During the Vietnam War, the indomitable Vietnamese army caused countless difficulties to the operation of the American army.
In addition to being hailed as "Talking TreeThe Vietnamese guerrillas and brutal traps, as well as a strong bridge, also gave the US command a headache at the mention of it.
Located in the transportation hub of Vietnam, this bridge not only carries the heavy responsibility of transporting materials for the Vietnamese army, but also is a spiritual symbol of the unity of the Vietnamese military and civilians to resist foreign aggression.
In order to successfully blow up this crucial bridge, the US military worked hard for seven years, successively dispatched more than 1,000 bomber sorties, and carried out as many as 64 large-scale bombing operations alone.
As a result, in the past seven years, Vietnam's bridge has not been moved, but the US military has been damaged hereMore than seventy large bombers, as well as more than a hundred elite pilots of the Air Force.
The results of such a crotch pull made the US troops exhausted and demoralized.
The United States was forced to be in a hurry and directly developed a super "big killer" that blew up the bridge in Vietnam in only 20 minutes during a new air force operation.
How exactly did the bridge survive the frantic fire of the U.S. military? What cutting-edge ** did the United States develop and blow up a bridge that it had not been able to shake for seven years in just twenty minutes?
As everyone knows, the US military units, especially the air force units, like to engage in heavy firepower coverage the most. Brainless bursts and high-density shell tilting is the traditional "path dependence" of American GIs, and the United States has never been short of military spending anyway.
In the course of the Vietnam War, in addition to the Vietnamese guerrillas, all kinds of infrastructure in Vietnam's military key areas were also devastated. Among them, the most priority attack of the US military units is the transportation facilities in Vietnam.
It is against this background that the Du Mei Bridge, which undertakes the heavy responsibility of transporting materials for the Vietnamese guerrillas, has become a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh of the US military command. For no other reason, the geographical location of this bridge is too subtle.
The Dumay Bridge was built during the French occupation by a famous French bridge designerDumeIt was built by himself, and once completed, it became a veritable "first bridge in the Indochina Peninsula".
The reason why the Du Mai Bridge is deservedly the top bridge in Southeast Asia is mainly because it is located in the central part of Vietnam, which is a transportation hub connecting the whole territory of the north and south of Vietnam.
In addition to its special geographical location, the quality of the Dumay Bridge itself is also top-notch. Unlike the traditional stone and timber structure, the bridge is made entirely of reinforced concrete, which is very heavy and can withstand high-yield artillery attacks.
In addition to its unique safety, the Dumay Bridge also has the great advantage of being multi-functional. The Dumay Bridge is a railroad and road bridge, in addition to military jeeps can be unimpeded, there are also two railroad tracks for rail transportation.
After the outbreak of the Vietnam War, the northern and southern parts of Vietnam were cut off by the indiscriminate bombardment of US air fighter formations. The only channel through which the Vietnamese guerrillas who had lost contact between the north and the south could communicate with each other was the Du Mei Bridge.
At least 60 percent of military supplies transported from the northern part of Vietnam to the southern part of the country pass through the Du Mai Bridge. The U.S. military bombed it on a small scale almost every week, and once a month or two in a large-scale bombing operation, the result was that the Dumei Bridge could not be moved in the slightest.
The reason why the Dumay Bridge is solid is not that the US military is unbearable, but that the defense system of the bridge is really well established. In order to help each other, the "bridge of life" between the north and the south, the Vietnamese army can be said to have done everything in its might.
In order to prevent US bombers from carrying out sneak attacks, Vietnamese reconnaissance planes patrol the sky over the Du Mei Bridge three to five times a day. As soon as clues of the US plane's actions are discovered, countermeasures will immediately follow.
The area around the Dumay Bridge is a tropical rainforest with dense vegetation. Under the green trees and grass, nearly 20 Soviet-aided "Sam-2" missiles were lying quietly on the ground, and hundreds of anti-aircraft batteries were in the distance.
Once the US bombers hover over the Du Mei Bridge, the Vietnamese army's "Sam-2" missiles and antiaircraft guns will be launched in unison before the opponent's air formation can form a formation.
In addition to missiles and anti-aircraft guns, the Soviet Union also provided Vietnam with the most powerful anti-aircraft guns of the time. Soviet-made anti-aircraft guns can fire more than 2,000 rounds per minute, which is a completely insurmountable "wall of firepower" for the US Air Force.
Although the loss of troops would be futile, the US command never gave up its military attack on the Dumay Bridge. They tried all kinds of things, but each time to no avail.
The US air formation once used a guided bomb called the "White Star Eye" to forcibly blast through the defensive barrier of the Dumay Bridge with the help of "powerful brick flying," but it was disgraced.
In order for the White Star Eye bomb to be powerful, it must hit the target accurately. However, due to the continuous signal jamming by Vietnamese fighters, US pilots could not hover over the Du Mei Bridge for more than two minutes.
There was not enough time to aim at the target, so the US pilots had no choice but to throw them away indiscriminately and resign themselves to fate. According to the US military command's own statistics, they used hundreds of "White Star Eye" bombs, and no more than 5 percent of them actually hit.
And the only five percent of this fruit remains, and many of them are brushed past the bridge, and only the outermost layer of old floating ash has been removed. It is not so much a bridge bombing attack as it is a "beautification" of the Dumay Bridge.
In 1972, the Pentagon's patience reached its limit, and they decided to do their job and develop a new ** specifically for the bombing of the Dumay Bridge. This new ** born for the Dumay Bridge is the famous "Gem Road" laser bomb.
Different from traditional aerial bombs, the "Paveway" bomb adds a set of laser guidance system on the basis of the "White Star Eye". With the blessing of lasers, the "Paveway" can not only change direction accurately, but also counter the Soviet-style "SAM" series of missiles.
When using the Paveway bomb, a pilot aircraft is required to project a laser signal into the airspace of the bombing target. Then the laser guidance system on the "Paveway" bomb can capture the signal, automatically locate and bomb.
With this "big killer", the US military air formation no longer has to worry about the accuracy of the shot, because the laser system can automatically carry out accurate positioning. Pilots don't have to tremble when they perform tasks, and long-distance operation can ensure safety.
On May 11, 1972, the U.S. military couldn't wait to start a military operation to bomb the Dumay Bridge with the "Paveway" laser-guided bombs. This is the "best show" of laser missiles on the battlefield, and as a result, its excellent performance shocked the whole world.
On the morning of the same day, eight F4C fighters set off from the US military base camp to explore the road in advance. Half an hour later, sixteen more fighters came to the sky over the Dumay Bridge.
Half of these sixteen fighters carried a large number of "Paveway" laser bombs, and they carried out the mission of blowing up bridges; The remaining half is loaded with anti-aircraft missiles and is responsible for protecting the security of the main bombing formation.
In addition to these 16 fighters, the US military command also prepared a "big gift" for the Vietnamese army's ground-based missiles. The one responsible for destroying missiles, anti-aircraft guns, and anti-aircraft guns around the Dumay Bridge was the elusive "Wild Weasel" fighter.
The so-called "wild weasel" fighter refers to the installation of an electronic suppression system on ordinary fighter jets to form a precise suppression effect on ground missiles just like a wild weasel in nature.
This time, in order to make the "Wild Weasel" fighter more effective more quickly, the US military has also specially equipped the "radar wave seeking" system for rapid missile positioning.
With the order of the US military headquarters, four "ghost" fighters swooped over the Dumay Bridge and dropped a large number of "metal bombs." These bombs were not intended to bomb, but to interfere with the normal operation of the Vietnamese army's ground-based radar.
metal bombs", so that many metal strips were scattered around the Vietnamese army's ground missiles. Ground-based radars are largely out of order due to the effect of metal reflections, and can no longer accurately detect the movements of enemy aircraft.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the US "Wild Weasel" fighters immediately launched an operation to electronically suppress the Dumay Bridge from all directions. At this time, due to the failure of the radar system, the ground forces of the Vietnamese army could only watch as the US planes could do nothing.
After the electronic suppression ended, the US bombers bombed the Vietnamese army's ground-based missiles indiscriminately. Several rounds of firepower have been covered, and whether it is the "Sam-2" missile, anti-aircraft guns, and anti-aircraft guns, they have all been scrapped.
After solving the worries of the Vietnamese army's ground defense system, it is time for the "Paveroad Path" laser bomb to make its debut. A U.S. plane carrying a laser transmitter projected a signal onto the Doume Bridge, and then the bombing began in earnest.
I saw US fighter planes on standby in the airspace near the Dumay Bridge, and they fired the "Paveroad Road" bomb in unison. These bombs, as if they had eyes, automatically picked up the laser signature on the Dumay Bridge.
There were a total of 22 "Jewel Road" bombs, and there were exactly 16 bombs that were right in the middle of the Dume Bridge. At the same time, the Vietnamese army's defense system has become fragile due to the aerial electronic suppression of US aircraft.
With such a high hit rate and high firepower density, no matter how strong and heavy the reinforced concrete of the Rao is Dumei Bridge is, it cannot support it. About 20 minutes into the bombing, the bridge collapsed.
The destruction of the Dou Mei Bridge by the U.S. military put the supply of Vietnamese guerrillas in a difficult situation for a while. However, to the surprise of the US military command, the indomitable Vietnamese soldiers and civilians did not surrender, but became more and more courageous.
With the help of the Chinese construction team, the Vietnamese guerrillas soon built a large number of simple stone and wood bridges and detachable pontoon bridges next to the bombed-out Du Mei Bridge.
Although these emergency bridges cannot completely replace the role of the former Dumay Bridge, they ultimately provide a reliable channel for north-south transportation. The U.S. military didn't expect that there would be no bridge, and there would be countless new bridges, and they fell into confusion for a while.
Without the fixed target of the Dumay Bridge, the U.S. military operation to bomb the bridges in Vietnam began to become exhausted. For every stone and wood bridge they blow up, several pontoon bridges are created overnight on the water network in north-central Vietnam.
The U.S. military's successful bombing of the Dumay Bridge certainly gave it a moment of morale, but it did not seem to have completely turned the tide of the war at all. The U.S. forces were getting weaker and weaker on the battlefield in Vietnam until the best, and they withdrew their home country in disgrace, and the U.S.-Vietnam War ended with victory in Vietnam.
For the U.S. military, the success of the bombing operation on the Dumay Bridge did not change the outcome of the war as a whole. But for the global military industry, the first application of the "Paveway" laser-guided bomb has brought far-reaching follow-up impact.
First of all, the combat habits of the US Air Force, since the discovery that pilots do not need to risk their lives to aim, the US air formation has mainly focused on flight training.
Secondly, the excellent performance of the "Paveway" bomb has directly attracted a large number of international customers. The United States has made a fortune by relying on the blood of the laser military industry, and it is said that its advanced products have been sold to many countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.
Finally, the "Paveway" bomb has also inspired the laser ** military industry of many countries, the most typical of which is our country. After the collapse of the Dumei Bridge, the People's Liberation Army realized the importance of laser technology in the military industry and began to work scientific research.
Today, our army's laser ** has been dazzling, and its performance is not inferior to that of the US military. As for the Dumay Bridge, it has already been successfully rebuilt. This bridge not only communicates Vietnam, but also bears witness to a history of the American-Vietnamese War.
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3.The Great Reform of the U.S. Army: From the Vietnam War to the Gulf War, by Dunnegan, Hainan Publishing House, July 1999.
4.The Vietnamese People's Army, by Douglas Peck, translated and printed by the Liaison Office of the Political Department of the Yunnan Provincial Military Region, May 1983.
5.The War in the Skies of Vietnam, edited by Jack Laval, translated and printed by the Research Department of the Air Force Academy, June 1981.