Change of Weather

North Viet Nam's major cities of Hanoi and Haiphong are normally blanketed by thick monsoonal clouds at this time of year. But for six brilliantly sunny days, the weather changed and the clouds lifted. Lifted, too, were some of the restrictions that Washington had imposed on the flight paths of U.S. fighter-bombers, enabling them to fly through the air space adjacent to China and around Hanoi. The combination sent U.S. pilots of the Air Force, the Navy and Marines pounding away day after day last week at vital transportation points throughout North Viet Nam. There was no lack of targets: under a month of cloud cover, the North had repaired much of the damage from previous raids; freight cars were everywhere on the move, truck traffic had tripled.

Eight spans of the Paul Doumer bridge leading into Hanoi were dropped into the Red River, putting the bridge out of use for the third time. Upriver, two spans of the Canal des Rapides bridge were sent sagging into the water, and two of Haiphong's main bridges were put out of use again. Bombs ripped up the oft-repaired runways of the Kep, Phuc Yen and Hoa Lac MIG bases.

Up and down Ho Chi Minh's domain the attackers ranged, cutting rail lines and roads, taking out trains, trucks and barges, bombing missile sites and antiaircraft batteries. Even by the Jovian standards of Operation Rolling Thunder, the code name for the air war against North Viet Nam, it was a spectacular performance: the most devastating six days of the air war.

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