Page 4 - DFCS News Magazine Summer 2015

The Hai Duong Bridge was an over-under highway/ railroad bridge between Hanoi and Haiphong. As primary target it had been des- ignated for previous strikes to both the Navy and the Air Force. Eleven pilots and twenty three air- craft had been lost in previous attempts to de- stroy this particular bridge. The only bridge that had a comparable reputation was the Haiphong Bridge. The North Vietnamese knew the re- strictions of our rules of engagement so concen- trated their anti-aircraft guns around their most
important bridges.
What makes a bridge a particu- larly difficult target to hit is that your best chance of hitting the bridge with a string of bombs is to cross the bridge with a twenty degree cut. If you drop your bombs on a run perpendicular to the bridge you are likely to drop a bomb
on either side of the bridge. If you drop on a run parallel to the bridge and there is a cross wind the bombs would make ground contact on the down- wind side of the ridge. Flying a twenty degree cut means that you will be flying directly into the anti -aircraft emplacements that are located on both sides of the river and both sides of the road.
We had briefed and manned aircraft several times before we finally had weather at the target good enough to proceed. For me the hardest part of every mission was the anticipation, so for this particular mission I had to endure that anxiety more than once. Once the call “pilots man your aircraft” came, all anxiety subsided for I was com- pletely focused on task at hand.
Our strike, comprised of four A-6 Intruder aircraft and six F-4 Phantoms, briefed to proceed to the
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coast at altitude and then descend to between four and six thousand feet line abreast in a combat spread. The lower altitude was chosen because it was above small weapons range and below the altitude that would afford SAM missiles the best chance gaining a hit. The combat spread gave each aircraft room to jink, rapidly change altitude and heading, to avoid anti-aircraft fire. The A-6’s were at the center of the loose formation. Four F-4’s carrying rockets were to the left and two F-4’s car- rying bombs were stationed to the right The plan was to fly up the river and upon reaching the tar- get the A-6’s would split, two to the left and two to the right, and begin a climb to roll-in altitude.
Unlike the Air Force the Navy’s tactic was to spread around the target and all dive on the target from different directions at the same time. The first time you did it you thought that there would be one big mid-air collision over the target. How- ever we worked on the idea that there was a lot of airspace and relatively small aircraft. This tactic required the anti-aircraft gunners to spread their fire over a wide range rather than just aiming their guns in one direction.
As the A-6’s popped up to the left the F-4’s with rockets were to turn under the A-6’s in a spread scattering rockets across the entire area for flak suppression. Since the bombers to the right were spreading around the target and I was on the far right it meant that I would be the last one in and have the most exposure. I planned to light the af- terburners, climb to10,000 ft and roll inverted. I would then establish my dive angle of 40 degrees, roll out and track the target.
We reached the bridge and began our turn and climb to altitude. I had seen 37mm and 57mm an- ti-aircraft fire before but this was the first time that I saw 85mm and 100mm bursts. 37mm bursts leave white puffs of smoke and 57mm leave puffs
DFC, Bombing of the Hai Duong Bridge - by Fritz Klumpp