U.S. Planes Hit North Vietnam

Apr. 3, 1965 - American planes bombed North Vietnamese bridges for the first time today, cutting Hanoi’s rail link with major bases and cities to the south.

The targets were the first in North Vietnam that were not solely military and were the farthest north since the U.S. began methodical air strikes on Feb. 7.

American pilots who took part reported the first sighting of Soviet-built MIG aircraft. They said three MIG’s had been in the air above one target, Dongphuong Bridge, 65 miles south of Hanoi, the Northern capital.

The bombed bridges had carried both rail and vehicular traffic. The U.S. Navy, flying jets and propeller-driven planes from the Coral Sea and the Hancock, aircraft carriers of the Seventh Fleet, hit the 500-foot bridge at Dongphuong twice.

Comdr. Joseph Schneiders of the Coral Sea said he led the first attack, with 30 aircraft, at 10 a.m.

Reconnaissance aircraft reported that the bridge had been only moderately damaged, and 30 more Skyraider and Skyhawk fighter-bombers returned to the bridge at 3 p.m.

Comdr. Schneiders, whose home town is Chula Vista, Calif., said the second strike had sunk one of the bridge’s three spans into the Ma River. Of another span, he said: “One good sonic boom, and it ought to drop.”

That bridge and a second one seven miles to the south are part of Highway 1, which connected Saigon and Hanoi until the country was divided under the Geneva agreements of 1954.

North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gunners shot down one U.S. Navy Skyhawk jet during today’s raid, and the pilot was believed captured. A Navy spokesman said the Skyhawk was shot down in the target area 65 miles south of Hanoi during the second raid against the Ma River Bridge. He said the pilot was seen on the ground waving after parachuting from the disabled plane, and later the flier was seen being surrounded by “local inhabitants.”

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