Word: 52s
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...normally associated with howitzers. When the lowering clouds lifted a few hundred feet, dartlike Air Force F-100s, Navy and Marine F-4 fighter-bombers and stubby A-4 light bombers zipped under the overcast to place high explosives on the spreading enemy trenches. Huge, eight-jet B-52s, which bomb by radar, flew over Khe Sanh regardless of the weather...
...first, Khe Sanh's barren landscape presented problems for the B-52s' radar system, which usually takes a fix on a prominent ground feature, such as a bridge or high building. To solve that, the U.S. employed a recently developed system called "Sky Spot." Using a power ground-control center on South Viet Nam's coast, Sky Spot directed the bombers to the general area of their destination. There, on hilltops miles from the fighting, the U.S. placed meshes of wire that acted as radar reflectors and electronic beacons that emitted continuous signals. Gauging the distance...
Relief for Giap. The bombardment was the most intensive in the history of aerial warfare. Tactical fighter-bombers flew nearly 9,000 sorties in March alone. On a single day, giant B-52s made as many as 34 strikes with their 2,000-lb. bombs. All told, more than 110,000 tons of explosives rained down during the siege, breaking up formations, destroying supplies and setting off thousands of secondary explosions. The U.S. had good reason to believe that among the targets hit was the headquarters for the Communist campaign...
...difficult to see how Ho could accept that prospect with equanimity, in view of the destruction that has already been wrought. The Administration, in fact, is convinced that U.S. airpower has mauled the enemy far more cruelly than has been suggested. Around Khe Sanh, eight-jet B-52s and dartlike fighter-bombers have cratered the nearby hills with 80,000 tons of bombs in the past two months-more than was dropped on Japan during the entire four years of World War II. In light of that fact, it may be difficult for Ho to turn down the chance...
...they keep the airstrip under constant fire whenever a plane lands. They are also adding 37-mm. flak to the hundreds of machine guns that already ring the Marine base. U.S. flyers even fear that SAMS and MIGS may soon be used around Khe Sanh; in fact, B-52s are now escorted on their daily raids by a protective formation of fighters known...