Air operations
134-612: Kou Kiet (translation: Redeem Honor; also called Operation About Face) was a major Laotian Civil War victory for the anti-communist troops of the Kingdom of Laos . Patterned after prior Operation Raindance , it depended upon extensive air strikes blasting communist units and clearing them from the path of the Royalist offensive. Powered by 150 daylight and 50 night sorties daily, with 50 to 80 day strikes directed by Raven Forward Air Controllers , Kou Kiet ran from 6 August to 30 September 1969. It
268-583: A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or 10 five-inch (127 mm) High Velocity Aircraft Rockets . The first pilots to fly the Thunderbolt from England were Americans who had been flying Spitfires in the RAF before the U.S. joined the war. They were not impressed initially; the Thunderbolt lost out to the more nimble Spitfire so consistently in mock dogfights that these encounters were eventually banned. But by November 25, 1943 Thunderbolts had found their true niche, attacking
402-691: A light bomber or attack aircraft . It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, whereas bombers and attack aircraft are developed specifically for bombing and attack roles. Although still used, the term fighter-bomber has less significance since the introduction of rockets and guided missiles into aerial warfare . Modern aircraft with similar duties are now typically called multirole combat aircraft or strike fighters . Prior to World War II , general limitations in available engine and aeronautical technology required that each proposed military aircraft have its design tailored to
536-568: A "tri-coalition" government was finally seated in Vientiane . The North Vietnamese Army, in collaboration with the Pathet Lao, invaded Laos in 1958 and 1959 , occupying the east of the country to use for its Ho Chi Minh Trail supply corridor and as a staging area for offensives into South Vietnam. There were two major theatres of the war, one for control over the Laotian Panhandle and the other
670-528: A Luftwaffe airfield at Saint-Omer near Calais, France. On October 13, 1944, a Thunderbolt from 9th Air Force damaged the German Torpedoboot Ausland 38 (formerly the Italian 750 ton torpedo boat Spada) so badly near Trieste with gunfire alone that the ship was scuttled. The Vought F4U Corsair was built around the same Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine as the Thunderbolt, but for
804-600: A Red Cross flag painted on at least one funnel. The previous day the Captain of the Cap Arcona refused to take any more inmates on board. On return to shore in longboats they were gunned down by Hitler Jugend , SS Guards and German Marines . Of an estimated 14,500 victims in the area two days earlier only 1,450 survived. The Hawker Tempest was a development of the Typhoon using the thin wing with an aerofoil developed by NACA and
938-664: A Soviet boycott of the United Nations , a vote was carried without Soviet veto, to intervene in support of the South. Most readily available were U.S. and British Commonwealth forces occupying Japan and the Pacific fleets. The first arrivals were fighter-bombers, which helped to repulse the Northern attack on the vital port of Pusan , the last small territory held by the South. Some strategists felt that air and battleship strikes alone could halt
1072-576: A Vietnamese wife while in Vietnam, and he solicited Viet Minh aid in founding a guerrilla force. In August 1950, Souphanouvong had joined the Viet Minh in their headquarters north of Hanoi, Vietnam, and become the head of the Pathet Lao, along with its political arm dubbed Neo Lao Hak Sat (Lao Patriotic Front). This was an attempt to give a false front of authority to the Lao communist movement by claiming to represent
1206-477: A cavern containing a Pathet Lao radio station, and other materiel. Vang Pao brought more fresh troops to his campaign, a mixture of Royalist regulars and Hmong irregulars. On 18 September, Bataillon Volontaires 21 and a force of the hill tribe guerrillas captured Phou San and nearby foothills. Here, for the first time, the RLG troops met resistance. After the communists managed to block the Royalist advance for two days.
1340-644: A constitution declaring Laos an independent nation within the French Union . This began the building of a new government over the next few years, including the establishment of a national army, the Armée Nationale Laotienne, which was the first iteration of the Royal Lao Army. The nascent army was plagued by lack of Lao leadership, and its weaponry was a hodgepodge. Thus the new Armée Nationale Laotienne consisted of light infantry battalions officered by
1474-573: A crew of three, and its payload was just 1,200 lb (540 kg) of bombs. The Blenheim suffered disastrous losses over France in 1939 when it encountered Messerschmitt Bf 109s , and light bombers were quickly withdrawn. In contrast, the Vought F4U Corsair fighter —which entered service in December 1942—had in common with its eventual U.S. Navy stablemate, the Grumman F6F Hellcat and
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#17328527810371608-617: A dive bomber almost as fast as the Mustang itself. By April 1943 USAAF Apaches were in Morocco supporting Operation Torch , and they continued bombing trains and gun emplacements northwards through Italy. When Soviet-backed North Korea attacked South Korea on June 25, 1950, their forces quickly routed the South Korean army which lacked tanks, anti-tank and heavy artillery. Its Air Force had 22 planes, none of which were fighters, or jets. During
1742-790: A drop outside Luang Prabang. This was coupled with a thrust to the north by the French forces, from Vientiane to Luang Prabang, that chased Phetsarath Ratanavongsa and the Lao Issara ministers out of Laos. The king reinstated the French rule by repudiating his actions that had been pressured from him by the Japanese, Chinese, and Lao Issara. By September 1946, the Lao Issara had been defeated and had fled to exile in Bangkok. One of its splinter groups, led by Thao O Anourack , fled to Hanoi. There he allied himself with two men trusted by Ho Chi Minh ; Nouhak Phoumsavanh
1876-601: A fighter bomber, where one tried skip-bombing a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb through the door of Field Marshal Günther von Kluge 's OB West HQ. A Lightning squadron also killed Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto over Bougainville in the Pacific acting on an Ultra intercept. The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was a larger, evolutionary development of the P-43/P-44 fighter undertaken after the United States Army Air Forces observed Messerschmitt Bf 109s performing in
2010-791: A flag stuck into a shingle beach. Both WW1 fighter bombers were used with novice and experienced pilots. The best results were achieved with a vertical dive into the wind using the Aldis Sight to align the aircraft. But they were not considered good enough to justify the expected casualty rate. When war broke out in Europe, Western Allied Air Forces employed light twin-engined bombers in the tactical role for low-level attacks. These were found to be extremely vulnerable both to ground fire and to single-engine fighters. The German and Japanese Air Forces had chosen dive bombers which were similarly vulnerable. The Ilyushin Il-2
2144-610: A functional economy. French commandos parachuted into Laos beginning in 1945 to organize guerrilla forces. By November, they had formed the guerrillas into four light infantry battalions of the newly founded French Union Army. The officers and sergeants of the new Lao battalions were French. In October 1945, a Lao nationalist movement called Lao Issara (Free Laos) was founded as a new government for Laos. Among Lao Issara's prominent members were three European-educated princes; brothers Phetsarath Ratanavongsa and Souvanna Phouma , and their half brother, Souphanouvong . The former became
2278-682: A guerrilla force of about thirty thousand Laotian hill tribesmen, mostly local Hmong (Meo) tribesmen along with the Mien and Khmu , led by Royal Lao Army General Vang Pao , a Hmong military leader. This army, supported by the CIA proprietary airline Air America , Thailand, the Royal Lao Air Force , and a covert air operation directed by the United States ambassador to Laos, fought the People's Army of Vietnam,
2412-447: A half months. The Royalist irregular troops were exhausted by their successful drive. The mismatch in troops made them obviously unable to hold the ground they had captured. The American Embassy backers of the operation recommended that the guerrillas plan a step by step withdrawal back across the Plain of Jars, retreating through a series of four static lines. Key to the original defensive line
2546-465: A larger airframe than the nimble Hurricane. At the prototype stage, there were problems with the new engines and stability of the aircraft itself, which led the Minister of Aircraft Production , Lord Beaverbrook to decree that production must focus on Spitfires and Hurricanes. The Typhoon disappointed as a fighter, especially at altitude but found its true niche as a fighter bomber from September 1942. It
2680-780: A last-ditch attempt to destroy Allied planes on the ground in support of the Battle of the Bulge . Allied fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber losses were downplayed, at the time. Seventeen airfields were targeted, of which seven lost many aircraft. The surprise was complete as the few Ultra intercepts had not been understood. At the worst hit, the Canadian base at Eindhoven , 26 Typhoons and 6 Spitfires were destroyed and another 30 Typhoons damaged. In total, 305 aircraft, mostly fighters, and fighter-bombers were destroyed and another 190 damaged. The Luftwaffe lost 143 pilots killed, 71 captured and 20 wounded, making
2814-475: A later version could carry eight rockets or 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) of bombs. The massive, powerful 18-cylinder Double Wasp engine weighed almost a ton—half as much again as the V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin and twice as much as the 9-cylinder Bristol Mercury that powered some heavy fighters . Increased engine power meant that many existing fighter designs could carry useful bomb loads, and adapt to
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#17328527810372948-526: A more powerful version of the Napier Sabre engine, giving a top speed of 432 miles per hour (695 km/h). At a low level, it was faster than any other Allied or German aircraft, but slower than the Spitfire above 22,000 ft (6,700 m). Fitted with four 20mm cannon it was a formidable fighter, respected even by Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter pilots as their most dangerous opponent. At its debut over
3082-768: A result. General Vang Pao's forces had dwindled to about 5,000 to 5,500 effectives. The Pathet Lao outnumbered them, with about 6,000 under arms. PAVN, on the other hand, could muster 16,000 troops. Moreover, while the Vietnamese replenished their losses, the Hmong were hard pressed to find recruits to replace their casualties. Refugee relief worker Pop Buell left an account of recruiting Hmong replacements: ...we rounded up three hundred fresh recruits. Thirty percent were fourteen years old or less, and ten of them were only ten years old. Another thirty percent were fifteen or sixteen. The remaining forty percent were forty-five or over. Where were
3216-633: A secret guerrilla army in the Plain of Jars . Interposed between the communist settlement around Xam Neua and the Royal Lao Government in Vientiane, the Hmong military irregulars fought to hold on to their traditional territory, and to preserve Laos. After the failure and defeat of Operation Pigfat and Operation Raindance in early 1969, the communists had overrun the Plain of Jars to within ten kilometers of
3350-570: A separate destiny. Phetsarath Rattanavongsa chose to remain in Bangkok. His stay was temporary. He would once again become the viceroy of Laos. Souvanna Phouma chose to return to Laos via an amnesty, believing that the Lao would soon free themselves. In 1951 he became Prime Minister for the first time and held that office until 1954. Souphanouvong, who had spent seven years in Nha Trang during his sixteen years in Vietnam , met Ho Chi Minh and acquired
3484-482: A specific prescribed role. Engine power grew dramatically during the early period of the war, roughly doubling between 1939 and 1943. The Bristol Blenheim , a typical light bomber of the opening stages of the war, was originally designed in 1934 as a fast civil transport to meet a challenge by Lord Rothermere , owner of the Daily Mail . It had two Bristol Mercury XV radial engines of 920 hp (690 kW) each,
3618-513: A stable aircraft like the Typhoon. But soft targets were simpler. When the 51st Highland Division moved to block German panzers reaching Antwerp in the Battle of the Bulge Tommy Macpherson saw a half-track full of SS soldiers. All were uninjured, powerful men over 6 ft (180 cm) tall. All were dead, killed by the air blast from a Typhoon rocket. The Bristol Beaufighter was a long-range twin-engine heavy fighter derived from
3752-534: A target tug role, where it could match the speed of the German bombers whilst towing a drone. In 1934, the British Air Ministry called for a carrier aircraft that could combine the roles of the dive bomber and fighter, to save limited space on small carriers. The Blackburn Skua was not expected to encounter land-based fighters but was to intercept long-range bombers attacking the fleet and also to sink ships. As
3886-415: A three-week attack with the major firepower being tactical air. Newly arrived Ambassador G. McMurtrie Godley messaged his superiors in the U.S. State Department that the military situation on the Plain of Jars was so crucial that if fighter-bombers would not suffice for Kou Kiet , Arc Light strikes by B-52s should be considered as a followup. It was planned as a two phase operation. The first phase
4020-627: A two-seater, it could not fight the Messerschmitt Bf 109 on equal terms. But the second seat carried a radio operator with a homing device that could find the carrier even when it had moved, in foul North Sea weather. It achieved one of the first kills of the war, when three from HMS Ark Royal downed a German Dornier Do 18 flying boat over the North Sea. On April 10, 1940, 16 Skuas operating from RNAS Hatston in Orkney under Commander William Lucy sank
4154-651: A united non-partisan effort. Two of its most important founders were members of the Indochinese Communist Party, which advocated overthrow of the monarchy as well as expulsion of the French. This got Laos involved in the First Indochina War, but it started off mainly against the French. On 23 December 1950, the Pentalateral Mutual Defense Assistance Pact was signed by the United States, France, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos; it
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4288-421: A very fast radial engine fighter over France. First thought to be captured French Curtiss 75 Mohawks , they turned out to be Focke-Wulf Fw 190s , slightly faster and more heavily armed than the current Spitfire V. Kurt Tank had designed the aircraft when the Spitfire and Bf 109 were the fastest fighters flying; he called them racehorses, fast but fragile. As a former World War I cavalryman, Tank chose to design
4422-443: A warhorse. With a BMW 801 radial engine , wide-set undercarriage, and two 20mm cannons as well as machine guns it became a better fighter-bomber than either of the pure fighters. By mid-1942, the first of these "Jagdbombers" (literally "fighter" or "hunter" bomber, known for short as "Jabos") was operating over Kent . On October 31, 60 Fw 190s bombed Canterbury with only one aircraft lost, killing 32 civilians and injuring 116, in
4556-451: A week before helicopters could move them to Nong Pet. At about the same date, on 19 August, the southern pincer took the ridge overseeing Nong Pet that was their objective. Four days later, the northern task force had moved within eight kilometers of Nong Pet. The People's Army of Vietnam had offered no organized resistance to the Royalist incursion. Road watch teams, plus implanted spy sensors, both reported that no trucks bearing supplies for
4690-516: Is a heavily armoured two-seat single-engine ground-attack aircraft. It first flew a month later although few had reached the Soviet Air Force in time for Operation Barbarossa . Naval forces chose both torpedo and dive bombers. None of these could be considered as fighter bombers as they could not combat fighters. During the Battle of Britain , the Luftwaffe conducted fighter-bomber attacks on
4824-631: Is known as the Secret War among the American CIA Special Activities Center , and Hmong and Mien veterans of the conflict. The Franco–Lao Treaty of Amity and Association (signed 22 October 1953) transferred remaining French powers to the Royal Lao Government (except control of military affairs), establishing Laos as an independent member of the French Union . However, this government did not include representatives from
4958-456: The 101 Bataillon Parachutistes (101st Paratroop Battalion). This probe moved northeastward from Ban Na; their immediate objective was Moung Phanh. The second column, moving in from the south, consisted of two regimental-size units of guerrillas, Groupe Mobile 22 and Groupe Mobile 23 . Most of the Kou Kiet troops were armed with M16s. GM 22 and GM 23 marched northward without opposition through
5092-532: The 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron and Nail FACs from the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron , also directed strikes. Other air strikes were planned ahead. Overall coordination of the air campaign was directed by an Airborne Command and Control Center , such as those deployed in Operation Igloo White . The existence of the conflict in Laos was sometimes reported in the U.S., and described in press reports as
5226-414: The Battle of Britain . It was a massive aircraft built around the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine and weighed up to eight tons with ordnance. The P-47 was twice as heavy and had four times the fuselage size of a Spitfire. Armed with eight .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns it could outshoot any enemy fighter, and as a fighter-bomber, it could carry half the bomb load of
5360-634: The Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber but with the 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) Bristol Hercules radial engine to give it a top speed 50 mph (80 km/h) faster. By late 1942 the Beaufighter was also capable of carrying torpedoes or rockets. The main user was RAF Coastal Command although it was also used in the Royal Australian Air Force with some aircraft assembled in Australia and by
5494-615: The German cruiser Königsberg which was tied to a mole in Bergen harbour. The Germans recorded five hits or near misses and as the ship started to sink, electric power failed, dooming the ship. The German cruiser Köln had departed during the night. With the failing of the Hawker Henley and the gradual fading of the Hawker Hurricane 's performance compared to the latest German fighters, it
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5628-600: The Gestapo HQ in Oslo was attacked by four de Havilland Mosquitoes , which had flown over the North Sea below 100 ft (30 m) by dead reckoning navigation from RAF Leuchars , Scotland, carrying four 500 lb (230 kg) bombs each. The next day the RAF unveiled its new fast bomber. On December 31, 1944, the same aircraft was used against the same target, this time from RAF Peterhead in Scotland, flying high and diving onto
5762-467: The Lao Issara anti-colonial armed nationalist movement. The following years were marked by a rivalry between the neutralists under Prince Souvanna Phouma , the right wing under Prince Boun Oum of Champassak , and the left-wing Lao Patriotic Front under Prince Souphanouvong and half-Vietnamese future Prime Minister Kaysone Phomvihane . Several attempts were made to establish coalition governments, and
5896-475: The National Liberation Front (Viet Cong). North Vietnam also had a sizable military effort in northern Laos, while sponsoring and maintaining an indigenous communist rebellion, the Pathet Lao, to put pressure on the Royal Lao Government. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in an attempt to disrupt these operations in northern Laos without direct military involvement, responded by training
6030-603: The Normandy Beaches on D-Day +2, Tempests shot down three German fighters, without loss. Tempests supported the ambitious attempt to capture the bridge at Arnhem in Operation Market Garden in mid-September 1944. David C. Fairbanks , an American who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force was the top Tempest ace with 12 victories including an Arado Ar 234 jet bomber. General Henry H. Arnold , Chief of
6164-668: The North American F-86 Sabre was rushed to Korea to combat the MiG-15s. There is much debate as to which was the better fighter. Recent research suggests a 13-10 advantage to the Sabre against Russian pilots, but the US pilots were mostly WWII veterans whilst the Russians were often “volunteers” with only a few hours aloft. The Australians converted from Mustangs to Gloster Meteor fighter-bombers,
6298-573: The Royal Australian Air Force soon also flew across from Japan. Vought F4U Corsairs and Hawker Sea Furys from U.S., British and Australian carriers in the Yellow Sea and later from Korean airfields, also attacked the Pusan perimeter. The Sea Fury, a development of the Hawker Tempest had a Bristol Centaurus engine of 2,480 hp (1,850 kW) giving a 485 mph (781 km/h) top speed, one of
6432-427: The U.S. Navy . Difficulties with carrier landings meant that the first aircraft were used by the United States Marine Corps from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal from February 12, 1943. In its first combat action, the following day over Kahili airfield two Corsairs and eight other aircraft were lost when attacked by 50 Mitsubishi A6M Zeros . This became known as the St Valentine's Day massacre. Despite this initiation
6566-444: The USAAF . Over 30 Beaufighters flying from RAF Dallachy in Scotland from Australian, British, Canadian, and New Zealand squadrons attacked the German destroyer Z33 sheltering in Førde Fjord Norway. They were escorted by only 10 to 12 North American P-51 Mustangs . German destroyers escorted convoys of Swedish iron ore, which in winter were forced to creep along the Atlantic Coast by night, hiding deep inside fjords by day. Z33
6700-403: The United States Army Air Forces , urged the adoption of the Mosquito by the U.S. but was overruled by those who felt that the as yet untried Lockheed P-38 Lightning also twin-engined, could fulfill the same role. Although Lightning got its name from the RAF, the British eventually rejected it. Too slow and cumbersome to match Bf 109s as an escort fighter over Germany, it did fly over Normandy as
6834-449: The 1950s and 1960s, as new jet engines dramatically improved the power of even the smallest fighter designs. Many aircraft initially designed as fighters or interceptors found themselves in the fighter-bomber role at some point in their career. Notable among these is the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter , first designed as a high-performance day fighter and then adapted to the nuclear strike role for European use. Other U.S. examples include
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#17328527810376968-405: The CIA's "Secret War in Laos" because details were largely unavailable due to official government denials that the war existed. The denials were seen as necessary considering that the North Vietnamese government and the U.S. had both signed agreements specifying the neutrality of Laos. U.S. involvement was considered necessary because North Vietnam had effectively gained control over a large part of
7102-418: The Corsair soon proved to be an effective fighter bomber, mostly flown by the Marine Corps, but also by the United States Navy , Fleet Air Arm and Royal New Zealand Air Force in the Pacific theater. When the British Purchasing Commission invited James H. Kindelberger , President of North American Aviation , to assemble the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk in an underutilized plant, he promised a better fighter on
7236-467: The French Union Army, as part of its attempt to protect Laos from the PAVN, recaptured the Dien Bien Phu valley. In January 1954, the PAVN launched two assaults on Laos. One thrust crossed the top of the panhandle to the Mekong River town of Thakhek . The other was again aimed at Luang Prabang. Both were thwarted in a month. These were diversions to the famous Battle of Dien Bien Phu , which took place from March through May 1954 within ten kilometers of
7370-422: The French Union troops at Savannakhet, to no avail; the attackers mustered paratroopers, artillery, armored cars, and Spitfire fighter-bombers. The Lao Issara troops suffered 700 killed. They fled, leaving behind 250 bodies and 150 prisoners. On 24 April, the French dropped a paratroop battalion on the outskirts of Vientiane, and took the city without resistance. On 9 May, they repeated their airborne tactics with
7504-492: The French and Belgian coasts, targeting mostly oil and gas works. Losses were heavy, often more than the numbers of enemy fighters destroyed. By May 1942 Hurricane IICs with 40-imperial-gallon (180 L) drop tanks were intruding at night over France. On the night of May 4–5, Czech pilot Karel Kuttelwascher flying from RAF Tangmere with No 1 Squadron shot down three Dornier Do 17s as they slowed to land at Saint-André-de-Bohon after raiding England. On September 25, 1942,
7638-426: The French. There was one paratroop battalion included. The French began training Lao officers and non-commissioned officers even as they continued to lead and train the new army. In opposition, the Viet Minh raised a subsidiary revolutionary movement, the Pathet Lao, starting with an initial guerrilla band of 25 in January 1949. In October 1949, the exiled Lao Issara dissolved and the three royal brothers each chose
7772-463: The Germans, only 10 were found to be due to rocket-firing Typhoons. At Mortain, where the German counter-offensive Operation Lüttich came within 2 miles (3.2 km) of cutting through US forces to Avranches , Typhoons destroyed 9 of 46 tanks lost but were more effective against unarmoured vehicles and troops and cause the armoured vehicles to seek cover. General Dwight D. Eisenhower , the Supreme Allied Commander, said "The chief credit in smashing
7906-438: The Hmong irregulars moved north onto the Plain of Jars, overrunning huge hoards of military materiel, including a fleet of PT-76 tanks. Continuing onwards, still uncontested, on 9 September GM 22 captured Khang Khay. Even as they were doing so, GM 23 swung into action. Two of its battalions captured Phou Khe and Phonsavan on 12 September; the third relieved GM 22 at Khang Khay. GM 22 advanced one kilometer northwest to occupy
8040-409: The Hmong and had superior fighting power, it was believed that air power during favorable weather conditions would tip the balance to the Royalists. Planning 150 tactical air strikes during daylight, and 50 strikes per night, the U.S. Air Force could count on Raven FACs to spot for and direct 50 to 80 sorties per day close air support for the Royalist guerrillas. After a hold because of bad weather,
8174-439: The Kingdom of Laos, thus beginning the civil war and technically the Second Indochina War while the First Indochina War was still ongoing. They were opposed by 10,000 Lao troops and 3,000 French regulars. The North Vietnamese invaders succeeded in conquering the border provinces of Phongsali and Xam Neua , which were adjacent to northern Vietnam and on the northeastern verge of the Plain of Jars. They then moved aside to allow
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#17328527810378308-436: The Lao border, on the lines of communication into the Plain of Jars. The ruggedness of the karst mountains of northern Laos channels movement into a few canyons; small watercraft could move from Điện Biên Phủ down to the Nam Ou , and thence directly downriver to Luang Prabang, or they cross into the PDJ via Ban Ban. Fighter-bomber A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as
8442-400: The Mosquito I am yellow and green with envy. (The British) have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops.” Initially used for high-level photo-reconnaissance, the Mosquito was adapted to precision bombing, night fighter, and fighter bomber roles. It was built in Canada and Australia as well as the UK. Fitted with a British Army Ordnance QF 6 pounder (57 mm) gun it could sink U-boats found on
8576-546: The National Liberation Front (NLF), and their Pathet Lao allies to a seesaw stalemate, greatly aiding U.S. interests in the war in Vietnam. The status of the war in the north throughout the year generally depended on the weather. As the dry season started, in November or December, so did North Vietnamese military operations, as fresh troops and supplies flowed down out of North Vietnam on newly passable routes, either down from Dien Bien Phu , across Phong Saly Province on all-weather highways, or on Route 7 through Ban Ban, Laos on
8710-418: The North Vietnamese out of Laos, but regardless of any agreements or concessions, Hanoi had no intention of withdrawing from the country or abandoning its Laotian communist allies. North Vietnam established the Ho Chi Minh trail as a paved highway in southeast Laos paralleling the Vietnamese border. The trail was designed to transport North Vietnamese troops and supplies to South Vietnam , as well as to aid
8844-474: The PAVN had 60 tanks deployed. Additionally, there were seven new Vietnamese infantry battalions poised on the Plain, while the Royalist remained unreinforced. The PAVN now had a total of 26 battalions in the Plain of Jars area, seemingly poised for a further wet season offensive. The monsoon rains that had crippled the air support for Operation Off Balance , and Operation Pigfat before that, now began to clear to favor Vang Pao and his forces. With about triple
8978-456: The PAVN into changing their previous tactics of stockpiling supplies close to their front line troops before an offensive. Now, with the width of the plain separating the communists from the main guerrilla bases, the latter were no longer besieged. In addition to the tremendous stores of military materiel captured by the RLG, 20,000 inhabitants of the Plain were removed, depriving the communists of porters to move their supplies. The Plain of Jars
9112-401: The PAVN still remained a threatening force in being to the ancestral Hmong territory south of the Plain of Jars. In late July 1969, as Off Balance was still being fought, Vang Pao plotted a diversionary attack against the PAVN's main supply road, Route 7. Suspicious of leaky security among the Royal Lao Army command, Vang Pao demanded CIA-supported guerrillas for his next offensive. His insistence
9246-404: The Pathet Lao and sent to labor camps, where most of them died in the late 1970s and 1980s, including King Savang Vatthana , Queen Khamphoui and Crown Prince Vong Savang . The 1954 Geneva Conference established Laotian neutrality. The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), however, continued to operate in both northern and southeastern Laos. There were repeated attempts from 1954 onward to force
9380-490: The Pathet Lao force with its mismatched scrounged equipment to occupy the captured ground, and Souphanouvong moved the Pathet Lao headquarters into Xam Neua on 19 April. The other strike, moving from Điện Biên Phủ and aimed downriver at Luang Prabang , was thwarted by oncoming monsoons and resistance by the French. The Vietnamese invasion was stalled, but only because the French had airlifted in battalions of Foreign Legionnaires and Moroccan Tirailleurs . In December,
9514-452: The Pathet Lao had mustered sufficient trained troops to join the Viet Minh in military operations. By October 1951, the Armée Nationale Laotienne had raised two more battalions of infantry and began training a battalion of paratroops. The ANL ended the year with a strength of 5,091. By the end of 1952, the Royal Lao Army had grown to include a battalion of troops commanded by Laotian officers, as well as 17 other companies. In April 1953,
9648-631: The United Kingdom from September to December 1940. A larger fighter-bomber campaign was conducted against the UK from March 1942 until June 1943. These operations were successful in tying down Allied resources at a relatively low cost to the Luftwaffe, but the British Government regarded the campaign as a nuisance given the small scale of the individual raids. In August 1941, RAF pilots reported encountering
9782-481: The Viet Minh's People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) invaded the northeastern part of what was still the French Protectorate of Laos with 40,000 troops commanded by General Võ Nguyên Giáp ; including 2,000 Pathet Lao soldiers led by Souphanouvong. The objective of the two-pronged invasion was the capture of the royal capital of Luang Prabang and of the Plain of Jars. On 9 November the Pathet Lao began its conflict with
9916-541: The Vietnamese communists would recede toward Vietnam. The war in the southeastern panhandle against the Ho Chi Minh Trail was primarily a massive air interdiction program by the USAF and United States Navy because political constraints kept the trail safe from ground assault from South Vietnam. Raven FACs also directed air strikes in the southeast. Other Forward Air Controllers from South Vietnam, such as Covey FACs from
10050-486: The advancing Hmong contained 100 tons of munitions; another held 22 trucks. Falling into the conquerors' hands by the end of October were 25 tanks, 113 vehicles with over 800,000 liters of fuel, more than 6,400 weapons, almost six million rounds of ammunition, and five days rations for the entire PAVN force. In terms of materiel captured, Kou Kiet was the greatest haul yet in the Second Indochina War. The loss jarred
10184-525: The arrival of the PAVN 312th Division from Vietnam. A PAVN counterattack on an SGU fixed position at Phou Nok Kok showed that the Vietnamese were willing to take heavy casualties to attrite the dwindling guerrilla forces. During this operation, Vang Pao and his Hmong army became dependent on close air support to the point they were considered to be the first guerrillas in history to project air superiority . That dependence began to erode their fighting abilities. By
10318-520: The building. In February 1941 the Mosquito with two Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and a streamlined wooden fuselage achieved 392 mph (631 km/h), 30 mph (48 km/h) faster than the current Spitfire. It was used on all kinds of missions, including silencing Hermann Göring 's Berlin Nazi anniversary broadcast on January 20, 1943, leading him to tell Erhard Milch, Air Inspector General that “when I see
10452-468: The communists had made it down Route 7 onto the Plain of Jars since the attacks began. Encouraged by his success, and by the lack of opposition, Vang Pao launched Phase two of his plan. Building on success, on 20 August Vang Pao expanded his offensive. He continued to plan on a two-pronged operation. As before, there was a northern column. Two battalions of Royalist regular volunteers— Bataillon Volontaires 21 and Bataillon Volontaires 24 —were stiffened with
10586-424: The communists planned no new offensive until arrival of the dry season. On 4 September, a captured PAVN officer described his 400-man unit and six tanks as being trapped when they attempted withdrawal back along Route 7 to North Vietnam. Most unusually for the highly disciplined PAVN, the unit broke, scattered, and fled. At about this time, Vang Pao realized he could extend his offensive still further. By 5 September,
10720-527: The country. Despite these denials, however, the civil war was the largest U.S. covert operation prior to the Soviet–Afghan War , with areas of Laos controlled by North Vietnam subjected to years of intense U.S. aerial bombardment, representing the heaviest bombing campaign in history. Overshadowing it all was the struggle of the Cold War , with the United States' policy of the containment of communism and
10854-477: The enemy's spearhead, however, must go to the rocket-firing Typhoon aircraft of the Second Tactical Air Force . The result of the strafing was that the enemy attack was effectively brought to a halt, and a threat was turned into a great victory". The disparity between claims and actual destruction at about 25-1 owed much to the difficulty of hitting a fast-moving tank with an unguided rocket, even from
10988-482: The fastest piston-engined aircraft ever built. Initially, United Nations air forces using piston-engined fighter-bombers and straight wing jet fighters easily drove the North Koreans out of the sky and so disrupted logistics and hence the attack on Pusan. All changed when the Soviet Air Force intervened with swept-wing Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s flown by Russian pilots on November 1. The planes had Korean markings and
11122-558: The fighter-bomber role, especially where longer ranges were needed for naval strikes. Examples include the Lockheed P-38 Lightning , the Bristol Beaufighter (developed from a torpedo bomber ), and de Havilland Mosquito (developed from an unarmed fast bomber). The Beaufighter MkV had a Boulton-Paul turret with four 0.303 in (7.7 mm) machine guns mounted aft of the cockpit but only two were built. Bristol's Blenheim
11256-566: The fighter-bomber role. Notable examples include the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 , Hawker Typhoon and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt . Various bombing tactics and techniques could also be used: some designs were intended for high-level bombing , others for the low-level semi-horizontal bombing, or even for low-level steep dive bombing as exemplified by the Blackburn Skua and North American A-36 Apache . Larger twin-engined aircraft were also used in
11390-457: The first Allied jet fighter of WWII but no match for a MiG-15. It was pressed into combat but after four were lost when the squadron was bounced by 40 Mig-15s, reverted to ground attack, carrying 16 60 lb (27 kg) rockets. Although Meteors shot down 6 MiG-15s, 30 were lost, but mainly to ground fire. Both Corsairs and Sea Furies also shot down MiG-15s, but were vulnerable to the faster jet. Fighter-bombers became increasingly important in
11524-483: The guerrillas' main base at Long Chieng . As a riposte, Hmong General Vang Pao plotted another spoiling offensive against the pressing communists. However, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) beat him to it with Campaign Thoan Thang . After the Vietnamese campaign ran its course, Vang Pao launched yet another inconclusive offensive that failed to clear the foe from the Plain of Jars, Operation Off Balance . By 28 June 1969,
11658-558: The initial use of RLAF AC-47 gunships for support, the Hmong guerrillas withdrew from the stronghold. They had suffered 12 killed. With the loss of Phou Nok Kok, which barred the eastern entry to the Plain, the Royalists were forced to withdraw. Nevertheless, Kou Kiet was dubbed "the first major victory in the history of the Royal Lao Government". Laotian Civil War Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese victory Second Third Air operations The Laotian Civil War
11792-619: The invasion. USAF North American F-82 Twin Mustangs had the range to reach the front line from Japanese bases. The last piston-engined aircraft, produced in the U.S., it looked like two Mustangs, with two pilots in separate fuselages, bolted together. Initially intended to escort bombers over Japan from remote Pacific island bases, hence its long-range, it missed WWII and first saw action in Korea. Plain North American P-51 Mustangs of
11926-762: The jets of its main British and US opponents, which used the older Rolls-Royce Derwent design. Only the Navy Grumman F9F Panther used a version of the Nene and could match the MiG-15, accounting for seven during November. Daylight heavy bomber raids over North Korea ceased and the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star and its all-weather variant the Lockheed F-94 Starfire were focused on bombing missions whilst
12060-710: The largest raid since the Blitz . Flying at sea level, under the radar, these raids were hard to intercept. The Jabos reached the Eastern Front in time to bomb Russian positions in Stalingrad . By July 1943 Fw 190s were replacing the vulnerable Stukas over the Battle of Kursk : although winning the air war, they were unable to prevent subsequent Red Army advances. On New Year's Day 1945 in Operation Bodenplatte , over 1,000 aircraft (including more than 600 Fw 190s) launched
12194-461: The last day of September, two ADC companies occupied Muang Soui as the battered, starving Vietnamese faded into the jungle. Despite extensive bombing by the U.S. Air Force, most equipment there was undamaged, and untouched by the PAVN. At this point, it became apparent that communist resistance was forming. There were still three intact PAVN regiments in the vicinity; military intelligence reports heralded
12328-464: The latter were reinforced by a regiment, Groupe Mobile 21 . GM 21 was tasked with seizing the high ground at Phou Keng in a night assault. They took it on 24 September, granting them surveillance of the northern end of the Plain of Jars. With the Plain of Jars largely under RLG control, a scratch force of seven Auto Defense Choc militia companies closed in on the PAVN troops stranded in Muang Soui . On
12462-492: The marshy southern edge of the Plain of Jars for five days, GM 22 leading, GM 23 trailing. Then GM 22 split in two; part of the unit swerved eastward on its own axis of advance. The two prongs of GM 22 would reunite at the Lat Houang junction of Routes 4 and 5 by the end of August. There they found a feast of abandoned livestock. On 31 August, the U.S. Air Force began five days of spraying defoliant on communist-held rice paddies on
12596-619: The massive, seven-ton USAAF Republic P-47 Thunderbolt —a single Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine of 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) in a much smaller, simpler and less expensive single-seat aircraft, and was the first aircraft design to ever fly with the Double Wasp engine in May 1940. With less airframe and crew to lift, the Corsair's ordnance load was either four High Velocity Aircraft Rockets or 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs;
12730-594: The most successful Allied aircraft of the First World War with 1,294 enemy aircraft downed, was losing its edge by 1918, especially over 12,000 ft (3,700 m). During the final German offensive in March 1918, it dropped 25 lb (11 kg) Cooper bombs on advancing columns: whilst puny by later standards, the four fragmentation bombs carried by a Camel could cause serious injuries to exposed troops. Pilot casualties were also high. The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 .
12864-470: The new government. Chinese troops, including the Chinese Nationalist 93rd Division, occupied cities as far south as Luang Prabang. The French-sponsored guerrillas controlled the southern provinces of Savannakhet and Khammouan . Prince Boun Oum , who sympathized with the French, occupied the rest of the southern panhandle. For these, and other reasons, Lao Issara could not hold the country against
12998-466: The new government. The Hmong were persecuted as traitors and "lackeys" of the Americans, with the government and its Vietnamese allies carrying out human rights abuses against Hmong civilians. The incipient conflict between Vietnam and China also played a role with Hmong rebels being accused of receiving support from China. Over 40,000 people died in the conflict . The Lao royal family were arrested by
13132-505: The northeast corner of the Plain of Jars . The CIA's covert operation's clandestine army would give way, harrying the PAVN and Pathet Lao as they retreated; Raven Forward Air Controllers would direct massive air strikes against the communists by USAF jets and RLAF T-28s to prevent the capture of the Laotian capitals of Vientiane and Luang Prabang . When the rainy season six months later rendered North Vietnamese supply lines impassable,
13266-460: The offensive kicked off during a heavy rain on 6 August 1969. With the new troops available from other Military Regions, the operational planning had shifted to a pincer movement for phase one. Blue Battalion from Military Region 3 was coptered into Bouamlong , north of Route 7, to be joined by local Auto Defense Choc militia. They were to march south toward the Nong Pet road junction. The other pincer
13400-468: The ones in between? I'll tell you—they're all dead. The Pathet Lao communists held rural territory largely barren of population for replacements; their forces had dwindled to battalions of about 150 men. By comparison, the Vietnamese could hypothetically replace 10,000 casualties per year for the next 14 years in the northern Laotian fighting, while Laotian forces could expect few or no replacements. A planned three-week offensive had stretched into three and
13534-545: The pilots had been taught a few Korean words, in a thin sham that the USSR was not fighting. The MiG-15 used captured German swept wing technology and tools and British jet engines, 25 of which had been a gift from Stafford Cripps the president of the Board of Trade and were quickly copied. Josef Stalin remarked “What fool will sell us his secrets?” The MiG's Rolls-Royce Nene had 5,000 lbf (2,300 kgf) thrust, twice as much as
13668-466: The plain. The ongoing success of the campaign was credited to air power. Besides the heavy daily contribution of 140 sorties per day of the U.S. Air Force, fewer than 30 Royal Lao Air Force AT-28s flew over 90 sorties per day of close air support . By 1 September, there had been no real opposition from the foe. Of the 18 communist battalions that had been occupying the Plain of Jars, only two weren't Pathet Lao. A Vietnamese prisoner of war revealed that
13802-457: The policies of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union of spreading communism via subversion and insurgency. The end of World War II left Laos in political chaos. The French, who had been displaced from their protectorate by the Japanese, wanted to resume control of Laos, and sponsored guerrilla forces to regain control. The Japanese had proclaimed Laos independent even as they lost
13936-533: The pool of potential recruits were limited, while the Vietnamese could easily replace their personnel losses. After World War II, France fought the First Indochina War to retain French Indochina . As part of its loss of that war at Dien Ben Phu , it freed the Kingdom of Laos . Laotian neutrality was established in the 1954 Geneva Agreements . When France withdrew most of its military in conformity with
14070-587: The population of Laos' six urban areas were Vietnamese, with the Vietnamese holding key positions in the civil bureaucracies and the police. Since the 1930s the Indochinese Communist Party had established wholly Vietnamese cells in Laos. Prince Phetsarath Ratanavongsa , as Viceroy and Prime Minister, established the Lao royal treasury account with the Indochinese treasury in Hanoi in an attempt to establish
14204-499: The returning French colonial government and its troops. The French negotiated a Chinese withdrawal from Laos prior to their own return, removing them from the field. In January 1946, the French began the reconquest of Laos by sweeping the Bolovens Plateau. They had organized six battalions of light infantry, to which they added a minor force of French troops. On 21 March 1946, Souphanouvong and his largely Vietnamese force fought
14338-589: The same timing. The resulting North American P-51 Mustang powered by a Packard-built Rolls-Royce Merlin engine became the outstanding long-range fighter of the war. When Lend-lease funding for the RAF Mustangs was exhausted, Kindleberger tried to interest the USAAC but no funds were available for a fighter; instead, the Mustang was fitted with dive brakes and emerged as the North American A-36 Apache ,
14472-404: The signing of a military cooperation treaty with the newly established North Vietnamese communist government, which was done. The French military mission was escorted out of Laos into Thailand by a contingent of Chinese troops. However, the Lao Issara never gained more than a tenuous hold on the entirety of Laos. Roving Viet Minh detachments ruled the northeast, but the Viet Minh declined to aid
14606-400: The southern Plain of Jars. This latter movement seemed beyond Royalist capabilities; both his CIA advisors and Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma cautioned him about it. However, the Hmong general pressed forward with his plans, even persuading both Military Region 3 and Military Region 4 to loan him a guerrilla battalion each. Kou Kiet was due to launch on 3 August. Although the PAVN outnumbered
14740-468: The surface. On April 9, 1945, three were sunk en route to Norway, and in the following month, Mosquitos sank two more. The Hawker Typhoon was being designed as a replacement for the Hurricane in March 1937 before production had even started. The reason was to take advantage of the new 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) engines then being planned, either the Napier Sabre or Rolls-Royce Vulture which required
14874-600: The time Kou Kiet ended on 30 September 1969, tactical air was credited with hitting 308 communist vehicles. The PAVN had fled, abandoning the Pathet Lao and their weak allies in the Forces Armées Neutralistes . The Pathet Lao dispersed into the countryside, while the Neutralists refused combat and hastily retreated eastward to the border with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam . One of the caches captured by
15008-551: The titular founder of Lao Issara. Souphanouvong became commander in chief, as well as minister of foreign affairs. Souvanna Phouma became minister of public works. Independence began with an uprising of the Vietnamese residents in Savannakhet . Prince Souphanouvong took command of a band of partisans armed with weapons looted from the local militia. The band moved northward to the administrative capitol of Vientiane with its provisional revolutionary government. Souphanouvong then urged
15142-533: The treaty, the United States filled the vacuum with purportedly civilian paramilitary instructors. A North Vietnamese -backed communist insurrection began as early as 1949. Invading during the opium harvest season of 1953, it settled in northeastern Laos adjacent to the border of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam . As the Laotian Civil War flared, the Central Intelligence Agency established
15276-420: The usual rainfall for the month of July, communist ground logistics began to bog down, often quite literally. Conversely, Vang Pao's troops were being amply supplied via air bridge ; brand new M16 rifles were being secretively provided for his troops. Also, U.S. Air Force tactical air strikes with area denial munitions forced the PAVN supply efforts off the main road. However, to the opposing Royalist forces,
15410-419: The war. Though King Sisavang Vong thought Laos was too small for independence, he had proclaimed the end of the French protectorate status while simultaneously favoring the French return. He let it be known he would accept independence if it should occur. Thus there was a nascent movement for independence amid the turmoil. Underlying all this was a strong undercurrent of Vietnamese involvement. Sixty percent of
15544-518: The worst one-day loss in its history; it never recovered. The Bristol Blenheim and Douglas A-20 Havoc (which the RAF called Boston) were used as night fighters during the Blitz , as they could carry the heavy early airborne radars. The Hawker Henley , a two-seat version of the Battle of Britain -winning Hawker Hurricane , was designed as a dive bomber. It might have proved to be a capable fighter-bomber but overheating of its Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in this installation led to its relegation to
15678-407: Was Phou Nok Kok. The PAVN attacked Phou Nok Kok's 600 man garrison throughout December, suffering an estimated 400 killed in action and 1,000 wounded, mostly inflicted by close air support. As bad flying weather curtailed air support for the Royalists during January 1970, the communists continued their attacks. On 12 January 1970, after a six-week defense that cost the PAVN about 600 killed, and despite
15812-425: Was Vietnamese, and Kaysone Phomvihane was Vietnamese-Lao. These three men founded the military movement that would become the Pathet Lao (Land of Laos). Thao O Anourack established the initial Pathet Lao base at Con Cuong , Vietnam. Kaysone Phomvihane organized the first detachment of the new force. By the end of 1946, at least 500 Viet Minh agents had crossed into Laos. On 11 May 1947, King Sisavang Vong granted
15946-476: Was a helilift of two battalions to a ridgeline overlooking Nong Pet, which oversaw Route 70. From there, both the Royalist battalion of regulars and the Hmong Special Guerrilla Unit would attack and block Route 7. The second phase would involve three battalions of Royal Lao Army and five battalions of irregulars . They were to be helicoptered in to take up positions on two mountains that overlooked
16080-530: Was a tool to transfer American military aid to the French war effort in Indochina. This year also marked the infiltration of at least 5,000 more Viet Minh into Laos. In February 1951, the Indochinese Communist Party decided to split in three to sponsor war against the French in Cambodia and Laos, along with the war in Vietnam. The new Laotian branch consisted of 2,091 members, but included only 31 Lao. Also, by 1951,
16214-630: Was damaged and February 9, 1945, became known as Black Friday . Typhoons were involved in one of the worst tragedies at the end of the war when four squadrons attacked the luxury liners SS Deutschland and the SS Cap Arcona and two smaller ships SS Athen and SS Thielbek moored off Neustadt in Lübeck Bay The Cap Arcona had 4,500 concentration camp inmates and the Thielbek another 2,800 as well as SS Guards. The Deutschland had
16348-480: Was even pushed into service as a fighter during the Battle of Britain but it was not fast enough. Equipped with an early Airborne Interception (AI) radar set, however, it proved to be an effective night fighter. The first single-seat fighters to drop bombs were on the Western Front , when fighter patrols were issued with bombs and ordered to drop them at random if they met no German fighters. The Sopwith Camel ,
16482-542: Was fitted with racks to carry two 500 lb (230 kg) and then two 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs. By September 1943 it was fitted with eight RP-3 rockets each with a 60 lb (27 kg) warhead, equivalent to the power of a naval destroyer's broadside. Claims of German tanks destroyed by rocket-armed Typhoons in Normandy after D-Day were exaggerated. In Operation Goodwood , the attempt by British and Canadian forces to surround Caen of 75 tanks recorded as lost by
16616-559: Was fought around the northern Plain of Jars . From 1961 onward, the US trained Hmong tribesmen to disrupt North Vietnamese operations and in 1964, the US began bombing North Vietnamese supply routes . The North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao eventually emerged victorious in December 1975, following from North Vietnam's final victory over South Vietnam in April 1975 . After the communist takeover in Laos, up to 300,000 people fled to neighbouring Thailand , and Hmong rebels began an insurgency against
16750-508: Was grinding to its finish, General Võ Nguyên Giáp issued orders on 13 September for an upcoming PAVN dry season attack in Military Region 2, dubbed Campaign 139 . A preliminary battalion-sized retaliatory probe on 29 November pushed Bataillon Volontaires 21 and its Hmong auxiliaries off their mountaintop strongpoint. The Hmong, who were transitioning from classic guerrillas to light infantry , suffered irreplaceable increased casualties as
16884-553: Was intended to have two machine guns jutting through the cockpit floor so as to spray trenches with bullets as it passed low overhead. But this did not work and it was fitted with four Cooper bombs, instead. It was ordered in very large numbers, but most were canceled after the Armistice . In February and April 1918 the Royal Flying Corps conducted bombing tests at Orfordness , Suffolk dropping dummy bombs at various dive angles at
17018-407: Was landed by short takeoff and landing aircraft at San Tiau, southeast of Route 7. This makeshift force was made up of Military Region 4's battalion-sized 2nd Special Guerrilla Unit, Military Region 2's Bataillon Volontaires 27 (Volunteer Battalion 27), plus some ADC guerrillas. Despite the weather hold, the attack began in heavy rain. As a result, the northern contingent was bogged down for about
17152-556: Was modified to carry four 20mm cannon and two 500 lb (230 kg) bombs; once bombs were jettisoned the aircraft could put up a reasonable fight. Inevitably the type became known in the RAF as the “Hurribomber”, reaching squadrons in June 1941. It was soon found that it was hardly possible to hit fast-moving Panzers in the Western Desert , with bombs and cannon fire-making little impact on their armour. Daylight bombing raids were made on
17286-415: Was moored close to the vertical cliffside of the fjords so Beaufighters had to attack singly with rockets without the normal tactic of having simultaneous attacks by other Beaufighters firing cannon at the numerous flak gunners. Twelve Focke-Wulf Fw 190s surprised the Mustangs and Norway's biggest ever air battle was soon raging. Nine Beaufighters and one Mustang were lost as were five Fw 190s. The destroyer
17420-405: Was now clearly under RLG control for the first time in almost a year. However, the Hmong guerrilla attack suffered from success; the irregulars had outrun the planned limits of the campaign and pushed into an area designated for area denial ordnance. As a result, U.S. Air Force pilots could not drop mines to seal off the Vietnamese incursions due to the presence of friendly troops. Even as Kou Kiet
17554-406: Was problematic, as he lacked the needed manpower in his own CIA guerrilla army. In an unprecedented move, guerrillas were transferred in from other Military Regions. The Hmong general called the new offensive operation Kou Kiet (Redeemed Honor). His CIA contacts dubbed it Operation About Face when they approved it. No matter the name, it was patterned on the previous Operation Raindance, planned as
17688-454: Was successful beyond expectations. After the Royal Lao Government troops achieved their objectives, General Vang Pao insisted on pushing forward while they had the initiative. As a result, the Royalists regained control of the entire Plain of Jars while also capturing a huge stock of munitions from the communist forces. Their triumph came at a huge cost. Even though the Royalists were successful, by battle's end their forces were exhausted and
17822-467: Was used in the same role. The Royal Flying Corps received the first purpose-built fighter-bomber just as the war was ending. It was not called a fighter bomber at the time, but a Trench Fighter as that was what it was designed to attack. The Sopwith Salamander was based on the Sopwith Snipe fighter but had armour plating in the nose to protect the pilot and fuel system from ground fire. Originally it
17956-619: Was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. The Kingdom of Laos was a covert theater during the Vietnam War with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. The fighting also involved the North Vietnamese , South Vietnamese , American and Thai armies, both directly and through irregular proxies. The war
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