Pooja poses with the remains of B-52D "Rose 01" where it fell behind her. It's Huu Tiep lake, Ngoc Ha district of Ha Noi.
The B-52 was 56-608, based at Westover AB, Massachusetts with the 99th Bomb Wing, part of the 307th Strategic Wing- but deployed to U-Tapao AB in Thailand. It was taking part in Operation Linebacker II on the night of 18/ 19 December 1972, the first night of the Christmas bombing campaign or 'The eleven days of Christmas'. The Vietnamese shot it down with an SA-2 'GUIDELINE' (S-75 Dvina) missile- one of 68 fired that night, bringing down two B-52Gs and this D-model. By the end of the bombing campaign the USAF had lost fifteen of the big bombers. Of the six man crew of "Rose 01", two were killed in the shootdown.
A number of B-52s made it back to base but were too badly damaged to be repaired. Between 22 and 27 jets were lost or written off due to enemy action. Certainly 10 went down over Ha Noi, another five elsewhere over Vietnam and nine jets made it back to U-Tapao where they remained. So at least 24. The USAF and Vietnamese 'official' figures are both suspect.
Pooja poses with the remains of B-52D "Rose 01" where it fell behind her. It's Huu Tiep lake, Ngoc Ha district of Ha Noi.
The B-52 was 56-608, based at Westover AB, Massachusetts with the 99th Bomb Wing, part of the 307th Strategic Wing- but deployed to U-Tapao AB in Thailand. It was taking part in Operation Linebacker II on the night of 18/ 19 December 1972, the first night of the Christmas bombing campaign or 'The eleven days of Christmas'. The Vietnamese shot it down with an SA-2 'GUIDELINE' (S-75 Dvina) missile- one of 68 fired that night, bringing down two B-52Gs and this D-model. By the end of the bombing campaign the USAF had lost fifteen of the big bombers. Of the six man crew of "Rose 01", two were killed in the shootdown.
A number of B-52s made it back to base but were too badly damaged to be repaired. Between 22 and 27 jets were lost or written off due to enemy action. Certainly 10 went down over Ha Noi, another five elsewhere over Vietnam and nine jets made it back to U-Tapao where they remained. So at least 24. The USAF and Vietnamese 'official' figures are both suspect.