On November 22, , the first car to be produced under the Mercedes name is taken for its inaugural drive in Cannstatt, Germany. The car was specially built for its buyer, Emil Jellinek, an entrepreneur with a passion for fast, flashy cars. Jellinek had commissioned the On November 22, , John Hanson, the first president of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation, dies in his home state of Maryland.
Hanson is sometimes called the first president of the United States, but this is a misnomer, since the presidency did not Live TV. This Day In History. Of course, as fighter technology continued to improve, the United States moved away from manning guns on their heavy payload bombers and toward flying with their own fighter escorts.
I called the pilot for evasive action and the EWO electronic warfare officer for chaff and flares. For Moore, it had to be a nerve-racking moment.
Only one other B tail gunner had scored a successful kill against a Vietnamese fighter, though more than 30 Bs had been shot down throughout the conflict. In fact, the first time a B had ever shot down a Mig had only happened a few days prior. Linebacker II was to be different. The intent was to destroy all major target complexes in the Hanoi and Haiphong areas, using two distinct types of efforts, both of which had to contend with the monsoon season.
An all-weather force of heavy Bs and smaller F attack aircraft would bomb by night while tactical aircraft would continue to press daytime attacks. Air Force officers carefully shaped the list of targets so that the bombers could avoid civilian collateral damage and, most particularly, avoid damaging installations housing American POWs.
As it turned out, one of the valuable side effects of Linebacker II was the boost in morale it brought prisoners as they saw their Communist captors tremble at the explosions and realized that at long last, the United States was fighting the war as it always should have been fought. The initial orders calling for the Linebacker II effort specified three days of intensive effort, with a strong prospect of continued bombing.
Throughout the Pacific theater, Air Force headquarters, flight lines, supply depots, barracks, mess halls, and all the other elements of a fighting force throbbed with preparatory activity. The mission from Guam would run about 12 hours and require in-flight refueling.
The mission from U Tapao would take only about three to four hours and did not require in-flight refueling. All of the D models of the BUFFs had received the latest electronic countermeasures modifications, while only half of the G models had been so modified. This would prove to be an unfortunate and at times fatal difference, because the unmodified G models turned out to be vulnerable to SAMs. Air Force tactical air units were called upon for double duty.
They were to fly in support of the nighttime bomber attacks then go on to conduct a vigorous attack effort in the daytime. Still, when the campaign was over, Gen. John W. Vogt Jr. As Linebacker II operations unfolded, a number of critical elements played a role in the execution of the attacks, including routes, spacing, altitudes, bomb loads, and basing.
The routes to and from the targets were governed by many factors, including disposition of surface-to-air missile sites, the proximity of the Chinese border, and strength of the prevailing winds.
Flight tactics called for formations of three Bs, separated by feet in altitude and one mile in horizontal distance. SAC headquarters had ordered aircraft commanders not to take evasive action in the face of threats from either SAMs or MiGs during the long run in from the initial point to bombs away. The speed and direction of the turn after the bomb drop was designed to get the bombers out of SAM range as soon as possible. The tactics were needed primarily because SAC wanted to preserve electronic countermeasures integrity of the three-ship formations while making sure that only military targets were hit.
It took nearly two hours for 87 Bs from Guam to taxi, take off, and become airborne on the afternoon of Dec. They then were joined in the attack by 42 additional Bs flying out of U Tapao, forming the largest attacking bomber force assembled since World War II.
The F force was assigned missions against nine targets. The North Vietnamese leaders had expected a US air attack, but they were shocked by the intensity of the assault on Dec. Reacting swiftly, the forces of the North used their SAMs effectively and quickly began to concentrate their efforts on the post-target turn.
This turn was the point of greatest B vulnerability, for three reasons. Second, a banking B presented a greater radar cross section to the defenders. Finally, the turn would reverse the benefits of the wind, transforming a knot tailwind into a head wind that slowed down the enormous aircraft. On Day 1 of the campaign, the Communist forces fired more than SAMs, often sending them up in four- or six-weapon volleys. Once, the air was filled with more than 40 SAMs.
The losses were lighter than had been expected and were not considered unacceptably high. For the entire 11 bombing days, the BUFF crews upheld the Air Force tradition of never being turned back from an assigned mission, pressing on regardless of the ferocity of the enemy attack.
He directed me to the B Victory Museum for any questions on missile operations during the war. The Victory Museum, its main entrance flanked by a brace of camouflaged SA-2s, houses a hodgepodge of war-related photos and memorabilia, much of which has little to do with Bs. The surrounding grounds afford a vast collection of artifacts that are significantly more on point. After peace talks stalled, the Nixon administration had ordered raids on Hanoi and Haiphong Harbor to the north.
It was hoped that by unprecedented, concentrated bombing, North Vietnam would be forced to return to the bargaining table and negotiate an end to U. More than Strategic Air Command Bs based on Guam and in Thailand were given the job, along with hundreds of supporting Air Force, Navy, and Marine warplanes whose crews jammed radar and attacked anti-aircraft gun positions.
For Phiet and his SA-2 crews, the start of the bombing campaign brought plenty of anxiety. The U. This was a mistake. You cannot use power to destroy the will of the people. If American military planners erred in choreographing the night bombing campaign, author Phil Chinnery wrote in Air War in Vietnam, it was at the outset, when bombers were assigned routes and altitudes that varied little from one wave to the next.
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