B-52s and other Linebacker II aircraft dropped 20,000 tons of ordnance on North Vietnam.
A munitions crew on Guam prepares a “clip” of bombs that will be loaded into the bomb bay of a B-52 Stratofortress. Surface-to-air missile sites launched Soviet SA-2 Guideline SAMs based on the Linebacker I pattern, only to come under attack from F-105G Thunderchief fighters-bombers code-named “Wild Weasels,” carrying missiles that homed in on the SAM sites. One minute later, EB-66 Destroyer electronic warfare planes started to jam enemy radars, and F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers began laying corridors of small metal strips of chaff to confuse enemy radar and protect the first wave of B-52 Stratofortress bombers approaching Hanoi and Haiphong.Ĭompletely surprised and blinded, Hanoi’s Air Defense Command aimed its anti-aircraft artillery fire along the routes and altitudes used by B-52s during the Linebacker I bombings of May-October 1972, conducted in response to the North’s massive ground offensive started during Easter weekend. Air Force F-111 Aardvark attack aircraft initiated Operation Linebacker II by striking six North Vietnamese airfields. How Operation Linebacker II Took the North Vietnamese By Surprise CloseĪt 7:30 p.m.
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