";s:4:"text";s:24481:"Most egregious, SAC planners mandated a “combat break” to the right after bomb release (post-target turn, or PTT), a nuclear-release procedure carried over into Arc Light (where it had been just as pointless; the PTT was designed solely for better survivability against a nuclear blast). Operation Linebacker II: The 11-Day War. (While the Arc Light B-52Ds had been refitted with the most up-to-date ECM jammers to counter Hanoi’s highly sophisticated air defense system, there had not been time to do the same with the U.S.-based Gs when they were rushed into the war during the 1972 Easter Offensive.) By November, a list of 69 changes had been presented to the North Vietnamese delegation. But because of the statement that Kissinger made to the press earlier in the year, Nixon felt that he had no choice but to try and drag the communist powers back to negotiate a peace agreement. For their actions, all six crewmen received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Operation Linebacker II operations were initiated on 18 December 1972 and were directed … Although Linebacker 2 is universally considered to have been a successful operation, this case study highlights the problems associated when operational planners failed to adequately apply proper operational design. The objective of this was to force the Politburo back to the negotiating table and to prove to Thieu that America hadn’t abandoned their support for his government. Simultaneously, he announced air operations throughout North Vietnam. Later, during the Day Two pre-mission briefing, a disgusted Captain Strickland, who was destined to fly six of the 11 Linebacker missions, could no longer keep silent: “Who is planning such stupid tactics,” he asked the briefers, “and why?” Their response: “The planning is being done at Omaha’s SAC HQ, and the common routes, altitudes and trail formations are used for ease of planning.”, “Well,” Strickland shot back, “the enemy is using your plan, along with the after-release turn and our slow withdrawal, for ease of tracking and shootdown!”, U-Tapao’s 17th Air Division commander, Brig. Enemy SAM batteries, having at last figured out how to destroy the hated “Fatted Calves,” waited eagerly for the first wave to appear. “Bombs away,” Strickland shouted, “and turn! Therefore, the plan for Linebacker II was to maintain constant pressure on the North Vietnamese by an intensive bombing campaign against specific key targets by U.S. Air Force B-52s and F-111s and Navy A-6s at night, with continuing bombing strikes against the same areas conducted by Air Force and Navy fighter-bombers during the day. Operation Linebacker II was given a 36 hour period over Christmas when they flew no missions, but then American forces stepped up their bombing effort up to the 29th of December – at which point there were few strategic targets left to hit in North Vietnam. Operation Linebacker II operations were initiated on 18 December 1972 and were directed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to continue until further notice. Hanoi consented, but made it clear that it wasn’t because of the intense bombing. Moments later the cockpit was afire. Configuring his countermeasures equipment just so, he hacked into the North Vietnamese ground control intercept network, whipped out his “lucky” whistle and let fly with a blast over Guard frequency—followed by an angry shout: “Time out!” Perhaps Smith’s unorthodox actions did confuse the enemy; there was an obedient pause in the SAM launches, and his crew successfully completed their bomb run. All bombers were to depart from the same initial point (IP), make the same bomb run in single-file formation, fly exactly the same airspeeds, operate in exactly the same altitude blocks and maintain exactly the same spacing between each of the three-ship cells (one minute) and between each aircraft within the cells (15 seconds). Operation Linebacker II – The B-52s go to Hanoi, 1972 – Animated. Linebacker I had been mounted in response to the earlier 1972 Easter Offensive, the North Vietnamese Army’s sudden invasion of South Vietnam, a campaign that failed largely because of massive B-52 bombing. However, there were those within SAC that welcomed the chance to test the B-52 against more sophisticated air defences of the type the Soviets would be able to deploy if the Cold War boiled down to armed conflict. On Day One, 129 B-52s launched from Andersen and U-Tapao in three massive waves spaced at four-hour intervals. And all because of the breakdown in talks several months earlier. Because of the limited casualties, high command thought things would go as smoothly as they had on the previous night. Over heavily defended Hanoi, however, it turned lethal. Six B-52s suffered minor hits, three were seriously damaged and 15 lost during the December 18-29, 1972, battle. 5 engine had flamed out, then no. Four crewmen perished and two became POWs—the last of the first wave casualties. Operation Linebacker II was the ultimate oxymoron and a repetition of a favoured American tactic for bringing about peace on an Asian battlefield. The real tragedy of the story is that the terms agreed to in January were almost exactly the same as the ones rejected in March. Day Ten arrived, and only a few SAMs came up; no B-52s were lost or damaged. The public expected it now and were weary of the war that had dragged on for the best part of 10 years. They took one look at the new proposals and broke off negotiations completely, leading to the complete breakdown of peace talks. Day Eight, December 26, was to be the decisive engagement. Sullivan and his wing commanders had been carefully listening to aircrew feedback, though their requests for tactics changes had so far fallen on deaf ears. There is an Operation Linebacker I - the official operation name. Publicly, SAC put on a brave face; privately, its chieftains were aghast. 93 missions were flown the following night to target places like the Thai Nguyen thermal power plant and the Kinh No Railroad as well as the Yen Vien complex. There is an Operation Linebacker II - the official operation name. One real tragedy of the bombing campaign was when the Bach Mai hospital was hit by a wayward string of bombs. Then another SAM struck. SAC was finally getting its act together. American ECM capability, long a chronic deficiency, had been significantly enhanced via greater knowledge of enemy frequencies and techniques. Sullivan was most upset about the PTT; after the battle he wrote a friend, “The post-target turn was the murder point.”. A view from the cockpit of a typical “cell” of B-52Ds. A North Vietnamese crew readies its SA-2 missile for action. During the day, A-7 and F-4 aircraft carried out bombing raids using visual or long-range navigation techniques, depending on the weather, while EB-66s and EA-6s provided an escort to the bombers and KC-135s were used to provide in-flight refueling. (U.S. Air Force), The enormity of SAC’s planning errors was first exposed during the Day One (December 18-19) briefing at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. The crew made a valiant attempt to land their crippled B-52D at U-Tapao, but lost the struggle when an attempted go-around resulted in a departure stall. Minutes later, Ash One’s jamming came up short and it took a missile. No aircraft were lost, though one was struck by flak, the only occasion enemy AAA scored a hit. For a quick overview of Operation Linebacker II and its effects on the Vietnam War, read the Christmas Bombing wu instead. The Maus Tank – An Crazy Invention, But Would It Have Been Effective Enough To Change The Outcome Of WWII? Two crewmen were KIA; four became POWs. Linebacker II ended on December 30 1972 and on January 23, 1973, the cease-fire was signed effectively ending the war for the U.S. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. Additional U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine losses included two Navy A-6A carrier strike aircraft, one Marine A-6A, one Navy A-7C, one Navy A-7E, one Marine F-4J carrier fighter, one Navy RA-5C recon aircraft, two Air Force F-111A fighter-bombers, two Air Force F-4E fighter/chaff sowers, one Air Force EB-66 ECM/chaff sower and one HH-53 Jolly Green Giant rescue helicopter. Although the BUFFs were the attack’s centerpiece, more than 100 additional U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine recon, radar jammer and fighter-bomber aircraft flew in support of the heavies or delivered their own assigned blows. The aircraft fluttered out of control, exploded halfway to the ground and crashed spectacularly near Hanoi. Operation Linebacker II was a complex, multi-service operation over North Vietnam in December 1972. Edward R. Murrow, war correspondent and newscaster. Although angry at being bypassed, his Eighth Air Force commanders sent a “we agree” message to Meyer, who quickly ordered the changes. Category:Operation Linebacker I/II. Only two out of those eight downed crews were rescued. In the heat of battle, the North Vietnamese then compounded that error by succumbing to zeal and expending missiles wholesale, often in salvoes of six or eight against a single target. Gen. Glenn Sullivan, who was present during Strickland’s comments, was thinking along similar lines. The tough B-52D managed to reach Laos, and five of its crew survived, but the radar nav was lost. The battle, indeed the war itself, suddenly hung in the balance. operazione Linebacker (it); opération Linebacker (fr); Операция «Linebacker» (ru); Operation Linebacker (de); Chiến dịch Linebacker (vi); عملیات لاینبکر (fa); 后卫行动 (zh); ラインバッカー作戦 (ja); لاینبکر عملیاتی (azb); 後衛行動 (zh-hant); The targets were three SAM sites and Haiphong’s Lang Dang rail yards. With his aircraft burning fiercely but nearing “bombs away,” pilot John Yuill reluctantly hit the red abandon light. 28 doctors, nurses, and a pharmacist were killed, which was turned into a cause celebre by peace activists and the North Vietnamese. I can agree that if LINEBACKER II was implemented in 1965 the war would have ended much sooner. Operation Linebacker II operations were initiated on 18 December 1972 and were directed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to continue until further notice. The primary objective of the bombing operation would be to force the North Vietnamese government to enter into purposeful negotiations concerning a cease-fire agreement. This feature originally appeared in the January 2013 issue of Aviation History. On the first night, 129 bombers were launched, along with 39 support planes to provide fighter escorts as well as radar jamming capabilities. Desperately short of options, SAC held back all Andersen bombers on Days Four and Five, buying time for essential analysis and planning. Navy losses included two A-7s, two A-6s, one RA-5, and one F-4. and, you know, as a B-52 crew member, that kind of tells you that we ended the thing. Due to maintenance issues, Andersen and U-T could raise only 30 bombers each—but halving the force didn’t have as great an impact as might be presumed: SAC was already running out of targets. Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist, inventor of the radio. North Vietnam made the crucial mistake of gathering all its eggs in one basket; the final defense of its homeland had been left primarily to a limited supply of Soviet SAMs. And that’s why, in December 1972, Nixon ordered a 12-day bombing campaign called Operation Linebacker II, otherwise known as the Christmas Bombings or the December Raids. Because of the original Operation Linebacker, the Americans had a considerable force of B-52 bombers available to them. Oliver Cromwell, lord protector of England (1653-1658). All this was done behind the backs of the South Vietnamese government, but despite this Kissinger held a press conference in October 1972 and recklessly declared that peace was at hand. Dr. James Willbanks, director of the Department of Military History at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, was an infantry captain during his time fighting in the Vietnam War. Operation Linebacker and Linebacker II has 621 members. Significant changes. Rare Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona Relic For Auction by Small Missoula Company, British Army Put Down 1,200 Combat Dogs after They Could no Longer Serve, Hiroshima: The Day That Changed the World. Not only were critical electronic countermeasures degraded, the 120-knot-plus jet stream tailwind that B-52s enjoyed on the bomb run became a 120-knot-plus headwind after the turn, resulting in a combined groundspeed reduction of nearly 250 knots. But how to implement those changes without creating an even bigger disaster? During Operations Freedom Train and Linebacker the B-52 community played a major role in bringing north Vietnam back the negotiating table. Its purpose was to halt or slow the transportation of supplies and materials for the Nguyen Hue Offensive, an invasion of the South Vietnam by forces of the People's Army of Vietnam that had … Operation LINEBACKER II was what change the war and drove the Vietcong to peace agreements. SAC made Day Nine a repeat of Eight, albeit a scaled-back version. A B-52 copilot who flew Linebacker II sorties from Andersen, then-Captain Don Craig, wrote me that “We knew there were big planning flaws, starting with the long lines of bombers coming in the same route…and it was straight down Thud Ridge, for God’s sake….It looked very much like ducks in a shooting gallery.” B-52 radar navigator Captain Wilton Strickland, operating from the other B-52 base, at U-Tapao airfield in Thailand, concurred: “[The spacing] gave enemy air defenses plenty of time to track and fire on each aircraft as it came within range….Long before we entered the target area, they knew our precise altitude, spacing and approach route….”, A fully loaded “BUFF” takes off from Andersen Air Base, which had 53 B-52Ds and 99 B-52Gs on station when Linebacker II started. Soon after that Captain John Mize in Ash Two, whose aircraft had already been hit by enemy fire on two previous sorties, was struck by a missile, the detonation wounding everyone on board. President Thieu was outraged that such an important decision was made without his support and behind his back. I never realized you could hear them explode like that…you get static electricity raising the hair on your arms….” Dalton was in big trouble—his no. Orange Three also became isolated in its PTT and was nailed by two missiles. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. As if on cue, the three bombers in Quilt cell arrived over the Yen Vien complex in their B-52Gs. MiGs engaged Black and Ruby cells; one bogey got careless behind Ruby Three and was shot down by Airman 1st Class Albert Moore, the second and final confirmed MiG kill by a B-52 tail gunner. Both tip tanks were hit and spewing fuel, plus he was dealing with severe electrical and flight system problems. A missile promptly nailed Quilt Three during its PTT. Everyone took pleasure hearing the last of the airborne commander’s exit roll call: On Day Eleven, December 29, 60 B-52s attacked Hanoi’s storage facilities and what was left of the Lang Dang rail yards—in all probability the last massed heavy bomber strike the world will ever see. (RIA Novosti/Alamy). Just before touchdown, Dalton lost most of his rudder control. That night 120 B-52s struck Hanoi and Haiphong in a simultaneous attack involving seven waves bombing 10 targets, with bombers crisscrossing at different altitudes and axes of attack. Operation Linebacker II – The B-52s go to Hanoi, 1972 – Animated. Worse, nothing could immediately be done about it—because of the long distances involved in operating from Guam, it had been necessary to order the Day Two bombers launched even before all the Day One aircraft returned. At least one MiG rose up in challenge, the enemy pilot taking up the customary “six” position behind a BUFF designated Brown Three. But the inevitable bill had finally arrived; the Americans were about to face their darkest hour. Overall Air Force losses during Operation Linebacker II included fifteen B-52s, two F-4s, two F-111s, and one HH-53 search and rescue helicopter. There was a bright flash, a muffled explosion and the aircraft lurched, as if driving over a speed bump. Operation Linebacker II was intended to save the delicate U.S. negotiations with North Vietnam for an end to the Vietnam War. For more great articles subscribe today! Only 43 SAMs came up, thanks to the element of surprise and excellent suppression work by 65 Navy, Marine and Air Force fighter/jammer aircraft. The same evening, a further aircraft was shot down while on a bombing run that targeted the broadcasting towers of Radio Hanoi. Peach Two entered the PTT and, slowed to a near-crawl by the 120-knot headwind, took a SAM hit in its left wing. Charcoal One, a B-52G attacking the Yen Vien rail yards, was not as fortunate. Nevertheless, the North Vietnamese fought back hard. (Sullivan must have understood he’d fallen on his sword; despite his leading role in winning the war’s decisive battle, he was denied a second star and retired two years later.). 4. Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial bombing campaigns, conducted in 1972 against targets in North Vietnam during the final period of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. At roughly this point, a curious incident occurred. A sprawling arsenal, ready for another BUFF trip “downtown”—to Hanoi. Day Five was a repeat of Day Four—though the attack shifted away from the crack Hanoi SAM batteries. For the Americans, the Vietnam War was finally over. Despite Mize’s wounds and severely damaged aircraft, he somehow manhandled the doomed bomber into Laos, electing to stay with it until his entire crew had successfully bailed out before ejecting. As is so often the case with armed conflict, the battle may have turned on circumstances no one could possibly have foreseen. Cobalt One was releasing bombs on its Trung Quang target when it took a direct hit that killed the navigator and the EWO. The campaign, sometimes referred to as “The Eleven-Day War,” brought the North Vietnamese, with sincerity, back to the peace talks in Paris and all but destroyed their ability to wage a defensive war against American Airpower. 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