28 FLYPAST March 2018
VIETNAM MiGs
Pham Tuan, one of the most
experienced night-fighter pilots
in the Vietnam People’s Air Force
(VPAF), was ordered to take off in
his MiG-21MF Fishbed. He took
off alone, flying by instruments in
the dark and deadly sky, to play a
game of cat and mouse. In flight
he noticed the McDonnell F-4
Phantoms were illuminated by all
the anti-aircraft fire and he could
just make out their black trails.
Coming over Hoa Binh, he
became a target for the surface-
to-air missiles (SAMs) and had
to increase power to stay alive as
two SAMs barely missed him.
Nevertheless, he still had to keep
up with the formation of American
aircraft ahead of him. He soon
lost track of the formation because
he had to turn off his internal
radar to avoid getting jammed
by American electronic
countermeasures.
When he spotted
another group of
American bombers,
he felt he was
near enough
to turn on his
radar again but it
was quickly
jammed. Pham
Tuan felt that
the bombers had
been notified
of his presence
and had increased
their speed. Before
long he lost contact
and was ordered to
return to Noi Bai as his
fuel was running low.
When he carried out his
final approach, the air base was
under attack by B-52s, but he was
already fully committed to landing
because all his fuel gauges were at
zero. In the final few seconds of
his blind approach, there was an
immense explosion as a B-52 was
hit by anti-aircraft fire. It lit up the
whole runway making it possible
for Pham Tuan to land without
incident.Fire dragons
On December 19, the American
raids began in earnest. A radar unit
operator wrote: “We were ordered
to deploy more forces with the task
of attacking the American tactical
air force and protecting our ‘fire
dragons’ [SAM sites].
The air force commander briefed
the pilots about the situation the
night before, ending with: ‘All men,
in all units will have to do their duty’.“At 0800hrs, when we were all
at our stations ready for battle
in the control room, we heard a
commotion outside. Some officers
called us to the window where we
saw the wreckage of a B-52 crashing
near Noi Bai. On a scrap of metal
was a painted badge showing
a fist with three lightning
bolts and an olive
branch with the
words ‘Strategic
Air Command’.”
An
American air force
official was quoted
in November as
saying that the
loss of an $8
million B-52 was
equal to the sinking
of a US warship.
A little after 0810hrs on
that day, all MiG pilots from
the 921st and 927th Fighter
Regiments (FR) were at full
alert, with all pilots sitting in their
cockpits awaiting the scramble
order. The Americans were using
large numbers of aircraft to attack
Haiphong and seek out and destroy
any SAM sites.
In the west, the VPAF noticed
that Americans were attacking in
groups of eight aircraft. During
daylight hours the Americans
usually had three times the number
of escorts to bombers in case of
MiG attacks.
At 0840hrs, four flights, consisting
of eight MiG-21s from the 927th
FR took off to intercept an American
raid. Four of the MiGs made contact
with the attackers but were not able
to confirm any victories.
At 1300hrs, eight F-4D fighter-
bombers, escorted by 12 F-4E
fighters, took off from their base at
Ubon [Thailand]. The formation
was being tracked by NorthVietnamese radar as it flew over
the Laotian border, going along
Highway 6 to attack the SAM site
in the Thanh Dai district of Ha
Tay. This site had been previously
bombed by B-52s without much
success and with the loss of at least
two Stratofortresses.
The radar scanned the formation
at different levels to make sure an
ambush could be executed. The
question was whether the lowest
level of the formation could be
attacked with success: if this could
be answered in the positive, then
MiGs would be scrambled to
intercept. On this occasion, the
high command decided to attack.Fish in a basket
The official war diaries take up the
account: “Nguyen Duc Soat and Van
Quy took off at Noi Bai and headed
in the direction of Phu Ly where
we ‘adjusted’ the flying direction
of our squadron [a VPAF squadron
being two or more aircraft] to create
a horizontal distance between us
and the enemy. This would make
the F-4s’ radar useless, even though
they were moving up and down to
broaden their search scales.
“We then turned right and
approached from behind. The
ground control ordered the MiG-
21s to speed up to full speed [about
1,400mph – 2,253km/h]. As they
closed in, both pilots fired a missile
each at an F-4. The Americans
knew of our presence so four F-4s
turned in to attack our squadron,
leaving only four as escorts.
“Then Soat and Quy saw the
black traces of smoke made by the
F-4s, suddenly two of them flew
right, two flew left, two flew up and
two flew down. They were trying
to create a situation of ‘fish in a
basket’ [an ambush]”.
The North Vietnamese pilotsRight
A SAM trail. On December
19, 1972, SAMs downed
six B-52s.Bottom right
The relics of the war
linger on - aircraft
wreckage behind a street
market.