Vietnam’s main weapon annihilates US B52s

PANO – When first using the B52 bombers in Vietnam’s battlefield, the US Air Force spoke very highly of it and announced that the strategic bomber was inviolable and undefeatable. But during the 12 days and nights of the Campaign “Hanoi-Dien Bien Phu in the Air” in December 1972, the Vietnamese Air Defence Force, using only SAM-2 missiles, managed to shoot down 29 of 193 US B52 bombers participating in the operation. It could be said that the SAM-2 terrorised the US pilots.

The SAM-2 was named by western armies as such from the fact it was a ‘Second-generation Land-to-Air Missile’, real name; S-75 Dvina, made by the former Soviet Union. During the anti-American war, the air-defence complex was directed by a three-function radar system and missile warheads were V-750 consisting of two layers and contained 200kg of explosive. The missile could annihilate a target flying at an altitude of 25 km, so it could easily reach B52s. Also, the warhead V-750 could annihilate a target 70 meters from the detonating point and the detonation would also generate high temperatures and thousands of fragments to damage or destroy the nearby targets.

Apart form the bravery and creativity of Vietnamese soldiers and people, to whom the victory of “Hanoi-Dien Bien Phu in the Air” is directly accountable, support from Soviet military experts played an important part in the battles. From April 1965, a number of Soviet missile experts arrived in Vietnam to train missile on techniques and battle tactics for Vietnamese air-defence troops. During training courses, they provided knowledge of the formation, functions, operations, maintenance and repair of SAM-2 missiles, tactical battlefield deployment, target detecting and the directing and firing of the missiles.

In July 1965, 2 battalions of Air-Defence Missile Regiment 236, the first air-defence missile regiment of the Vietnamese Army, were equipped with the missiles. After that, Soviet experts provided training courses for troops of other air-defence regiments. Earlier in 1963, the Red Army had also sent experts to Vietnam to train in radar operation, coordination between radar stations and air-defence missile units and new anti-interference measures.

With their valuable support, Vietnamese air-defence troops quickly mastered the functions, operations and tactics of the new missiles and were ready to fight US aircraft. In the first battle on July 24^th, 1965, two battalions of Air-Defence Regiment 236 fired four SAM-2 missiles and shot down a US F-4C on the spot, making up the first victory of the Vietnamese Missile Force.

During the two destructive US wars against northern Vietnam (from 1965-1968 and in 1972), Vietnamese missile units participated in 3,540 battles, fired more than 5,880 missiles and shot down 788 US aircraft, including 43 B52s. During the 12 days and nights of the Campaign “Hanoi-Dien Bien Phu in the Air” in December 1972, SAM-2 missile units in the North shot down 29 B52s. So far, Vietnam has been the only nation in the world, to have used SAM-2 missiles to shoot down the US B52 bomber, the pride of the US Air Force.