Blind Bat, Yellowbirds, Willy the Whale
"Night Intruders" on Uncle Ho's trail
B-57 Canberra Yellow Bird
The B-57 Canberra Yellow Bird is a jet aircraft designed to be a medium bomber, able to operate at speeds of 570 mph, altitudes up to 49,000 feet, with a range of 2,000 miles. She had a crew of two: a pilot and a bombardier/navigator/electronic warfare officer. She was designed off the English Electric Canberra, which was first flown in 1949. She was licensed to build in the US, the first aircraft of foreign design chosen for US production since 1918. Some 406 were built, the first Canberra to wear American colors flew in 1951, and the first aircraft made in the US flew for the USAF in 1953. Production ended in 1959.
In the Pacific, B-57s were stationed with the 3rd Bombardment Group (3BG) at Yokota AB, Japan. The B-57 was a nuclear-capable aircraft, and deployed out of Japan to sit nuclear alerts in Korea (targeted at the Soviet Union) starting in 1958, because the Japanese would not allow such flights to stage from their bases. By 1959, the 3BG was the only active-duty USAF outfit equipped with the B-57.
The Air Force decided to deactivate the 3BG in April 1964, moving instead to supersonic aircraft. But, as is frequently the case, the Air Force had to change plans on the quick because of the massive air power buildup ordered by President Johnson, who was anticipating going to war with North Vietnam even before, perhaps far before, the Gulf of Tonkin attacks occurred.
The B-57 ended up as a good choice. It was a long-range aircraft with good loiter capabilities, a large payload capacity, and the ability to operate as a dive bomber, thereby increasing its accuracy.
Diving directly at its targets decreases the time it takes for the bomb to reach its target, both through greater speed and shorter distance, making the effects of drag and gravity less pronounced and the path of the bomb much more predictable. These attributes were all well-suited to operations against convoys and bridges on the trail.
For example, a B-57 was directed to its target by USAF 1Lt. David McCracken, an O-1G "Bird Dog" forward air controller (FAC) from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, against an enemy fortification 13 km northeast of Cu Chi, about 45 miles northwest of Saigon, in support of 25th Division infantrymen sometime in 1967. Cu Chi was well known for its maze of enemy tunnels that stretched from here to Cambodia. As an aside, the 25th Infantry Division, known as "Tropic Lightning," set up its base camp right in the middle of all this.
McCracken sighted the target and called for the B-57s. As the aircraft approached the area, Bird Dog fired a smoke rocket to mark the target. The B-57 did a dive bombing run, dropped its load, and pulled up.
The pilot was responsible for the 250 knot dive run and bomb release. The back seat navigator provided a second pair of eyes, serving as a spotter, observer, navigator, and radio operator.
Of course, all this occurred during the day. The Blind Bat operation occurred at night, but it played a similar role. Indeed, many referred to the Blind Bats as FACs. The difference was that the Blind Bats had to find the target at night and illuminate them for the dive run, while the EF-10 jammed enemy weapons systems.
Like the C-130 Blind Bat, the B-57's initial operation in Vietnam was cloaked in secrecy. The US supplied a few B-57Bs to the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF), a violation of the Geneva Accords that prohibited the introduction of jet aircraft into the region.
The US trained South Vietnamese aircrews secretly at Clark AB in the Philippines in 1964, and then moved to Tan Son Nhut AB in Saigon, South Vietnam. The US formally announced that the aircraft had been given to the South Vietnamese in 1965. The VNAF flew the aircraft or sat in the second seat, but with an American in the other seat. The VNAF did get aircraft with their own markings, which they alone could fly, but they were under USAF operational control.
Two squadrons of the 3BG, the 8th and the 13th, left Yokota AB, Japan for Clark on April 10, 1964. They were attached to the 405th Fighter Wing (FW), headquartered there. This is interesting for several reasons.
First, the 3BG was scheduled for deactivation in April 1964, but instead, two squadrons deployed to Clark in April. The 13th then deployed to Ton Son Nhut, and by June 1964, two months prior to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the 13th had already flown 119 combat support sorties. I believe these were combat reconnaissance.
Second, Clark AB during 1964 officially entered the Vietnam War, with KC-135 refueling aircraft launching from there to gas up fighter aircraft striking targets in Laos.
Third, the commander of the 405th FW was none other than Colonel Chuck Yeager, who, as a captain, was the first man to break the sound barrier in the Bell X-1A. With the 405th Wing, Yeager commanded five squadrons and detachments scattered across Southeast Asia: two tactical bomber squadrons flying B-57s out of Clark and Phan Rang Air Base in South Vietnam; a squadron of F-100 fighter-bombers based in Taiwan; a pair of F-102 air defense squadrons flying out of Da Nang South Vietnam; and detached units flying a variety of aircraft, including F-4s out of places like Da Nang and Udorn and Bangkok, Thailand. Yeager made an effort to visit and fly with each of these units once every 10-12 days.
Fourth, Yeager liked the B-57. Flying primarily close air support and interdiction missions in a B-57, he added 127 flights and 414 hours to his combat record.
Following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the 13th and its sister unit, the 8th Bomb Squadron, alternated to several bases in South Vietnam from their home base at Clark, first to Bien Hoa, then to Da Nang and Phan Rang AB. In November 1964, an enemy mortar attack destroyed five B-57s on the deck at Bien Hoa AB, near Saigon, and damaged 15 others. In May 1965, a B-57B exploded on the ground at Bien Hoa, setting off a whole chain of secondary explosions. The resulting conflagration destroyed ten B-57s, eleven VNAF A-1H Skyraiders, and a US Navy F-8 Crusader and caused numerous casualties. As a result, they moved to Phan Rang and Da Nang.
I believe the USAF B-57 flew its first official attack sortie in February 1965. The B-57 began striking North Vietnamese territory in early March 1965, part of the Rolling Thunder interdiction campaign against the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In April 1965, they began night interdiction strikes against the trail along with the C-130 flareships and Marine EF-10B ECM aircraft.
The B-57 was fitted with four external pylons underneath each wing to carry bombs or rockets. In addition, it had a 17-foot-long rotating bomb door, which rotated 180 degrees, with bombs attached to the inward side of the door. The aircraft could carry a total bomb load of 8000 lbs. It was easiy recognizable because a radome was added to its nose.
I have seen reports that a normal load would be six 750 lb bombs, four in the bomb bay and two on the wings. She could carry 5,000 lb bombs in the bomb bay, and four 750s on the wings would add up to 8,000 lbs.
For the missions against the trail, I have seen one reference to what came to be known as the "funny bomb," which was the M-35 or M-36 incendiary bomb clusters that combined the effects of napalm, incendiaries, and cluster bombs. The 900-pound M-36 had 182 thermate bomblets that exploded on contact with the ground. A single bomb could set a truck on fire. Once the bomb struck, there would be a small flash of fire in the air that signaled the ignition of the bomb, then an aerial fire that opened, grew and descended toward the darkened jungle, and then flames spreading over an area larger than a football field by the time the fire reached the ground. Then scores of thermate bomblets exploded. Those who could witness the effects of the "funny bomb" said it was "awe-inspiring."
B-57Bs flew more than 31,000 operational sorties in Vietnam and Laos between February 1965 and October 1969. I believe 58 aircraft were lost.
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