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Operation Rolling Thunder, March 2nd, 1965 through November 2nd 1968 - The Vietnam War
Operation Rolling Thunder was one of the most intense aerial campaigns in U.S. history.
As the largest U.S. Air force operation of the Vietnam War, it lasted from March 2nd, 1965 until November 2nd, 1968.
Originally, the operation was not the idea of the military, but it was the brainchild of
President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.
Their idea was to use military force as a way to apply pressure against the North Vietnamese
government that was helping communist insurgents known as the "Vietcong" in South Vietnam.
The reason why President Johnson's administration decided to use aerial bombing rather than a land invasion,
was because of the fear that ground intervention would take many American lives, and could lead to the
involvement of China and the Soviet Union into the conflict.
The task of the campaign was to one:
Boost the morale of the South Vietnamese people and the Saigon government,
since they were having problems fighting insurgents.
Two:
Persuade the North Vietnamese government to stop supporting insurgents in the south.
Three:
To destroy the North Vietnamese industrial infrastructure and
transport communications between North and South Vietnam.
And four:
To prevent the influx of soldiers and materiel from the North to the South.
Operation Rolling Thunder was carried out by the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy under the Pacific Command,
but it was strictly controlled by the president's civilian administration.
The strikes were initially conducted by the 2nd Division of the United States Air Force,
but as of April 1966, bombing raids were conducted by the 7th Air Force of the USAF.
Most United States Air Force strikes were conducted from bases in Thailand,
while the Navy used aircraft carriers of the 7th Fleet, Task Force 77 from the Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The US Air Force and Navy operated on completely different principles which on many occasions
led to interference in the air over North Vietnam.
To prevent larger incidents from December 1965,
the Pacific Command divided operational zones into seven route packages.
The U.S. Air Force had route packs: 1, 5 and 6A.
While the US Navy had route packs: 2, 3, 4 and 6B.
The border with China was put under the buffer zone in the city of Hanoi and Haiphong
were also marked as prohibited areas.
Although all kinds of aircraft were used in the operation,
it was the F-105 Thunderchief that took most of the combat with
more than 75% of all the United States Air Force sorties.
On their missions, Thunderchiefs were carrying either five 1,000 lb or six 750 lb bombs.
Flying from bases in Thailand, they had to be refueled in the air over Laos.
Although the F-105 proved itself in combat, they had a
large casualty rate with almost half of the fleet destroyed after Operation Rolling Thunder was over.
The Air Force then introduced the F-4 Phantom as a much better
match for the North Vietnamese MiG's with its radar guided AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles
Soon, the F-4 would completely replace the F-105 in Vietnam War missions.
The biggest drawback of these aircraft, were that they were limited by bad weather,
which was a big problem during the rainy seasons.
This could have been overcome with B-52 bombers, which were
allowed for use only a few miles north of the Demilitarized Zone.
The U.S. Navy also used a variety of aircraft during the campaign.
At the beginning, Task Force 77 relied on old Douglas A-1 Skyraiders,
a propeller plane that was capable of carrying heavy bomb loads.
As it proved to be very vulnerable to sophisticated North Vietnamese air defenses,
it was replaced with the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk.
The A-4 Skyhawk was for the Navy what the F-105 was to the Air Force.
It carried out most of the sorties over the Navy route packs, but also suffered heavy losses.
By the end of the operation, 1/3 of the entire fleet was shot down.
As the operation escalated, another aircraft entered the fight.
The Grumman A-6A Intruder was the first aircraft designed to strike targets at night or in bad weather.
It was equipped with a digital integrated attack system which allowed
the pilot to execute the mission without having visual references.
As a defensive measure against U.S. aircraft, the North Vietnamese deployed a complete arsenal of
anti-aircraft defences from AA artillery to surface-to-air missiles or SAMS.
The main threat to U.S planes over North Vietnam were Soviet SA-2 missiles or the S-75 Dvina,
famous for shooting down the U-2 spy plane.
In 1965, the Soviets deployed thousands of missiles, launchers, and radars to North Vietnam.
Once set up, they posed a significant threat to American planes flying at high altitudes.
Frustratingly, the U.S. Civilian Administration forbade attacking SAM launching sites unless attacked by one.
They feared that striking them would lead to the death of Soviet instructors
which would then have greater consequences.
The North Vietnamese however, had no restraints in using their SA-2 systems
against U.S. aircraft which forced U.S. airmen to develop proper countermeasures.
The U.S. Air Force and Navy countered them in two ways.
One:
Was using aircraft equipped with electronic devices for jamming enemy radars.
Another method was to use the "Wild Weasel" F-105G aircraft equipped to locate and destroy SAM radars
Suppressing the SAMs was organized as an entire sub operation called Operation Iron Hand.
Though SAMs were credited with shooting down 101 enemy aircraft,
their effectiveness was largely diminished by these U.S. countermeasures.
From a 5.7% effectiveness in 1965, it dropped 2.9% by 1968.
Another threat that the U.S. aircraft had to deal with was the North Vietnamese Air Force.
Their main aircraft was the MiG-17, which at the time was becoming
obsolete, but it served its purpose very well.
A much bigger threat were the MiG-21s, which were a good match for the F-4
with their AA-2 Atoll, Vympel K-13 air-to-air missiles.
Another frustration for American pilots, was that the North Vietnamese
managed to build new airfields for their aircraft.
A proper response against them from the American side was
forbidden due to the ban on such strikes from the chain of command.
Although far less sophisticated, AA guns proved to be the main threat to US aircraft.
With 5,795 guns deployed, their fire shot down the majority of all U.S. planes.
The main reason for this was that the U.S. aircraft were mostly flying on low altitudes to evade SAM radars.
Rolling Thunder was approved by the president on February 13, 1965
and the first strike was made on March 2nd on a small ammunition depot near the border.
At the beginning, it was obvious that the operation was far behind military expectations as
the command failed to reach immediate superiority over the enemy forces
because they were stalling and picking targets of low importance.
During the entire operation, the rolling strategy was going
too slow to make a significant impact on the tides of war.
One reason why the operation had never reached its full military potential,
was that the American Civilian Administration (far away from the action),
applied many limitations, and saw the operation as just applying political pressure against North Vietnam.
On several occasions, the president paused the entire operation in order
to check the readiness of North Vietnam to negotiate.
Since the North Vietnamese never had the intention of doing so,
they used this period of time to recover from previous strikes.
The administration was in constant fear of provoking China and the Soviet Union into entering the conflict.
So they imposed a variety of target restrictions.
This hampered the efforts of the military.
During the 3 ½ years of the campaign, it didn't reach
its political or military goals, and Rolling Thunder became a burden for Johnson's administration.
Both Johnson and McNamara (while the creators of the operation), would become their opponents.
On March 31st 1968, President Johnson ordered a partial pause in the
bombing campaign which led to a complete halt on November 1st,
therefore ending Operation Rolling Thunder.
In the end, Operation Rolling Thunder proved to be a failure not because of the airpower incompetence,
but due to this strategy of gradualism, and the restrictive controls of the civilian administration.
Thank you to War Thunder for sponsoring this episode on Operation Rolling Thunder.
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