Played Downtown with Paul today. Scenario D18: Eve of Destruction from C3I 18 which covers a 1965 strike on the Thanh Hoa Bridge a notoriously difficult target for the Americans.
Paul took a USAF strike of 15 flights of Thunderchiefs escorted by some F-100s and followed by a Voodoo recon flight. The entered over from over the Gulf of Tonkin and egressed over Laos.
I scrambled MiG-17s from airfields in the Hanoi area, but they were unable to reach the strike force before it got to the bridge which was heavily defended by two medium flak batteries and a pair of Fire Cans. Paul was able to damage one Fire Can and suppress the flak and heavily damaged the bridge.
In the process he lost 2 planes shot down (a Thud bit by a Fire Can and a Super Sabre shot down by a Fresco), 4 crippled and 1 damaged which all recovered OK.
As a result it was a significant US defeat – due to the political cost of the losses.
