The Ham Rong or the Dragon Jaw bridge, my grandfather used to fight on his Mig-17 over that bridge, thank you for this great video, it reminds me of my grandfather alot.
Thank you, I appreciate your comment. We currently don't have MiG-17 in DCS world but it is coming. When we get it, I will surely reenact some VPAF missions flown by this fighter.
As an AO with an A-4E squadron out there at the time, i compliment you on this presentation. Point of clarification, however, the standard ordnance load for these aircraft was two 500# bombs mounted on TERs on each inboard wing pylon and one 500# bomb on each of the outb'd pylons. 250s were mounted on the inb'd rack of the TER and a 500 gallon drop fuel tank was carried on the centerline bomb rack.
Thank you for your comment! Regarding the weapons load, I was using the illustration in Osprey's Air Campaign which showed the configuration that I used in the video. But it is possible that was just the artist's impression and not a real load. Historic accounts rarely give all the details so some level of guessing is always needed. But I will remember this for some future videos, thanks!
@@showtime112 A-4 squadrons were issued a few 6-rack multiple ejection racks (MER) but these were never used as the plane would likely go into the water at launch. Instead, we wrestled the dam things up onto hooks welded high up on the hangar deck bulkhead when we checked onboard and took 'em down when we left the ship and went back to Lemoore NAS. (Go NAVY!)
@@dragonmeddler2152 Now that you mention it, I did have a difficult launch. I sank a little deeper than I expected with this load so I guess it is well modeled 😁
@@lbbradley55 An A-4E and up with a long runway could get off the ground and fly with up to about 6500 pounds loaded thus: 6 - 500# on a centerline MER (multiple ejection rack) for a total 3000#, 2 - 500# and 1 - 250# on TERs (triple ejection rack) hung on each of the inboard wing pylons for a total of 2500 pounds and one 500# bomb on each outboard wing pylon for an additional 1000 pounds. The 250 pounders mounted on the inboard shackles of the inboard wing pylon TERs could be 500 pounders for an additional 500 pounds making a 7000# grand total, but we loaded the 250s because the main landing gear doors would come into contact with the fatter 500 pounder when open.
@@showtime112 I would love to believe they'd find it awesome young folk are reliving (kinda, or reviving?) what happened through a simulator so that it won't be forgotten. At least I hope they don't want it to be forgotten. Politics you know..
And thanks again for watching and positive comment! Especially glad you like the music, I got a couple of bad comments regarding it so it made me wonder a little. But I stopped wondering now 😁 More to come soon!
hmmm... well this is proof that great minds think alike... you'll probably see what I mean on the weekend :-) Just putting the finishing touches on a video about the A-4 and Rolling Thunder. I enjoyed this one, thanks for sharing.
I guess we are gonna have one of those Deep Impact / Armageddon situations 😁 I was actually going to do something with the new F-105 mod but I needed some more time for research. So, the cover of Osprey's Air Campaign 03 gave me inspiration for this one. I'm looking forward to see what your video is going to look like! Thanks for the comment!
Thank you! A-6 is probably far from release. As for A-7, Flyingiron Simulations just posted on FB yesterday. They showed night cockpit and FLIR projection on HUD of A-7. I hope it gets released soon!
There was a bridge called the “dragon jaw”. I read it on time life books, before internet. They kept on bombing it, but they kept on repairing it, so they had a lot of jets especially F-4’s with laser guided bombs and finally brought it down completely. The bridge was part of a major route for supplies to the south.
@mandellorian Washington was calling the shots in Vietnam, that’s why nothing was being done. We won basically all the battles in Vietnam, but the problem is once the U.S took over a Vietnamese base, they abandoned it, and the North Vietnamese took over again. Very bad planning, plus we the “ Americans” were fighting three countries. Russia 🇷🇺 China 🇨🇳 and North Vietnam 🇻🇳
@mandellorian I’m glad the war is over. We lost.I accept it. It was a horrific war with millions dead and horrible things happening . I heard that whenever “Democracy” was in danger we “ The U.S” was going to help that country, just like “ The Korean War” South Vietnam asked for help.. we gave it to them also. We trained the South, just like we helped the Afghanistan 🇦🇫 soldiers. Turns out, they ran away. We stayed in South Vietnam for a long time, just like Afghanistan, but the war here in the states was becoming very unpopular, same with the Afghanistan war. “We can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. The south Vietnamese soldiers did the same as the Afghanistan army.
Love your videos! I thing it would be cool if you incorporated some historical photos into the videos. For example during the intro you could show a few real photos of A-4s launching during the vietnam era etc. I think it would be a cool connection between your reconstriction and the real stuff.
Not a bad idea. They did something like that in History Channel Dogfights. Only problem is that you can't be sure if it's copyright material. With music they give you a warning immediately after the uoload. I might make some experiments to see how it works.
@@showtime112 Their are two ways how to go about if you really wanna underline your Historical content with photos. Have a look at some Photo Agencies wich provide photos from all different topics and years worldwide. Ok they are not free but depending with which media you wanna use them the price may be reasonable. Or you can contact the original photographer ask for his permission tell him you will link to his side in your description. 😉 That’s the way I have done it in the past.
@@LockOnNow I did encounter some photos which could be used on a few occasions. However, the cost for anything more than personal use seemed a lot more than what I can make on the videos :) In fact, I'm not even sure how to properly use photos but I could use historic video footage. Do you know any good places to find that?
@@showtime112 Why don’t you Try RU-vid itself there may be footage from historical events available they have a lot of historical documentation’s so you can place the links of those Movies or Photos below your DCS content. I think 🤔 theirs no need of placeing any movie or photo content into your historical content itself.😉
There are some incendiary bombs in DCS that A-4 can use. Their efffect looks the same as cluster bombs so I'm not sure if that's fully developed yet. I will have to research a bit 😉
Another very fine video you make, i was discovered recently your chanel, as a fan of the militar aviation and the fighting in the skies, i´m in the process of update in all of your videos. Some pointing in this video (and others), the A4E doesn´t have a dome in its back, wich was build in furter models. I really enjoy the history and display on your fantastic job. Greetings from Santa Rosa - La Pampa - Argentina. (sorry my bad english)
Thanks for the comment. Glad you liked the videos. About the A-4E and the hump, initially they didn't have them. But it seems that later it was introduced on the E model. If you check Osprey's A-4 Skyhawk Units of The Vietnam War, you can see that from 1967 on, the hump is there on the E model too. And that's the version that people who developed this mod decided to do. Just like most other aircraft in DCS, you only get one variant.
Thanks! Actually, the takeoff scene and the main attack were done separately. I just placed the carrier far enough so the land doesn't show. In reality, they would usually refuel from somerhing like Skyraider but we don't have those. However, with some fuel tanks, you might be able to reach this place.
Also. Rolling Thunder was bombing operations in North Vietnam and almost more importantly - Laos. My grandfather died in an F-4 bombing trucks in Laos.
@@showtime112 Hell yeah man. I can’t to get a cool DCS set up and play the F-4. I wish DCS was making the D model though. I think it looks cooler than the E model, just obviously doesn’t have a gun unless you put a centerline gun pod on
@@jettsetter7 E model is the most obvious choice, being the most produced and exported version. But it seems like they will also do a naval version later, so if you hate the gun, there will be a gunless version :)
Thanks Showtime!! May you pllease recreate a video with F4’s in wild weasel mission?? I know that such missions were not very sucsessful with high rate of damage for the american army. Is that correct?
You mean F-4C Wild Weasel in Vietnam? Maybe, although the current DCS model isn't very good for that. Maybe when full fidelity F-4E gets releaed (not that it's the right one either).
Love the video. Next time, when you're bombing things like bridges, bunkers etc. (i.e. 'hard targets') use a different type of weapon (like the Mk82's). In this video you're using cluster type munitions which do very little to no damage at all to a bridge. Cluster munitions (in the '65-'75 era) work well against targets like infantry, trucks and the like.
Thanks. Mk82 bombs were on fact used to attack the bridge. Cluster bombs were used by the second flight for flak suppression, maybe you are talking about that?
CBU’s W/delayed fused bomblets are highly effective at denying the enemy real estate as well. Plus CBU’s like Rockeye were developed to kill tanks. More than Formidable enough to take out bridges.
The problem they had with just bombing bridges, the North Vietnamese would pile rocks next to the bridge and create a shallow water crossing and not worry about the bridges.
The communist side was incredibly resilient and resourceful. Same thing like in the Korean War. You could just bomb all of the infrastructure, destroy an endless ammount of trucks and rolling stock but they would still somehow move people and material. They would use low tech solutions for which high tech weapons had no answer.
@@showtime112 I was with the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at Korat, Thailand. We were told we were going to bomb the North Vietnamese back to the Stone Age. What McNamara didn't know was, the North Vietnamese were still in the Stone Age, how do you bomb them back when they're already there? The real problem was that President Johnson and McNamara controlled the targeting. You couldn't shoot at Migs before they were airborne, so no bombing the bases and runways. You couldn't hit the storage areas for SAMs, as those were in populated areas. When Jane Fonda showed us bombing a hospital, it was actually the assembly building for the SAM guidance systems. If we had hit that early on, there might have been fewer casualties. We lost a lot of good men over the time I was there in the early seventies. All because of their ignorance to what war is.
@@jamesberwick2210 Johnson and McNamara displayed typical arrogance that sometimes comes with rank. They thought they knew everything better than everybody who was 'under' them. I recently did a video in which North Vietnamese placed a SAM battery on a soccer field. USN bombed it and they reported that 'school children's playground was bombed'. Don't know if you saw that one.
@@showtime112 There were plenty of instances where we bombed targets and they'd show a totally different area than we bombed, and claim things that didn't happen. Lots of times it the damage they showed was from their own SAMs coming down, or heavy flack bullets that fell back into populated areas. I quit listening to the news and the claims of the North, and made sure my equipment worked and they hit the right targets, going north.
Yes and no. It is much simpler than more modern types such as F-18 but it still gives you a true high fidelity clickable experience. It's got a realistic flight model now, but wirhout computer control which means it is easier to make a mistake. If you are not sure if you want to spend money on this simulation and you want to fly a western plane, A-4 is a great choice.
Yeah, Purple Haze or something like that would be perfect. Unfortunately, you can't use that due to copyright issues. In an extreme case, you can even get a copyright strike. Three of those and your channel is closed. But maybe someday I will even be able to afford to buy rights for that kind of music 😉
@@dado500 Ovo nije jedan od ta dva najpoznatija ali ako proguglaš "Phuong Dinh bridge 1967" izbacit će fenomenalnu originalnu fotografiju s ovog napada. Bila mi je ključna inspiracija za ovaj video.
Thank you for your suggestion. Doing these videos with human pilots instead of AI would provide for more accuracy. You are talking about the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea? The topic was covered by the GR (and not in their usual bad way 😁) . Also, there's no Eritrean MiG-29 skin. But if you give me some time, I can check it out a little and see what could be done.
Showtime112 I like to mention to you, why the Rolling Thunder Bombing Campaign on North Vietnam was a failure by the US Government the LBJ adminstration would give information of the flight and times of bombing raids by Switzerland to the North Vietnamese to prevent civilian deaths, instead the North Vietnamese would armed the Civilians in the area with 51 cal heavy M.G and Mosin and K 98 rifles to shoot at the planes, Secretary of State Dean Rusk admited doing this on 10000 Days War program T.V with Peter Arnett show how despicable the towards there own people the leadership is on both sides.
I remember from one of the Osprey books that after one of the first MiGs was shot down, LBJ was upset and said 'he didn't want any more MiGs shot down'. I don't think that any war leader ever said anything like that to his men. Guys, whatever you do, don't try to hurt the enemy :)
@@showtime112 true the war was fought with restrictions to the U.S Pilots, they couldn't bombing or attack certain military or industrial targets, even allowed hostile Migs fly in the air to direct points of attack in air operation giving the North Vietnamese Pilots advantages in battle.
@@bjornsmith9431 Sounds quite unbelievable when you read about it now. But I guess that Chinese unexpected intervention in the Korean War really scared them. Again proving that fear is the worst enemy.
@@showtime112 never go to war fearing what the enemy will do, if you fear him or her, you give up the advantage in combat, you already lost the war history proof this right, you must make the enemy fear you that lessoning of the Second Indochina War.
Hah, imagine with today's weapons. You have no target to shoot at. There is only one up there....way up there....It drops bombs, one for every span. All hit and destroy bridge. You get it back up and the same happens when first vehicle is crossing!
Ugly, awkward-looking little hunch-back of a plane with silly little wheels on spindly stalks. A lance poking out the front in case it runs out of ammunition and needs to joust its way out of a fight. What muppet designed this joke of a fighter?
