Word: b26
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Force has indeed operated a mixed-bag of aging airplanes in the war -most notably the T28, originally built in 1949 as a trainer, and the B26, a twin-engine World War II bomber originally designated the A26. About 100 of these planes were sent in after the U.S. entered Viet Nam in earnest in 1961, chiefly because 1) owing to slow speeds and short turning radii, they could be adapted to the close-support missions needed in counterguerrilla warfare, and 2) they were available...
...that 75 more would arrive by the end of the summer-to replace both the B-26s and the remaining combat T-28s. Though also a prop-driven World War II craft, the Skyraider is a much more powerful warplane and almost twice as fast as the B26. Armed with 20-mm. cannon, Skyraiders distinguished themselves in Korea for their close support of the Marines. But the improvement is belated. As to the question, "Why not jets?", Air Force men insist that slower planes are better for Viet Nam's kind of jungle...
...ruling junta seemed more willing than Diem to risk casualties. In the south, 800 guerrillas staged a predawn assault on Chala, overran half the outpost, but were repulsed by savage machine-gun fire. When paratroopers and B-26 bombers hurried to the rescue, the Reds shot down one B26. Yet the counterblow was effective; villagers reported that the fleeing Viet Cong suffered approximately 400 casualties. Northeast of Saigon, government troops ambushed a Viet Cong battalion, killed or wounded 69 of the enemy. Also northeast of the capital, a three-day government offensive ended with 40 Viet Cong dead. West...
Targets of Opportunity. Whether or not the invaders were promised U.S. air cover, they were indeed promised air cover of a sort. It was to be provided by some 20 obsolescent B26. bombers, resurrected from U.S. Air Force storage by the CIA. The pilots were mostly Cuban exiles, but some were U.S. citizens (at least one U.S. pilot was killed during the invasion attempt). The bombers took off from a CIA-managed base at Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua...
...airports where Russian MIG-15s were reportedly being uncrated and assembled. In the best cloak and dagger tradition, to lend credence to a cover story that the bombings were by pilots defecting from Castro's air force, a few .30-cal. bullets were fired into an old Cuban B26. A pilot took off in the crate and landed it at Miami with an engine needlessly feathered and a cock-and-bull story that he had attacked the airfields. A reporter noted that dust and undisturbed grease covered bomb-bay fittings, electrical connections to rocket mounts were corroded, guns were...