Thought I would share this email that I got from Mike "Pod" Foster who flew A-7s with VA-46. This is from several guys but there is an excellent account from "Snuffy" Smith himself on dropping the Thanh Hoa Bridge!! He will be here at the reunion!! I can't relate how significant this was for our aircrews (all branches) that entered N. Vietnam's airspace on a regular basis!! we have got to videotape Friday night's festivities!! Kyle
Ted:
The first three stories are great and make for some interesting reading. I had heard some of what was in them, including the one about the C-130's. Talk about gutsy!!
Perhaps you'll be interested in a fourth and final chapter about "The Bridge", or, as the famous radio personality, Paul Harvey, used to say, "the rest of the story."
In 1972 I was a Lcdr and the Ops O of VA-82 flying A7 Corsairs off the USS America. We had been scheduled for a Med cruise, to begin in June or July 1972, but about two weeks prior to departure, our destination was changed to the Tonkin Gulf. We arrived Yankee Station in mid summer. As has been stated in one of the stories, below, the USAF had, in May of 72, hit the western end of the bridge and dropped a part of that end of the bridge. I cannot attest to the fact that the NV completely repaired the bridge, but Intel suggested the bridge was still usable and it remained on the target list. It was assigned to us as a target to be struck on 4 Oct, 1972.
On that "Alpha Strike", which I planned, briefed and led, I headed up a flight of four A7's against the Bridge. Two of us carried the 2000 pound Fat Albert Walleye II; two others carried two each 2000 GP Bombs. The plan was to release the two Walleys simultaneously with both aimed at the center pier. The two A7's carrying the 2000 GP Bombs were to time their roll in and release so that their weapons hit the western span of the bridge shortly (very) after the walleyes hit. My theory was that if we got enough heavy ordnance hits as near simultaneously as possible, we actually had a chance to drop the damn bridge. During the Walleye delivery, my wingman, Ltjg Marv Baldwin, stayed tucked in pretty tight through roll in and, as pre briefed , got a bit of separation as we began the glide towards the target. Marv transmitted "lock on" when he had a good Walleye lock on his aim point. I had a good lock so counted down from 3 to 1 then called for release. Marv and I pickled at almost at the same time. Unfortunately, my walleye went stupid (I think it was hit by 37 MM right after it left the a/c). Marv's weapon hit pretty close to his aim point but my walleye and the other weapons missed. Clearly we were disappointed but not to worry!! We would go again!
The next day, the bridge again appeared on the target for a strike to be conducted on 6 Oct. Since I had done the one on the 4th, I was assigned to brief the strike for the 6th. Our CAG, Jim Joy, led the Flak suppression part of the strike and our Skipper, Don Sumner led our four plane A7 division. Once again, Marv Baldwin was on my wing; the skipper had Ltjg Jim Brister with him. Marv and I had the Fat Alberts and the skipper and Jim carried the 2000 pounders. We planned the same tactic but this time we came in from the south.. As Marv and I prepared to roll in from about 15K feet, Don and Jim hauled ass west to their roll in position. Marv was again tucked in tight and we rolled into about a 30 degree dive, reduced power and popped speed brakes so we had a bit more time in the run. That was a seriously dedicated maneuver!! Marv got locked up very quickly and called same. I was also locked on, so began the countdown to release. We pickled the two walley simultaneously. Both of our Fat Alberts hit the aim point with Marv's hitting the center pier. Don and Jim released their bombs so that they hit damn near at the same time as our Walleys. The whole place was covered in smoke and dust so we really could not tell what damage we might have caused. We did what was "normal" and headed "feet wet"! After everyone was safely over the water, Don flew back towards the bridge to see if the dust had cleared enough to get BDA. Despite flying nearly directly over the bridge, he could not determine what, if any, damage we had inflicted.
Fast forward to the afternoon strike: A gaggle hit a target up in the Hanoi area and our Viggie recce guys were tasked to do a photo run for BDA following that strike. The pilot, Wes Rutledge, knew that we had struck the bridge a bit earlier in the day (we had the mid day strike) so decided to make a run by the bridge on his way to feet wet. He returned with photos but none of us in my group knew anything about them. About 1830, I got a call from the CAG AI down on IOIC suggesting that I come down as he had something he thought I might want to see. I arrived to a crowded room and a huge photo of the bridge with the pier buckled and the western span broken and in the water! What a beautiful sight.
The CARGRU then was RADM Jack (Big Coolie) Christensen. When he saw the photos, he called and invited all four of us Corsair drivers to his cabin to congratulate us. I will never forget what he said when we were all assembled. He said, "I been waiting for seven "expletive deleted" years for this. It is "expletive deleted" beautiful!!! I love the guy!!!
I have no way of verifying any of the three previous stories but I do know that "The Bridge" was a thorn in our sides for years. I always figured some lucky guy would knock it over with a well placed MK 76 but was mighty happy to be part of the four plane strike on October 6th, 1972 that, in the words from the award, "... post strike photography confirmed that this vital link and frequently struck target had at last been completely severed and rendered useless to the enemy."
One picture is worth a thousand words!! Photo attached
Snuffy
In a message dated 7/28/2010 5:09:03 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
Efbronson@aol.com writes:
Subj: FW: Thanh Hoa Bridge
Thanks to Nick
My experiences & memories regarding the Thanh Hoa Bridge are not good!. I joined VA-146 in Oct. ’65, 2 mos. before we deployed on RANGER. Several weeks after arriving, we had a change of command, with CDR Hubert Loheed relieving CDR Bill Harris. Being new in the Sqdn., I didn’t know the new Skipper, he seemed fine & pleasant…but I soon learned that he was totally obsessed with the desire to knock out the TH Bridge. I had learned that on his own time and his “own dime”, somehow obtained structural blueprints of the bridge. He then hired a civilian Structural Engineer to determine where and how it would have to be hit, to drop a span(s). He never discussed it openly (among the JOs), and I only learned about it when the Ops Off. mentioned casually on the way to WestPac. I recall thinking that I’d like to go on that mission!
We arrived on Dixie in mid Jan ’66 & after 2 weeks of CAS on Dixie, steamed north to Yankee Station launching our first strikes in Rt. Package 2/3 on 1 Feb. ’66. Sadly CDR Loheed was KIA that first day. Hit near Thanh Hoa (on a road recce not on or close to the bridge); in a dive from which he never recovered or ejected. The only time I “went to the “Dragon’s Jaw” was in the summer of ’66 when I went along on an Alfa strike in an A-4C section carrying 2 Bullpup B (500# ea.). We both hit the bridge roadway on both shots. No visible damage except for black burnspots. The flak was merciless & we were lucky to get out with no losses. It wasn’t too much for us after that, I think they realized that our available weapons weren’t BIG enough & the loss rate was too high. Also the “Baby Bullpup B” was abandoned after that in favor of the new (2000#) Bullpup C, a real Bear, but I never got to use it on the TH Bridge (I don’t think it would have worked either – not big enough!)
Incidently, my friend & Sqdnmate, then LT John “Mike” McGrath, was shot down in July ’67 while bombing the Thanh Hoa Bridge. He was a POW & returned safely in 1973.
Regards to all, and thanks for the trip down Memory Lane (or is it Nightmare Alley?) Lol Hugh
----- Original Message -----
From: Nick
Subject: Thanh Hoa Bridge
Here's some excerpts from an article I wrote for Flight Journal
magazine a few years ago.
While writing I researched the various existing histories about the
bridge and found some interesting stuff.
"The French built this concrete and steel truss bridge during their
92-year stay in Indochina. In 1945, nine years before the French
departed, Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh cleverly destroyed it by slamming
two explosive-laden locomotives together, head-on, in the middle of
it. The French left in 1954 following their defeat at Dien Bien Phu.
In 1957, the North Vietnamese rebuilt the bridge so that it was
stronger than ever. This rugged, resilient two-span structure, which
the Vietnamese called the “Dragon’s Jaw,” was only two football
fields long and three narrow lanes wide. Between 1965 and 1972, when
the Americans replaced the French as the problem for North Vietnam,
they had added eight concrete piers near the approaches to limit the
potential for major damage by U.S. Navy and Air Force bombs."
"More than four years later, on May 17, 1972, USAF F-4Ds at last
wiped out one span with 2,000-pound Paveway TV-guided bombs. The
North Vietnamese repaired it quickly, so Navy A-4s nailed it again on
October 6 that year, using 2,000-pound Walleye TV-guided missiles.
Nonetheless, the bridge stood from April 1965 through May 1972 and
withstood more than 850 Navy and USAF sorties before the end of the
war. In all, U.S. air power lost 104 aircraft trying to drop the
Thanh Hoa Bridge—a startling 12 percent loss rate."
The USAF even tried dropping the bridge using C-130s in Operation
Carolina Moon.
"The time was September 1965. U.S. Air Force and Navy planes had been
bombing selected targets in North Vietnam for almost six months. Most
of the worthwhile targets had been destroyed - except for two
bridges, one of which spanned the Song Ma River at a place known to
the Vietnamese as "The Dragon's Jaw," a bridge the Americans knew as
The Thanh Hoa Bridge. In the USAF Weapons Laboratory at Eglin AFB,
Florida a new concept to mass-focus the power of explosives had been
developed. The new weapon was seen as ideal for attacks on targets
such as the Thanh Hoa Bridge. But, there was a problem - the only
airplanes in the Air Force inventory that could deliver the weapons
were transports.
In early 1966 two C-130 crews from the Tactical Air Command Wing at
Sewart AFB, Tennessee, newly desginated as the 64th Troop Carrier
Wing, were picked to go to Eglin to train to deliver the new weapons.
Majors Richard Remers and Thomas Case led their crews through a
training program to develop a delivery system for the 5,000 pound
pancake-shaped weapons.
Since the Thanh Hoa Bridge was one of the most heavily defended
targets in all of North Vietnam, an upstream delivery of the floating
weapons into the river was considered to be the best option to allow
the crews to survive. On May 15, 1966 the two crews left the United
States for Da Nang. Ten weapons were carried aboard the two C-130Es,
along with the necessary maintenance and weapons specialists. The
team arrived at Da Nang on May 22. After a week of preparation, the
mission was set for the night of May 30. Major Remers crew was chosen
for the first mission, with Major Case to back them up in the event
the bridge did not go down. Major Remers and his crew, including
copilot Lt. Tom Turner, navigators Capt. Norman Clanton and Lt. Rocky
Edmondson, FE MSgt John R. Shields and loadmasters SSgt Aubrey Turner
and A3C Johnny Benoit, took off from Dan Nang shortly after midnight
and headed up the coast of North Vietnam at 100 feet. At a specified
point, Remers took up a course to cross the North Vietnamese coast
and fly a 43-mile long course overland to the bridge. They would be
over hostile territory for 17 minutes.
As they approached the bridge, the C-130 had attracted no enemy fire.
Remers elected to pass over the first planned release point and press
on for another that was closer to the bridge. They had climbed to 400
feet and slowed to 150 knots, with the rear cargo door and ramp in
the aerial delivery position. After crossing the first point, the
crew encountered the first ground fire of the evening, but it was
fortunately inaccurate. The crew dropped the five weapons in the
river, then Remers banked sharply to the right and dove back down to
100 feet as they egressed out of the target area and back to the
safety of the South China Sea. They headed back to Da Nang and a cold
beer and bottle of champagne.
The next morning photoreconaissance pictures showed that the bridge
was still standing. Major Case and his crew still had five weapons,
so another mission was scheduled for his crew that night. At the last
minute before take-off, Case asked Lt. Edmondson to go along on the
mission with his crew since he had been on the flight the night before.
Major Case and his crew took off at 0110, ten minutes late and almost
an hour later than Major Remers had taken off the night before. After
clearing the Da Nang airport area, the crew began radio silence and
turned north. They were never heard from again.
A flight of two F-4s was scheduled to for a diversionary mission near
the bridge. As it turned out, one of the F-4s was also lost, but the
returning crew reported that at the designated time for the C-130
drop, they had seen antiaircraft fire and a large ground flash in the
vicinity of the Thanh Hoa Bridge.
During the interrogation of a North Vietnamese PT boat crewmen
sometime later, intelligence personnel learned that a large aircraft
had dropped five mines in the river in May, 1966. Four of the five
had exploded, but the bridge had not been damaged. Not long after he
returned to Tennessee, Major Remers saw Japanese news film of North
Vietnamese parading aircraft parts through a city, parts he
recognized as having come from a C-130. The news account stated that
none of the Americans on board the airplane had survived. The bridge
itself remained standing for six years, until it was finally knocked
from its supports by new generation guided-bombs in the spring of 1972.
Pete Purvis
25 July 2010
[Pete's photos are at
www.F8Driver.org click on #2687.]
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