<text id=00he1904><title>The Durable Bridge of Paul Doumer</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>The Durable Bridge of Paul Doumer</hdr><body>
<p>For more than two years, tactical aircraft had been pounding the railroads of North Vietnam, as their companions in arms had done earlier in Korea and Europe. The results were pretty much the same as always. The enemy knew how to make rapid repairs, and how to bypass bombed-out segments.
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<p>Most of the supplies that arrived in Hanoi from China came by rail on one of two lines, entering from the northwest and the northeast. Materiel was handled at Hanoi and forwarded south to the battlefields. Supplies that came by sea to the port of Haiphong also moved over a 40-mile (65-km) long railroad to Hanoi. There was still another rail line that carried steel from the Thai Nguyen plant into the city, and a fifth segment that led south out of Hanoi.
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<p>The rail system had been built by the French at the turn of the century, and was the brainchild of the Governor General of French Indochina, Paul Doumer. His name was given to the main bridge in the system; it crossed the Red River at Hanoi, and carried trains from four of the five segments of the rail network. Cut that single critical bridge, and Hanoi was cut off from China and the sea. As a bonus, Route National 1, the main highway north out of Hanoi, also was cut, because it crossed the Red River on the Doumer bridge.
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<p>It was a monstrous structure for that part of the world, a little longer than a mile, not counting its approach viaducts. Its 38-ft (12-m) width carried a 1-m gauge rail line in the center with a 10-ft (3-m) wide highway each side. It was held aloft by 18 hulking piers of reinforced concrete which bore the 19 separate spans of the bridge structure.
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<p>North of the bridge lay the flood plain area of the Red River, with villages and rice paddies. Hanoi was south and west of the bridge, and to the east was Gia Lam airfield and an industrial complex. Because of the proximity to Hanoi, the bridge remained in the restricted zone until mid-1967.
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<p>The attack force was built from the F-4s of Colonel Olds' 8th TFW, based at Ubon, Thailand, and F-105s from the 355th TFW at Takhli and the 388th TFW at Korat, both also in Thailand. Refueling would be the task of the KC-135As of Detachment 1, 4258th Strategic Wing, based at U-Tapao, Thailand. After the strike, the 11th and 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadrons would send paired RF-4Cs to photograph the bomb damage.
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<p>One flight of F-105s would be the Iron Hand team, with two F-105 'Wild Weasel' aircraft and two wingmen armed with iron bombs. Another four-plane flight would fly flak suppression. The main body would be the bombing force of F-105s, carrying two 3,000-lb bombs each instead of their usual load of 750-pounders, plus some F-4s carrying bombs. One flight of F-4s had been detailed to fly MiGCAP (MiG Combat Air Patrol) to defend against expected interceptors. EB-66Cs went along to jam radars and support the attack with their speciality of electronic warfare.
