Thanh Hoa Bridge - Aftermath and Losses

Aftermath and Losses

The North Vietnamese made various claims as to how many planes they shot down, but the US only recognizes the loss of 11 aircraft during attacks against the bridge. However, the concentration of air defense assets also took its toll on passing aircraft and in total an estimated 104 American pilots were shot down over a 75-square-mile (190 km2) area around the bridge during the war. The bridge would be restored in 1973.

873 air sorties were expended against the bridge and it was hit by hundreds of bombs and missiles before being finally destroyed. It became something of a symbol of resistance for the North Vietnamese, and various legends of invincibility were attached to it. For the US planners, it became an obsession, and many raids were planned against it, despite their unpopularity with the pilots. A cynical rewording of the song the "Red River Valley" was sung by fighter pilots, referring to this dangerous target. In his 1976 essay collection, Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter and Vine, Tom Wolfe recounted a rueful story that circulated among Navy pilots who flew sorties against the Thanh Hoa Bridge. In their telling, the Earth consisted of two hemispheres, spring-loaded and held together opposite the hinge by the bridge. When it was destroyed, the story went, the two hemispheres would fly apart, flinging humanity into space.

While the first employment of the Bullpup in 1965 proved a disappointment, the ultimate destruction of the bridge finally proved the promise and effectiveness of precision-guided munitions, opening the way to a new era of aerial warfare. The 1965 strikes were the first employment of modern strike packages which were combined and launched against that specific target, leading up to an evolution of air warfare to 1972 which was employed very effectively with minimal losses in Desert Storm. The shock of losses of modern fighters in dogfights in 1965 was a landmark which led to a major shift in fighter design away from missile firing interceptors to agile designs capable in short-range air combat.