Air Campaign 018 - Ho Chi Minh Trail 1964-73. Secret Air Wars in Vietnam and Laos (2020).pdf

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C A M P A I G N
A I R
HO CHI MINH
TRAIL 1964–73
P E T E R E . D AV I E S
|
Steel Tiger, Barrel Roll,
and the secret
air wars in Vietnam and Laos
I L LU S T R AT E D B Y A D A M TO O B Y
A I R C A M PA I G N
HO CHI MINH TRAIL
1964–73
Steel Tiger, Barrel Roll,
and the secret air wars in Vietnam and Laos
PETER E. DAVIES |
ILLU STR AT ED BY ADAM TOOBY
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ATTACKER’S CAPABILITIES
DEFENDER’S CAPABILITIES
CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
THE CAMPAIGN
AFTERMATH AND ANALYSIS
FURTHER READING
INDEX
4
13
34
45
65
86
93
95
4
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
A line-up of North
American T-28D Nomads
of the “Big Eagle” 609th
SOS detachment at
Nakhon Phanom RTAFB.
With uprated engines,
self-sealing fuel tanks, and
armor plate they carried
3,500lb of ordnance.
(USAF)
Although its surviving sections have become profitable long-distance footpaths for
adventurous tourists visiting Laos, the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War was the
scene of heroic effort, extreme hardship, and loss of life for the Vietnamese, Laotians, and
the many US servicemen who strived to carry out their government’s policy of attempting
to close the Trail down. For over 15 years, it was North Vietnam’s main conduit for troops
and supplies for its military units, operating in South Vietnam to overthrow the Saigon
government and unite the country under Hanoi’s leadership.
In 1965, American maps showed the Trail as a skeletal arrangement of narrow forest
trails used by local tribes, combined with some dry-season roads that still remained from
previous French colonial occupation. Within nine years, it became a complex network
of all-weather roads, bypasses, tracks, bridges, and fuel pipelines stretching for thousands
of miles.
Additional weapons for the insurgents in the South were transported from China in
smugglers’ trawlers off Vietnam to secret coastal locations, and by sea from North Vietnam
to Cambodia, where Chinese and Soviet ships could unload for onward carriage by land
along the Sihanouk Trail, established in May 1966. The sea route, which carried 14 percent
of the cargo in 1969, was more efficient than human porters and trucks on the Trail, but
more vulnerable to US seaborne interdiction. The Trail network through Laos provided
the most direct route from the North, albeit through almost impenetrable primeval forest
in many places. After the loss of Cambodian ports in 1970, the Trail in Laos was expanded
to accommodate the extra traffic.
The network remained open throughout the war despite a monumental, frustrating US
effort to disrupt it. Much of that effort was directed at an area of the Laotian “panhandle,”
which extended for 125 miles from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in the east to the
Thai border, with the “base complex area 604” around the small town of Tchepone as its
trailhead. Underground, a vast tunnel network was constructed. In the Cu Chi tunnel
complex, subterranean passages up to five levels deep were begun in 1948 and extended
5
over 150 miles from the Cambodian border to the edges of Saigon. They included hospitals,
command and control centers, and living accommodation.
Climate and topography of the area became major factors for both sides. Severe monsoon
weather made travel extremely difficult but shielded its travelers from air attack. From May
to October, tracks, often only 2ft wide, became deep in mud or blocked by overflowing
streams while low-lying areas were flooded. Most traffic was moved in the dryer period from
mid-October to March. Extreme mountainous terrain such as the steep Truong Son Range
and dense triple-canopy jungle necessitated extraordinary ingenuity and endurance by the
porters, each carrying up to 60lb of cargo. It also necessitated hazardous tactics by US aircrew
attempting to intercept the traffic. Over four million tons of US ordnance were expended
on the Trail but a large proportion of the million tons of supplies and around two million
troops and workers traveling those routes still completed the journey.
Initially, those personnel were 700 South Vietnamese who had moved to the North
following the division of the country in 1954, when French colonial rule had ended. They
returned to the South armed with captured French weapons, to become the core of the Viet
Cong (“Vietnamese Communists”) force in the first stage in the North’s planned invasion.
As the war expanded, they were supplemented or replaced by regular North Vietnamese
soldiers. By June 1968, there were over a hundred North Vietnamese Army (NVA) infantry
battalions in the South, far outnumbering Viet Cong forces.
Most trail tracks,
diversions, and bypasses
were passable only on
foot. Porters often pushed
French or Soviet bicycles
laden with up to 200lb of
supplies. (US Army)

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