March 2018 FLYPAST 31“In the blink of an eye, Duc Soat reversed his
turn and headed for the fighter-bombers. Soon
he could see the black trails of the bomb-
carrying F-4s and by this time the escorts were
wrong-footed and too far away to defend their
charges”
the skies, giving the MiG pilots
more chance of spotting the B-52
bombers through the darkness. The
commanding HQ was even busier
than normal, with staff racing to
position at the double and telephones
ringing constantly. All SAM and
anti-aircraft units were put on full
readiness: MiG pilots sat in their
cockpits wondering if they would be
able to shoot down a B-52, or even
pondering if this would be their last
day on earth.
The commander, Dao Dinh Luyen,
scanned the ‘sky’ – the large map of
North Vietnam in the HQ – seeing
the American aircraft approaching
like little black dots from the corner
of the map. Soon these little dots
were joined by more, then even more.
(Black dots showed B-52s and the
blue ones were F-4s.)
He could see that American
aircraft were coming from Thailand
to co-ordinate their attacks with the
B-52s. They were being joined by
Navy aircraft from ‘Yankee Station’
[carriers off the coast] and all were
heading for Hanoi or Haiphong.
The senior VPAF officers also
knew that they had fewer than
20 night-fighters to combat
this marauding horde. The
commanders also knew that many
of these formations were taking
‘dummy’ patterns to try and make
the air command commit their
MiGs too early and also to disguise
their primary intention. The VPAF
tracked a formation of more than
20 B-52s heading for Haiphong.
There were also many groups
of aircraft appearing over the
southwest and east of Ha Hoa.the skies, giving the MiG pilots
more chance of spotting the B-52
bombers through the darkness. The
commanding HQ was even busier
than normal, with staff racing to
position at the double and telephones
ringing constantly. All SAM and
anti-aircraft units were put on full
readiness: MiG pilots sat in their readiness: MiG pilots sat in their
cockpits wondering if they would be
able to shoot down a B-52, or even
pondering if this would be their last
day on earth.scanned the ‘sky’ – the large map of
North Vietnam in the HQ – seeing
the American aircraft approaching
like little black dots from the corner
of the map. Soon these little dots
were joined by more, then even more.1000hrs F-4s started to raid SAM
sites around Hanoi. The VPAF
scrambled two MiG-21s, flown by
Nguyen Van Sang and Bui Thanh
Liem, to act as ‘bait’. The pilots
climbed to a high altitude, hoping
to draw the F-4s away from their
installations.
Meanwhile, another MiG, flown by
Tran Viet, took off and flew at a low
altitude along Highway 1 heading
towards Phu Ly. This ploy worked,
as nearly all of the 24 escorting F-4s
aimed for the two MiGs at the higher
altitude, leaving the 12 fighter-
bombers to fend for themselves.
The desire for a MiG kill, or even
becoming an ace, was too much to
control for some American pilots. Van
Sang, describes the engagement: “We
let the interceptors go for a while.
Then the ground control instructed
Tran Viet to climb from his low
altitude [and go for the bombers]
but even before he could complete
his turning pattern he saw the F-4
bombers at an angle of 140°”.
The ground control report adds
at this point: “We decided to advise
Tran Viet to shoot at the bombers as
he was climbing towards them. At
this point we knew that Tran Viet
had applied full power.”
This approach seemed to bring
the MiG on the blind side of the
F-4s, getting to about 2½ miles
from them. Tran Viet then did the
unexpected by flying behind the
F-4s at the same altitude. Aiming at
the tail-end F-4, he then launched
his missiles. A yellow ball of flame
was seen, then a black trail of smoke
seemed to burst out of it before
it went straight into the ground,
crashing in Hoa Binh province. (The
two crew were saved.)Marauding horde
At 2030hrs the VPAF had received
intelligence reports that a big raid
was imminent: lights were turned
up higher in the cities to brightenAbove left
Radar bombing led by a
Douglas RB-66 Destroyer,
with F-4 Phantoms to
the rear.Left
A fl ight of F-4C Phantoms
refuels from a KC-135
Stratotanker.