RIPPLE SALVO… #213… “HANOI BOLSTERING DEFENSE”… but first….
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED THIRTEEN of a look back at the air war over North Vietnam called ROLLING THUNDER…
30 SEPTEMBER 1966… NEW YORK TIMES… A rainy Friday in the Big Apple…
Page 1: “U.S. Casualties In Week Increased To Record 970”...”Fierce, often confused, jungle fighting between Marines and North Vietnamese regulars just south of the demilitarized zone helped to bring United States battle casualties to a record for a single week of 970. A spokesman for the Military Assistance Command announced today that 142 Americans were killed, 825 wounded and 3 are missing in the week ending September 24. The previous record was 966 in the week ending May 21, 1966. The United Press-International reported that the total of U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam now totaled 5,302. The Marine effort to ‘find and fight’ the renewed Communist build-up in the rugged ‘Rockpile’ area was continuing with what official spokesman call ‘moderate casualties,’ or loss serious enough to reduce the effectiveness of the operation yesterday after a five day advance the Third Battalion of the Fourth Marine Regiment took Hill 184, it’s objective. The marines had been slowed by accurate enemy mortar fire and jungle that had confined them to an easily defended 8-foot wide path alone a ridge crest. The Hill is one of several dominating the Rockpile area two miles to the south. There, other marine units cover Route 9 and the valley approaches leading east to the coastal plain of Quangtri province. According to marine staff officers at Dongha, headquarters for the marines ten week old series of ‘spoiling attacks’ south of the DMZ, the North Vietnamese have been building up supply dumps, underground command posts and entrenchments in the mountainous areas north and west of the Rockpile. As in Operation Hastings which began in July the marines engaged in what is now called Operation Prairie, have been probing the jungle three miles west of Dongha to disrupt enemy preparations and set up the enemy for artillery and air strikes. Since August 31, 871 North Vietnamese have been counted…as slain on the battleground. At times, according to seasoned marines the battalion and company actions in this rugged terrain have been only a little less grueling than combat in the South Pacific in WWII. The war south of the DMZ between North and South Vietnam is not against elusive Vietcong guerrillas, but against well armed North Vietnamese regulars who stand and fight valiantly–often in the face of 500-pound bombs, napalm and 8-inch shells hurled at their jungle covered positions.”
Page 12: “U.S. Figures Higher”…”Casualties for the week ending September 24 were again higher for U.S. forces than South Vietnamese forces, which were 98 killed, 281 wounded and 71 missing. (U.S.: 142 KIA/825 WIA) The enemy losses were put at 1,165 KIA. U.S. authoriti8es said U.S. now has 315,000 troops in Vietnam. South Vietnam has 600,000 under arms. Vietcong strength is estimated at 283,000.”… Page 1: “Hanoi Calls U.S. Peace Bid Cover For New Aggression”…”Radio broadcasts and newspapers from Hanoi overtures and said the only way to end the war in Vietnam was for the Americans to halt their ‘aggressions.’ Hanoi made no mention of the possibility raised yesterday by the National Liberation Front that it might be willing to compromise the requirement that U.S. troops be withdrawn before peace talks can begin. Hanoi termed the proposals of Arthur Goldberg at the U.N. a ‘psychological warfare’ move to cover up the plot to expand the aggressive war in Vietnam.”… Page 1: “Calm Is Restored In San Francisco”…”San Francisco’s Police Department took over control today of the city’s riot marked areas from helmeted, battle garbed National Guardsmen after two nights of violence…some 80 members of the militant new left organization, Students for a Democratic society were arrested for demonstrating against the police. the police described those arrested as ‘white beatniks’ from the Berkeley area.”… Page 1: “House Votes Poverty Bill: Mandates a Role For The Poor”…”The House approved tonight a “1.75 billion authorization bill to extend the anti-poverty program for 1967. Before doing so it wrote in a specific program to enforce a provision for ‘maximum feasible participation’ of the poor in the direction of community action projects.”…
30 SEPTEMBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (1 Oct reporting 30 Sept ops)… Page 3: “Over North Vietnam American pilots flew an estimated total of 126 multi-plane attack missions around Hanoi and Haiphong and through the narrow coastal region north of the buffer zone.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson)…Page 75…One fixed wing aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on the last day of September 1966…
(1) LCOL W.M. FOWLER was flying an F-100D of the 531st TFS and 3rd TFW out of Bien Hoa and was hit by ground fire while attacking a Vietcong position on the outskirts of Saigon. LCOL FOWLER was making his third pass on the Vietrcong troops when hit. He was forced to eject from his burning aircraft a few miles south of Bien Hoa where he was rescued by the base HH-43.”…
RIPPLE SALVO… #213… A NEIL SHEEHAN article from the New York Times, 28 September 1966, page 2, is quoted here to reinforce my RIPPLE SALVO #210 of 26 September entitled “Going Downtown Gets Tougher and Tougher”. As we executed a strategy of gradual defeat we gave our enemies opportunities they did not squander. Napoleon said “First the circumspect defense then the audacious attack.” North Vietnam used the time we gave them to reinforce an already formidable integrated air defense system. Here is Neil Sheehan on the subject… “HANOI BOLSTERS AIR RAID DEFENSES”… I quote…
North Vietnam, with Soviet aid is responding to an increase in United States bombing raids by developing a formidable anti-aircraft defense system…The antiaircraft defense…is already the most advanced that American pilots have ever faced. Indications are that the system will be further elaborated and strengthened. Since last fall the number of conventional antiaircraft guns in the North has increased from 1,500 to 5,000. One unofficial estimate put the current number of guns at 7,000. Some analysts said that was too high. The North Vietnamese deployed four firing batteries for Soviet made antiaircraft missiles last fall. Now they have 25 to 30. There are said to be more radar sets per square mile in North Vietnam than in Eastern Europe. Over recent months there has been a particularly significant increase in the type of radar designed to track American planes at the relatively low altitudes they often use. Analysts believe that the bulk of this antiaircraft equipment is being supplied by the Soviet Union rather than Communist China. United States reconnaissance planes have repeatedly photographed conventional antiaircraft guns, missiles, and launching equipment being unloaded from Soviet ships in Haiphong. The advanced technology of the antiaircraft defenses gives rise to a suspicion that Soviet Air Force personnel are to some extent involved in running the network instead of merely giving training and advice. In the summer of last year the antiaircraft defenses were put under a central control apparatus and since then North Vietnam has displayed an increasing ability to operate the system as a whole in response to zoned American attack patterns. The Soviet missiles for example, have not proved successful in destroying aircraft by themselves because more than 500 missiles have been fired but they have only brought down 14 of 384 American aircraft lost over the North and over Communist held areas of Laos since regular bombing raids began on February 7, 1965. Used in combination with conventional antiaircraft guns however, the missiles drive American planes down from high altitudes where the missiles are dangerous into the flak canopies thrown up by the radar controlled 37mm, 57mm, 87mm, and 100mm cannon. Besides elaboration of the antiaircraft defenses of North Vietnam have developed, simple but ingenious methods to meet the problems caused by the American bombing. The Chief technique is simply the employment of tens of thousands of manual laborers, possibly as many as 250,000 throughout the country to repair damaged roads, bridges and rail lines. Roads and railroads are often repaired overnight. If a rail bridge is destroyed, a fully loaded train is brought to one side of a river or gorge, the cargo is unloaded and pushed across a pontoon bridge in carts then reloaded into empty trains on the other side. Trucks are elaborately camouflaged and the camouflage is changed to conform to whatever terrain the truck happens to be passing through at the moment. Motorized junks are hidden under foliage of river banks a few miles above he point where a bridge has been knocked out. At night the junks are brought down the river, planks are laid across the decks and the trucks run over. Before dawn the planks are removed and the junks hidden once more. Lanterns have been hung in trees to simulate truck headlights at times on hill sides in the hope that an overaggressive pilot will crash his plane into it…Despite the increasing effectiveness of the antiaircraft defenses American military analysts do not believe North Vietnam will ever be able to bring the system to the point where it will make the United States bombing raids too expensive to continue. According to reliable estimates overall American losses from the beginning of regular bombing I February of last year to the present, including planes scrapped because of heavy damage, are about 3.5 per cent of all sorties. end quote…
By 1 October 1966 Ho Chi Minh had his defenses set and ready for…. the December 1966 deployment of a FNG assigned to the VA-113 Stingers embarked in USS Enterprise…
Lest we forget… Bear ………. –30– ……….