AMAJOR EFFORT TO � nd
a replacement for the
piston-engine Douglas
B-26 Invader light bomber/
ground attack aircraft
started long before the
Korean War ended in 1953. In fact, by
1950 the number of B-26s in service was
dwindling rapidly and � gures issued by
the USAF stated that they would all be
gone by 1954, so something had to be
done, and fast. There were several types
to choose from, including the Martin
XB-51, North American B-45 Tornado
and North American AJ-1 Savage.
Another possibility was the English
Electric Canberra bomber, which had
made its maiden � ight in May 1949. On
February 21, 1951 it became the � rst jet
to make a non-stop, unrefueled � ight
across the Atlantic Ocean when it � ew
from Britain to the US to be evaluated
against the other potential B-26
replacements. The tests took place on
February 26, 1951 and the Canberra was
a clear winner.
The Glenn L. Martin company entered
into an agreement with English Electric
to produce the Canberra in a modi� ed
form, under license in the US as the
B-57. The � rst of the new bombers
for the USAF made its � ight debut,
Stateside, in mid-1953.
As the situation in south-east Asia
began to heat up in the early 1960s,
a pair of reconnaissance-con� gured
RB-57Es were deployed to South
Vietnam as part of Project ‘Patricia
Lynn’ in April 1963. The two high-
altitude recce aircraft were tasked
with seeking out enemy troops who
were redeploying during the hours
of darkness and Viet Cong bases. The
Canberras proved highly successful,
and the deployment carried on right
through until 1971.
Combat Aircraft reviews the success of the B-57 in battle over
south-east Asia during the Vietnam War, as it rained down
bombs with accuracy in support of ground troops.
REPORT Warren E. Thompson
A B-57B heads north out of Phan Rang air base to bomb targets in North Vietnam. During the later stages of the war, this camoufl age scheme replaced the bare metal fi nish. John DeCillo
via author
January 2019 // www.combataircraft.net82
Bombers enter the frayThe USAF’s 8th ‘Liberty’ and 13th ‘Grim
Reaper’ Bombardment Squadrons
were the � rst B-57 units to get the call
to arms. Late in the evening of April 5,
1964, orders came through for both
squadrons to prepare for immediate
deployments to Bien Hoa Air Base in
South Vietnam. They received the ‘go’
command and were fully up to speed in
theater four months later.
On the night of October 31, 1964 the
Viet Cong launched a deadly mortar
attack on Bien Hoa in which � ve B-57s
were destroyed and several others
damaged. It was a warning sign of how
vulnerable aircraft were on the ground.
The Canberra crews stood ground alert
and � ew visual reconnaissance missions
over the many roads leading into South
Vietnam, but no bombs were carried
and no strike missions were assigned
during the early days. The crews had
to simply ‘grin and bear it’ when their
counterparts in Douglas A-1 Skyraiders
� ying from Bien Hoa engaged in good-
natured banter about the B-57’s lack of
combat experience. These A-1 pilots,
along with Vietnamese airmen, were the
stalwarts of the air war against the Viet
Cong in the mid-1960s.
The B-57 pilots were itching for a
chance to prove their worth. Late on
February 18, 1965, the order � nally
came, sending the Martin type on
its � rst live bombing mission. The
armament crews worked through the
night, loading aircraft with four 750lb
bombs on the wings and nine 500lb
bombs in the weapons bay. Wing
guns were loaded with high-explosive
incendiary (HEI) ammo.
The mission objective was only 50 miles
away, but everything had to be exactly
right. This sortie, and many more that
followed, led to the two-man B-57 crews
excelling in hitting di� cult, well-defended
targets and ensured their position among
the close air support elite in Vietnam.
Capt Bill Madison remembers his time in
the B-57 during the early years of the war.
‘It was a joy to � y with a 65ft wingspan and
chord of nearly 30ft. It could make very
short-radius turns. It held 3,000 gallons
of fuel with wing tips [tanks], which gave
us range and loiter time over any target.
The Canberra had a rotor-type bomb door
that, when closed, was an upside-down
bomb rack. The door could hold 21 260lb
frag bombs or 12 250lb GPs, or we could
Inset: A rare patch — the only way aircrew could earn one was to fl y at least one night mission over North Vietnam. via Warren Thompson
83www.combataircraft.net // January 2019
load the 500lb or 1,000lb bombs instead.
The four external pylons under the wings
could be itted with anything up to the
large cluster bombs.
‘Outside of the wing bomb racks were
two rocket rails on each wing that could
be loaded with pods that carried either
seven or 19 2.75in rockets. We didn’t
have self-sealing fuel tanks; instead we
carried nitrogen that would be gently
blown into the empty tanks, greatly
reducing the risk of ire should we have
taken hits from ground ire. The B-57
was well-known for its accuracy and
dive-bombing capabilities. This meant
that we stayed down low on many of the
missions, which put us well within range
of enemy ground ire. But, on the other
hand, we could easily cruise up above
40,000ft. One day, on a test hop, I took
one up to 54,500ft and that was about
the maximum.’
More contactsTowards the end of February 1965, B-57s
were called to the aid of two Vietnamese
combat companies. The troops were
surrounded and under heavy attack by
the Viet Cong along Route 19 in the An
Khe valley in the central highlands. Since
the clouds hung only 2,000ft above
the terrain, the jets switched tactics to
level bombing, swooping in to keep the
enemy pinned down while helicopters
lifted the friendly forces to the safety of
nearby An Khe airield. B-57s covered
one side of the road and North American
F-100 Super Sabres the other, amid
Left top to bottom: This photograph was taken shortly after the Viet Cong attacked the B-57 flight line at Bien Hoa in 1965. Shelley Hilliard via author
Ordnance crews get a B-57 ready for the next mission. Ed Brousson via author
Below: 13th Bomb Squadron B-57s fly over Mount Fuji in Japan. Brian Parker via author
GLORY DAYS // B-57 IN VIETNAM
January 2019 // www.combataircraft.net84
Our Canberra rolled
into a dive and
dropped two 750lb
bombs into a thick,
green jungle canopy.
Our intelligence
indicated it was a Viet
Cong command post
and communications
center. A huge
secondary explosion
produced a dirty grey
mushroom cloudMaj Frank R. ‘Smash’ Chandler
withering ground � re and the ever-
present danger of being blown out of the
sky by their own bomb bursts at such a
low altitude.
Maj Frank R. ‘Smash’ Chandler, of the
13th Bomb Squadron, one of the most
experienced navigators in theater,
recalls a mission he � ew with pilot Maj
‘Nails’ Nelson (the unit CO) to hit a target
45 miles east of Saigon. ‘Our Canberra
rolled into a dive and dropped two 750lb
bombs into a thick, green jungle canopy
below. Our bombs fell squarely on the
smoke grenades that had been dropped
seconds before by a forward air controller
[FAC]. Our intelligence indicated it was
a major Viet Cong command post and
communications center. We sure struck
a nerve with the bombs because there
was a huge secondary explosion that
produced a dirty grey mushroom cloud.’
Chandler’s was not the only B-57 to
strike that area. Both the 8th and 13th � ew
another 15 sorties, many of their bombs
causing secondary explosions. Each of
their attack runs was controlled by a FAC.
Days later, friendly troops entered the area
and reported that the entire complex,
which — unexpectedly — had turned
out to be a large ammunition dump, had
been destroyed. It was another big plus in
determining how accurate the Canberra
force could be.
Nocturnal operationsCapt Bill Madison � ew many night
missions in the B-57. ‘I � ew with the 13th
Bomb Squadron out of Phan Rang and
a large percentage of my missions were
night,’ he remembered. ‘On a typical
path� nder � ight, we would brief on the
target area which included the join-up
point with our [Douglas] EB-66, which
would be departing from its base in
Thailand. We would head out in a three-
ship formation to meet at a designated
point using TACAN navigation, so � nding
each other was our � rst goal. Once we
hooked up, we moved into a diamond
formation with our EB-66 in the lead. As
we headed toward the target, we would
hold at an altitude of about 24,000ft.
‘We had a ‘tattletale’ beeper and � ashing
light box that came on during radar or
SAM [surface-to-air missile] detection
and our escort would shut the threat
down. About two minutes out, we would
get a call to arm. At that time, we would
rotate our bomb doors open and arm our
entire bomb load. We had a time-release
mechanism to schedule bomb separation
and 150ft was a good setting. I have to
admit, many of our pilots, with a fast
thumb, did not use the installed release
timer. After the release, the EB-66 — using
its great jamming abilities against SAMs
and radar — would lead us to a safe area
where we would part company and return
to our respective bases.
‘On one occasion, one of our B-57 pilots
elected to turn and go back the same
way we came in to the target area rather
than continue over North Vietnam. A
SAM got him in less than two minutes
after he broke away from the shield of
protection provided by the path� nder.
‘One night, while we were out there
bouncing around on the wings of the
path� nder inside of the very low-visibility
clouds there was a lightning strike that
lit the sky around us. One of the B-57
navigators got on the radio and said, ‘Did
you see the bottom of the lead aircraft?
It looks like a comb’. Of course, he was
talking about all the antennae on our
ECM EB-66 that was keeping us out of
harm’s way.
Top: An aerial view of the B-57 revetments at Phan Rang in the mid-1960s. via author
Right: 8th Bomb Squadron B-57Bs leaving their base in the Philippines on the way to South Vietnam in August 1964. Bruce Kramer via author
85www.combataircraft.net // January 2019
After climbing and making a quick 180° turn, we went
down the opposite side of the road and shredded a lot of
trees as we expended the remainder of our ammo
Maj Ernie Carlton
angle to the road, but reduced our total
exposure time to the � ak than if we had
made two normal passes. We made the
drop and hit at least four trucks while
rolling out on a heading for Nakhom
Phanom [NKP]. The reason for this was
we had spent more time in the area than
anticipated, which put us too low on fuel
to get back to Phan Rang.
‘The sun was just coming up when we
took o� from NKP and headed back to
our main base, leveling o� at 28,000ft.
Suddenly, we heard a frantic call on the
guard channel and it was in Vietnamese.
We were just passing over a small base in
the central highlands, Pleiku. We called
down to see if we could help them as
we still had our 20mm rounds intact. We
learned that a South Vietnamese truck
column had been ambushed and the
lead truck was on � re. They were awaiting
the arrival of a gunship, but they were in
dire straights, so we rolled over and went
down to help. It was the only stra� ng run
I ever made that started at 28,000ft as we
skimmed down over the trees still � ring
on one side of the road. After climbing
and making a quick 180° turn, we went
‘Later, path� nder missions were
replaced by ‘Sky Spot’ missions where
radar controllers on the ground vectored
us into targets of possible interest on
bad weather days. Not long after that,
we began to run short of bombs. At
that time, we were sent out with maybe
20 per cent of a gun load and just two
bombs to hit a defended target. The
typical ‘Sky Spot’ drop altitude was
at 24,000ft. As I recall, the path� nder
concept was pretty much short-lived as
we were in the process of moving out of
Phan Rang.’
Cluster bombsOn some of the daylight search and
destroy missions, the B-57s were
loaded with four 500lb general purpose
bombs and four ‘funny bombs’. The GPs
were used to cut the road and destroy
stranded road tra� c. The latter bombs
were identi� ed as M62s and each carried
900 1lb Thermite bomblets. The primer
cord would open the weapon up like
a clamshell at about 1,000ft above the
ground and they would disperse out over
an area close to that of a soccer � eld.
Maj Ernie Carlton, a pilot in the 8th
Bomb Squadron, � ew these missions
and describes what proved to be one of
his toughest. ‘We were vectored north of
Dong Ha to hit some North Vietnamese
Army [NVA] trucks coming down the
coastal highway at night. The mission
was pretty routine as we walked our four
GPs across the road and blocked it both
ways. As we leveled out to climb up for
the ‘funny bomb’ run, all hell broke loose.
The 35mm � ak looked like a blanket of
red at their burst altitude of 12,000ft. I
often wondered how we got by it without
taking hits. At this point, we immediately
decided to drop four of the M62s in one
pass. This meant coming in at a smaller
Top: A B-57 cartridge start on the Phan Rang AB alert pad in 1967, with napalm on the wing stations. John DeCillo via author
Above: This B-57 is dropping a maximum load of 500lb bombs on the Viet Cong. via Warren Thompson
January 2019 // www.combataircraft.net86
GLORY DAYS // B-57 IN VIETNAM
down the opposite side of the road and
shredded a lot of trees as we expended
the remainder of our ammo. As we
pulled up to leave, we saw an AC-47
gunship arrive over the smoking column
and we watched as it leveled everything
on both sides of the road. We never
heard any more of the incident, but it
had been just another average day for a
B-57 crew.’
Soon after their arrival at Da Nang,
the B-57s were assigned to � y � ak
suppression missions with the Fairchild
C-123 ‘Ranch Hand’ aircraft. These
defoliation sorties were � own low and
slow, and hits from ground � re were the
norm rather than the exception. The
‘Ranch Hands’ and the Canberra � iers
immediately established a � ne rapport
and set about developing tactics that
would make the fast B-57 compatible
with the slow-moving C-123. The result
of their experimentation was what was
tagged locally as an ‘alternating spiroid
maneuver’. As the C-123s sprayed the
jungle in echelon, the Canberras would
spiral back and forth across the top
of them. Each bomber, in turn, would
have the area immediately ahead of the
‘Ranch Hands’ in his gunsight so any
enemy ground � re could be neutralized
immediately.
Fighting onThe bitter air war over the plains and
jungles of south-east Asia became ever
more ferocious and the Canberras were
superseded by newer, more capable
types such as the Phantom. By the late
1960s nearly all of the early-model B-57s
had been withdrawn from the � ght.
However, the newer B-57Gs, equipped
with sophisticated sensors, deployed to
Thailand in the fall of 1970 for Operation
‘Tropic Moon III’. Their tenure lasted
until May 1972.
The B-57 was a solid performer for
many years, but o� cial USAF records
show that 15 of them were lost during
operations in South Vietnam. Another
� ve came to grief � ying missions over
the north, and 11 failed to return
from sorties over Laos. B-57s logged
more than 31,750 sorties during their
outstanding presence in south-east
Asia and were much feared by the
enemy. The aircraft proved itself to be a
remarkable warrior.
Top: A photo from May 1965 as the 8th Bomb Squadron returned to Clark AB in the Philippines from a tour in South Vietnam. Bruce Kramer via author
Above: B-57Bs loaded with fuel and ordnance at Phan Rang AB. via Warren Thompson
87www.combataircraft.net // January 2019