Viet Nam: Blue Bombs on the Panhandle

Every day, at the press briefing at MACV Headquarters in Saigon, a public relations officer pins little blue paper bombs on a big map of North Viet Nam to show where American planes have struck. Every day last week, the blue bombs all but covered the area known as Ho Chi Minh’s Panhandle.

The Panhandle, located immediately above the demilitarized zone that marks the border with South Viet Nam, is a long, narrow strip wedged between the mountains and the sea. Lined by roads, railroads and inland waterways, it is Ho’s principal supply route to the Communist troops in the south. It is also the prime target of U.S. air raiders, whose goal is to stop the supplies.

Their targets are mundane: trucks, trains, barges, bridges and an occasional hidden oil dump. One day last week, the Navy flyers who cover the northern half of the Panhandle spent most of their time working over a single locomotive and 40 boxcars. A-4 Skyhawks found the train in the morning, destroyed three boxcars, damaged 22 others, and reported a large secondary explosion that meant it was carrying ammunition or oil. About an hour later, more Skyhawks hit it with Bullpup missiles and bombs, knocked out the locomotive and four more freight cars, turned the track in front of it to noodles. Before sunset, the whole train was destroyed—and U.S. airmen had carried out 146 separate missions, a record for a single day over North Viet Nam. The record did not stand for long. By week’s end, U.S. airmen had racked up 156 missions over North Viet Nam—all of them in the Panhandle.