Greatest Strategic Air Missions?

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
| Subject: Greatest Strategic Air Missions?
| From: "Leadfoot"
| Date: 8/21/2004 5:51 PM Pacific Standard Time
| Message-id:
|
| Actually my intent in using the word "strategic" was to avoid the listing
of
| missions such as "most aircraft shot down" or "most tanks busted" type
| missions which while important to any war effort wasn't what I was
looking
|
| How about missions that changed the world? Battle of Britain comes to
mind.
|
|
| Arthur Kramer




If (in this case) we draw a difference between 'mission' and 'campaign' ,
which is what the BoB really was, the significant mission on both sides,
would have been the decision to bomb each others' capital city.





Cheers


Dave Kearton

"Leadfoot" wrote in message
news:TUMVc.122627$sh.67356@fed1read06...

"John Mullen" wrote in message
...
"Leadfoot" wrote in message
news:KYBVc.118201$sh.114795@fed1read06...
What are some of the greatest strategic air missions?

Some candidates

Yamamoto shootdown
Hiroshima
Paul Doumer bridge LGB
Dambusters
Tirpitz
Norwegian heavy water
Midway
Doolittle raid

You would surely have to include the 11th September attacks on New York
and
Washington. For an outlay of well under $1M, and some volunteers suicide
attackers with box cutters, whoever executed it massively damaged the US
economy, and so spooked the US that they started not one but two
unwinnable
wars (in Afghanistan and Iraq) in response. Surely that has to place it
up
there with Hiroshima?

I think the Doolittle raid is a much closer parallel to 9-11 than
Hiroshima

Fair point.

Churchill's raid on Berlin in 1940 as well?

John

Ed Rasimus wrote:

Vietnam, on the other hand, simply ground on until every one got tired
and went home.


The great Strategic campaigns in Vietnam were the ones that never happened.


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"

"Dave Kearton" wrote in
message ...
"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
| Subject: Greatest Strategic Air Missions?
| From: "Leadfoot"
| Date: 8/21/2004 5:51 PM Pacific Standard Time
| Message-id:
|
| Actually my intent in using the word "strategic" was to avoid the
listing
of
| missions such as "most aircraft shot down" or "most tanks busted" type
| missions which while important to any war effort wasn't what I was
looking
|
| How about missions that changed the world? Battle of Britain comes to
mind.

Thats a campaign, not a mission

|
|
| Arthur Kramer




If (in this case) we draw a difference between 'mission' and 'campaign' ,
which is what the BoB really was, the significant mission on both sides,
would have been the decision to bomb each others' capital city.

Or going after radar sites






Cheers


Dave Kearton

"John Mullen" wrote in message
...
"Leadfoot" wrote in message
news:TUMVc.122627$sh.67356@fed1read06...

"John Mullen" wrote in message
...
"Leadfoot" wrote in message
news:KYBVc.118201$sh.114795@fed1read06...
What are some of the greatest strategic air missions?

Some candidates

Yamamoto shootdown
Hiroshima
Paul Doumer bridge LGB
Dambusters
Tirpitz
Norwegian heavy water
Midway
Doolittle raid

You would surely have to include the 11th September attacks on New York
and
Washington. For an outlay of well under $1M, and some volunteers
suicide
attackers with box cutters, whoever executed it massively damaged the
US
economy, and so spooked the US that they started not one but two
unwinnable
wars (in Afghanistan and Iraq) in response. Surely that has to place it
up
there with Hiroshima?

I think the Doolittle raid is a much closer parallel to 9-11 than
Hiroshima

Fair point.

Churchill's raid on Berlin in 1940 as well?


Proved they could do it. Probably not much damage to the German war effort
except for the MAJOR damage to Hermann Meyers (goering) reputation.


John

"Leadfoot" wrote in message
news:BlXVc.124472$sh.98869@fed1read06...

Proved they could do it. Probably not much damage to the German war
effort
except for the MAJOR damage to Hermann Meyers (goering) reputation.


I suspect John was referring to the raid in late August 1940
where bombs were droped on Berlin. This is often
said to have been a response to German bombers
dropping bombs on south London (Croydon)

In fact the reality is more mundane. Both aircraft
were simply off target when thet dropped their
bombs. The RAF aircraft were attemting to attack
a military airfield and the Siemens factory

Keith

Subject: Greatest Strategic Air Missions?
From: "Leadfoot"
Date: 8/21/2004 11:46 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: iiXVc.124448$sh.75819@fed1read06


"Dave Kearton" wrote in
message ...
"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
| Subject: Greatest Strategic Air Missions?
| From: "Leadfoot"
| Date: 8/21/2004 5:51 PM Pacific Standard Time
| Message-id:
|
| Actually my intent in using the word "strategic" was to avoid the
listing
of
| missions such as "most aircraft shot down" or "most tanks busted" type
| missions which while important to any war effort wasn't what I was
looking
|
| How about missions that changed the world? Battle of Britain comes to
mind.

Thats a campaign, not a mission

|


Same for Linebacker II.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Subject: Greatest Strategic Air Missions?
From: "Leadfoot"
Date: 8/21/2004 11:46 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: iiXVc.124448$sh.75819@fed1read06


"Dave Kearton" wrote in
message ...
"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
| Subject: Greatest Strategic Air Missions?
| From: "Leadfoot"
| Date: 8/21/2004 5:51 PM Pacific Standard Time
| Message-id:
|
| Actually my intent in using the word "strategic" was to avoid the
listing
of
| missions such as "most aircraft shot down" or "most tanks busted"
type
| missions which while important to any war effort wasn't what I was
looking
|
| How about missions that changed the world? Battle of Britain comes to
mind.

Thats a campaign, not a mission

|


Same for Linebacker II.

Some one else posted linebacker II not me. I did consider it and decided it
was a campaign not a mission when I started the thread



Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 13:34:00 -0700, "Leadfoot"
wrote:


Thats a campaign, not a mission

Same for Linebacker II.

Some one else posted linebacker II not me. I did consider it and decided it
was a campaign not a mission when I started the thread


I'd think that maybe 11 days might be closer to a battle, but if you
want it to be called campaign, then let's just go with December
18/19th night. One hundred fifty BUFF sorties scheduled and most of
them flown into an area the size of Rhode Island. Accompanied by a
bunch of F-111's against the airfields and followed up with the full
force of all the USAF/USN airplanes in theater the next day, hitting
virtually every worthwhile (and many sub-worthwhile) targets in RP VI
within 24 hours.

Looked pretty impressive from my seat.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
"Phantom Flights, Bangkok Nights"
Both from Smithsonian Books
***www.thunderchief.org

Ed Rasimus wrote:

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 13:34:00 -0700, "Leadfoot"
wrote:

Thats a campaign, not a mission

Same for Linebacker II.

Some one else posted linebacker II not me. I did consider it and decided it
was a campaign not a mission when I started the thread

I'd think that maybe 11 days might be closer to a battle, but if you
want it to be called campaign, then let's just go with December
18/19th night. One hundred fifty BUFF sorties scheduled and most of
them flown into an area the size of Rhode Island. Accompanied by a
bunch of F-111's against the airfields and followed up with the full
force of all the USAF/USN airplanes in theater the next day, hitting
virtually every worthwhile (and many sub-worthwhile) targets in RP VI
within 24 hours.

Looked pretty impressive from my seat.

No doubt, Ed.

I'd call the whole Linebacker II campaign a strategic success. As I
remember, the North Vietnamese had walked away from the Paris negotiations,
and had to be 'persuaded' to come back. Seems like taking the gloves off
worked.

I don't know how long we could have sustained that level of losses,
specially the BUFFs, but I'm reasonably sure the NV thought we'd go as long
as we had to. If only we'd done it earlier...

| George Ruch
| "Is there life in Clovis after Clovis Man?"