22 FLYPAST March 2018
and reinforced by the guided
missile cruisers USS Chicago and
Long Beach and several destroyers.
Phantoms flew top cover looking for
MiGs.
The mines were activated five days
after delivery to allow any freighters
in port time to get out. Over the
next three days, other carrier-borne
aircraft laid a total of 11,000 mines
into North Vietnam’s secondary
harbours. This stopped the influx of
surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) from
China and the Soviet Union.Fighting back
On June 8, B-52s carried out their
first missions as part of Linebacker
I. On average, 30 sorties a day were
flown by the big, eight-engined
bombers between June and October- Coupled with fighter-bomber
sorties, the daily rate could be as
high as 300 missions.
Most of the targets were
concentrated in the southern part of
North Vietnam and its air defence
system. For example, on June 19
there were 76 SAM launchers
destroyed and two days later another
46 were hit and destroyed.
Mobile launchers were moved
around a network of sites and it
was difficult to know when a site
was ‘live’. The numbers of SA-2
Guideline missiles fired began to
decline after the end of June as the
interdiction of supply lines began to
make its mark.
It was the Stratofortresses that
delivered the biggest hit against the
enemy. On June 9 the B-52s struck
again, this time against Thanh Hoá
air base followed by another raid
three days later to bomb an oil tank
farm outside of Haiphong before
dawn.
This was followed immediately by
100 fighter-bombers hitting targets
around Hanoi and Haiphong. This
involved F-4Ds and F-4Es armed
to the teeth with heavy ordnance.
Between May 1 and June 30, B-52s,
fighter-bombers and gunships flew
18,000 sorties against formidable
‘Triple-A’ – anti-aircraft artillery
(AAA) – defences for the loss of 29
aircraft.
On May 10, the first enemyMiG of the Linebacker campaign
was destroyed by Lt Cdr Curt
Dose in a US Navy F-4J from the
Constellation. He was part of a
35-aircraft strike destined to attack
petroleum storage areas west of
Haiphong.
A monitoring warship, callsign Red
Crown, told Dose and his wingman
that there was a lot of MiG activity
near the North Vietnamese air base
at Kep. The two F-4Js approached
just as two MiG-21s were
attempting to get airborne.
Upon sighting the Phantoms,
both MiGs dropped their centreline
tanks. Dose fired a Sidewinder
air-to-air missile, but his intended
victim turned hard, and the missile
exploded harmlessly. A second
Sidewinder found its mark and the
Fishbed disintegrated. This was the
first of 63 enemy aircraft destroyed
in air-to-air combat during
Linebacker I.
Nixon finally ordered bombingVIETNAM OPERATION LINEBACKER
“Over the next three days other carrier-borne
aircraft laid a total of 11,000 mines into North
Vietnam’s secondary harbours. This stopped the
influx of SAMs from China and the Soviet Union”
Above
A fully loaded B-52 taking
off from Andersen AFB,
Guam, during Linebacker I
in July 1972. HANK MAROIS
Above right
Bomb crews loading
750-pounders on a B-52
at U-Tapao in December- DEWAYNE NORVILLE
Below
A B-52 returning to
U-Tapao from a mission
over Hanoi in December- HANK MAROIS