nor Time, nor what Time brings, May drive Apollo’s steeds, or wield the thunderbolt.”…
Lest we forget… Bear