Linebacker II PDF Download

Author: James R. McCarthy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 228

View

Book Description

Author: Marshall Michel III
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472827597
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97

View

Book Description
After the failed April 1972 invasion of South Vietnam and the heavy US tactical bombing raids in the Hanoi area, the North Vietnamese agreed to return to the Paris peace talks, yet very quickly these negotiations stalled. In an attempt to end the war quickly and 'persuade' the North Vietnamese to return to the negotiating table, President Nixon ordered the Air Force to send the US' ultimate conventional weapon, the B-52 bomber, against their capital, Hanoi. Bristling with the latest Soviet air defence missiles, it was the most heavily defended target in Vietnam. Taking place in late December, this campaign was soon dubbed the 'Christmas Bombings'. Using specially commissioned artwork and maps, ex-USAF fighter colonel Marshall Michel describes Linebacker II, the climax of the air war over Vietnam, and history's only example of how America's best Cold War bombers performed against contemporary Soviet air defences.

Author: Marshall Michel III
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472827546
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97

View

Book Description
At Easter 1972, North Vietnam invaded the South, and there were almost no US ground troops left to stop it. But air power reinforcements could be rushed to the theater. Operation Linebacker's objective was to destroy the invading forces from the air and cut North Vietnam's supply routes – and luckily in 1972, American air power was beginning a revolution in both technology and tactics. Most crucial was the introduction of the first effective laser-guided bombs, but the campaign also involved the fearsome AC-130 gunship and saw the debut of helicopter-mounted TOW missiles. Thanks to the new Top Gun fighter school, US naval aviators now also had a real advantage over the MiGs. This is the fascinating story of arguably the world's first “modern” air campaign. It explains how this complex operation – involving tactical aircraft, strategic bombers, close air support and airlift – defeated the invasion. It also explains the shortcomings of the campaign, the contrasting approaches of the USAF and Navy, and the impact that Linebacker had on modern air warfare.

Author: Marshall L. Michel (III)
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1893554279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346

View

Book Description
In December 1972, with an increasingly dovish Congress preparing to cut off all funding for the war in Vietnam, President Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of Hanoi by the Strategic Air Command's "big stick," its fleet of B-52 bombers. Never before had a B-52 been lost in combat, but the North Vietnamese SAM missile crews knocked them out of the sky in the first days of the engagement. Despite the losses, the surviving bombers kept coming, inflicting huge losses on the North Vietnamese. For eleven days the momentum swung back and forth, moving from what appeared to be a certain U.S. triumph, to a possible North Vietnamese victory, to the ultimate ambiguous denouement in which both sides won and lost.

Author: Bernard C. Nalty
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 554

View

Book Description

Author: Marshall L. Michel III
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472827600
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages : 97

View

Book Description
The Linebacker II campaign of 1972 saw America's fearsome but irreplaceable B-52s finally sent into action above the Vietnamese capital Hanoi in an attempt to bomb the Vietnamese to the negotiating table.

Author: Karl J. Eschmann
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 9780804103749
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

View

Book Description
The account of the 1972 twelve-day assault by the U.S. on targets around Hanoi and Haiphong is provided through the personal words of the pilots and crew who flew the missions

Author: Albert Atkins
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781449052904
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237

View

Book Description
For the last decade, Dr. Albert Atkins has conducted extensive research on the Vietnam War. This research has taken him to the cockpit of a B-52 where he could see and feel the cramped battle stations for the pilot and co-pilot. As a former military pilot, he saw and understood the complexity of the eight engine bombers' instrument panel, hundreds of switches, and the circuit breaker panels that these B-52 pilots had to master to fly a successful combat mission. He attended reunions and seminars where he had the opportunity to listen and talk to general officers and combat crew members of the Strategic Air Command relate their personal experiences in the air war over North Vietnam. Dr. Atkins researched material relating to decisions made by presidents and their National Security Advisors during the Vietnam War. Under the freedom of Information Act, he obtained CIA documents with information about North Vietnam and China that could have altered the course of the war. He has uncovered new material on Operation Linebacker II, the B-52 bombing missions of Hanoi that were responsible for freeing our Prisoners of War. Dr. Atkins is to be commended for his 10 years diligent research. He makes a strong case that after 11 Days of the B-52 bombing the Hanoi area, "WE HAD WON THE WAR." The problem was the only people that understood this were the combat crews who flew the missions and support personnel who made Linebacker II a success. Unfortunately no one in Washington asked their opinion. As Dr. Atkins book points out, a similar mistake happened in another war. James R. McCarthy Brig. /Gen. (USAF ret.)

Author: Mark Clodfelter
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160934803
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 68

View

Book Description

Author: Stephen Emerson
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 152675715X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128

View

Book Description
By the end of 1971, in what Hanoi called the American War and at the height of the Cold War, the fighting had dragged on for eight years with neither side gaining a decisive advantage on the battlefield and talks in Paris to the end the war were going nowhere. While the United States was steadily drawing down its ground forces in South Vietnam, Washington was also engaging in a grand effort to build up and strengthen Saigon’s armed forces to the point of self-sufficiency. Not only had the ranks of Saigon’s forces swelled in recent years, but they were now being equipped and trained to use the latest American military equipment. Perhaps now was the time for Hanoi to take one last gamble before it was too late. With the rumble of men and mechanized equipment breaking the early morning silence, some 40,000 North Vietnamese troops advanced across the demilitarized zone into South Vietnam on March 30, 1972 in what would become the largest conventional attack of the war. Ill-prepared and poorly led, South Vietnamese troops in the far north were quickly routed in the face of the ensuing onslaught. Likewise, coordinated attacks across the Cambodian border northwest of Saigon and into the central highlands in the coming weeks gained steam and in due course as many as 200,000 men along with T-54/55 main battle tanks, 130mm towed artillery, ZSU-57 self-propelled ant-aircraft guns, and hundreds of trucks and armored personnel carriers were engaged across three battlefronts. Soon Saigon’s beleaguered forces were being pushed to the brink of defeat in what appeared to be the end for the Thieu government. Ultimately, however, the timely and massive intervention by U.S. and South Vietnamese air power, along with the bravery of some South Vietnamese commanders and their American advisers saved the day. Hanoi’s gamble had failed and in its wake lay up to 100,000 dead and South Vietnamese roads littered with the smoldering wrecks of North Vietnamese military equipment. Moreover, it would be another three years before the North had recovered enough to try again.