Operation Flaming Dart
| date | February 7-24, 1965 |
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| place | North Vietnam |
| output | USAF and ARVN strategic failure; Escalation of the war |
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Vietnam War
Battle of Tua Hai (1960) - Battle of Ap Bac (1963) - Battle of Nam Dong (1964) - Tonkin Incident (1964) - Operation Flaming Dart (1965) - Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-68) - Battle of Dong Xoai (1965) - Battle of the Ia Drang Valley (1965) - Operation Crimp (1966) - Operation Hastings (1966) - Battle of Long Tan (1966) - Operation Attleboro (1966) - Operation Cedar Falls (1967) - Battle around Hill 881 (1967) - Battle of Dak To (1967) - Battle of Khe Sanh (1968) - Tet Offensive (1968) - Battle of Huế (1968) - Operation Speedy Express (1968/69) - Operation Dewey Canyon ( 1969) - Battle of Hamburger Hill (1969) - Operation MENU (1969/70) - Operation Lam Son 719 (1971) - Battle of FSB Mary Ann (1971) - Battle of Quảng Trị (1972) - Operation Linebacker (1972) - Operation Linebacker II (1972) - Battle of Xuan Loc (1975) - Operation Frequent Wind (1975)
The operation Flaming Dart (to German: Flaming Arrow) was an offensive military operation United States and South Vietnam against North Vietnamese troops sites during the Vietnam War . The three-week, two-part operation served as a punitive action after an attack by the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF) on the US base at Camp Holloway near Pleiku .
background
The President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson , ordered a series of retaliatory air strikes in February 1965 following several attacks by NLF units on US bases, particularly in response to a mortar attack in Pleiku. During these attacks, NLF pioneers placed explosive charges that destroyed four C-7 Caribous , four light aircraft, and five helicopters, and damaged another eleven helicopters.
The operation
On February 7, 1965, 49 retaliatory missions for Flaming Dart I were flown. Flaming Dart I was aimed at North Vietnamese army bases near Đồng Hới , while the second part of the operation was aimed at NLF logistics and communications near the Vietnamese demilitarized zone north of the city of Hu . Among the pilots was Air Force General Nguyễn Cao Kỳ of the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) , who was also a member of the ruling military dictatorship of South Vietnam at the time .
On February 10, 1965, the NLF attacked US soldiers' hotel accommodation in Qui Nhon in response to Flaming Dart I, which led to the Flaming Dart II airstrikes. The US Navy launched 99 fighter-bombers from three aircraft carriers - USS Hancock , USS Coral Sea , and USS Ranger . While the fighter-bombers were bombing the city of Chanh Hoa, the VNAF and the US Air Force (USAF) attacked the city of Chap Le. The VNAF used 28 propeller-driven A-1 Skyraiders , while the USAF carried out the attack with the same number of jet-propelled F-100 Super Sabers . While Americans flew in combat with their South Vietnamese counterparts during Operation Farm Gate , the USAF attacks in South Vietnam exacerbated the war through the use of jet aircraft.
The American response to the communist escalation was not limited to the bombing of North Vietnam. The American government expanded the use of air forces by authorizing the use of American fighter jets to attack targets in South Vietnam. On February 19, B-57 fighter jets carried out the first American-flown jet engine attacks in support of South Vietnamese ground forces. On February 24, USAF fighter jets struck again, this time breaking up a communist ambush in the Central Highlands with a series of massive tactical air raids.
aftermath
Operation Flaming Dart was later followed by Operation Rolling Thunder , which began a 44-month air offensive on March 2, 1965 against targets in North Vietnam and Laos . Other air strikes were also carried out during the war. By the end of the war, the American bombing raids during the Vietnam War, with 7,662,000 tons of ammunition, were the heaviest air raid in history.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Clodfelter, Michael. Vietnam in Military Statistics: A History of the Indochina Wars, 1772-1991 . McFarland & Company, 1995. ISBN 0-78-640027-7 , p. 58.
- ↑ Clodfelter, Michael. Vietnam in Military Statistics: A History of the Indochina Wars, 1772-1991 . McFarland & Company, 1995. ISBN 0-78-640027-7 , p. 58.
- ↑ Clodfelter, Michael. Vietnam in Military Statistics: A History of the Indochina Wars, 1772-1991 . McFarland & Company, 1995. ISBN 0-78-640027-7 , pp. 58-59.
- ↑ Clodfelter, Michael. Vietnam in Military Statistics: A History of the Indochina Wars, 1772-1991 . McFarland & Company, 1995. ISBN 0-78-640027-7 , p. 59.
- ↑ Clodfelter, Michael. Vietnam in Military Statistics: A History of the Indochina Wars, 1772-1991 . McFarland & Company, 1995. ISBN 0-78-640027-7 , p. 59.
- ↑ Clodfelter, Michael. Vietnam in Military Statistics: A History of the Indochina Wars, 1772-1991 . McFarland & Company, 1995. ISBN 0-78-640027-7 , p. 225.
Other sources
- Frankum, Ronald Bruce. Like Rolling Thunder: The Air War in Vietnam, 1964-1975 , Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. ISBN 0-74-254302-1 .