In a B-52 Bomber Over Hanoi

[Catmando]

This mostly audio with some video is interesting and instructive... and will make the adrenaline pump if you are familiar.

It occurred during the "Christmas Raids", those 11 nights of Linebacker II in 1972 designed to end the Vietnam War.

What impresses me? The professionalism and relative calm of these guys. On all previous missions, the B-52s never encountered serious enemy defenses. Now suddenly during these 11 nights over Hanoi, they encountered the most well defended target since WWII. They were FNGs to this. Moreover, they had to fly what they knew were bad tactics ordered from Omaha and not in field commanders.

Most every background sound in this is an enemy radar trying to kill them, and the loud emergency beepers only contribute to the Fog of War. Yet these guys remain relatively calm, working the job. [In fact, I have sadly heard heavier breathing from an F/O in the airlines on a SAN approach]

Listen, and view: http://www.military.com/video/opera...ar/in-a-b-52-bomber-over-hanoi/1539017129001/

In only 11 days: "Overall Air Force losses included fifteen B-52s, two F-4s, two F-111s, and one HH-53 search and rescue helicopter. Navy losses included two A-7s, two A-6s, one RA-5, and one F-4. Seventeen of these losses were attributed to SA-2 missiles, three to daytime MiG attacks, three to antiaircraft artillery, and three to unknown causes."​

​

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/linebacker-2.htm​

 

[OUSOONER]

Awesome. The dean of the aviation college at OU was a Buff driver. He did his fair share bombing the North. He retired, but was a great guy who had a real passion for flying...Like all of you out on Yankee Station, he had big brass balls as well.

 

[Sapper!]

Two questions:
Did the 52 employ countermeasures and were they automatic?

What did the EWO mean when he said he had "no uplink"?

 

[Schnugg]

Wow. Great stuff. I was 9 then.

 

[Catmando]

Two questions:
Did the 52 employ countermeasures and were they automatic?

What did the EWO mean when he said he had "no uplink"?

Q-1: Don't know. But I do know the B-52 hierarchy thought their extremely high-tech for the time ECM made them practically invincible. But it was never tested in combat scenarios. When in a turn, the bad guys learned the B-52 was vulnerable, and made great use of that new Intel.

Q-2: No Uplink? I can only assume he means his RHAW warning. In an F-4, we had different and ever-increasing aural and visual warnings of radar tracking, radar lock, missile launch, initial guidance, and terminal SAM guidance. Of course the Gomers and the Russkies knew this so they also countered.....

I believe that "uplink" meant the terminal guidance for a SAM... that which was the most threatening. Sensing terminal guidance gave us an extremely loud aural warning, and big, f'n RED FLASHING light in your face saying you are about to die.... so you countered!

But the Gomers got sneaky. They would often launch SAMs ballistic (without guidance for you luddites) in our direction without guidance. Thus we had no RHAW warning of a SAM coming close to our way. Then, they would zap at the last minute terminal guidance before we could counter. Bagged a lot of our guys that way.


Regarding any OPSEC concerns, there is a lot more, but this stuff is 40 years old and well known long ago by all who are involved in the business. In war and survival, both sides learn fast and counter.

 

[BigIron]

balls o steel.

 

[Catmando]

Wow. Great stuff. I was 9 then.

Communist! And I was only 12.... but I knew a guy who was there.

 

[BusyBee604]

This mostly audio with some video is interesting and instructive... and will make the adrenaline pump if you are familiar.

Cat, you're dern right, crickets chirping, SAM alerts warbling, emergency beepers beeping...boy does that bring back memories! The Buffies had it rough during LB II. At least we could evade most of the missiles we could see, but the 'Elephants' were sitting ducks and had to depend mostly on ECM for protection.
*The emergency beeper on guard, sounds like a crewman descending in a chute.. or on the ground!

Hats off to them.
BzB

 

[scoober78]

I found 4 other recordings in the same series...40 minutes of mission audio. The fourth link is the one Catmando posted. This is great stuff.

Here's why they did it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sks6D2l8erA

Hard to imagine anything as intimidating from the ground. Thanks for getting this going Catmando.

 

[scoober78]

What did the EWO mean when he said he had "no uplink"?

It means the EWO (Electronic Warfare Officer)isn't receiving any data from the SAM's that are in the air...

It's going to be hard to explain more without someone beadwindow-ing me.

 

[jmcquate]

After a couple of nights of that, there was a near muntity

 

[ea6bflyr]

Great thread. These give us a sense of being in the shit..agree that those dude were very calm considering...

BTW, I was only 7 (not nearly as old as Cat or Schnugg).

-ea6bflyr

 

[MonkUSMC]

My dad was in that exact mission, along with a few others, like LB1, in Vietnam as a B-52 pilot. He told me his favorite things to blow up were fuel depots and trucks.

 

[Flash]

Two questions:
Did the 52 employ countermeasures and were they automatic?

In the simplest terms it was a mix, some was automatic but also controlled by the EWO.

There were two types of B-52's used during Linebacker II, the 'Big Belly' B-52D's that had been modified to carry a much larger conventional bombload and were the primary type of BUFFs used in Vietnam and the B-52G's which did not have as big a bombload (about half of the bombs of a D). Ironically it was the older B-52D's that much better and more powerful jamming equipment than the G's utilized also used in Linebacker II and their loss rate reflected this, which model B-52 bombed which targets were adjusted later in 11-day bombing period so the G's hit 'softer' targets than the D's.

Strategic Air Command guidance and planning had a devastating effect on the bomber crews during Linebacker II, certainly making their losses worse than they should have been. As Catmando already said the big turn that SAC HQ demanded the crews perform after they dropped their bombs, a technique that was supposed to escape the effect of a nuclear blast and had no place over Vietnam, also had the disastrous effects of not only 'blanking' out their jammers by angling them vertically the instead of horizontally but also presenting the biggest radar target possible to the SAM operators.

As has been recommended by others here on the forum before the book The 11 Days of Christmas: America's Last Vietnam Battle by Marshall L. Michel is a superb account of the B-52 and the men who flew them in Linebacker II, it is not only a definitive historical account of the campaign but also a great lesson of leadership, planning and execution of modern aerial warfare, both good and horribly bad.

 

[Renegade One]

I was surprised the Nav pimping his pilot about being 200 feet off profile altitude (assigned 35,500 while getting the shit shot out of the formation) didn't hear "Yeah, well...you ain't seen nuthin' yet!"
All remarks saluting calm professionalism in this nut-roll are loudly seconded...also impressed at the incredibly vital role of the Gunner in the tail...the only guy who had "eyeballs" aft. Wow...