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Operation Barrel Roll


Tramatoa

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Good afternoon all,

Can anyone help me out with a quick random question?

What would constitute a typical load out for a B52 engaged on Op Barrel Roll? I'm looking at a photo with a clearly defined pattern of 30 plus craters of two different sizes in a roughly straight line which might indicate a mix of 750 & 1000lb iron bombs, certainly not like you would expect from a mass cluster of 500lb ordinance as seen in some Arc Light pictures. Whatever dropped this stick was a long, long way up so I assume it was a B52 but I am happy to be corrected. I know its a bit vague but I can't post the pic.

Any help would be most welcome.

Thanks,

Tramatoa

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The occasional B-52 strike may have happened, but it appears that the overwhelming types of aircraft employed in Barrel Roll (Northern Laos) were tactical types such as T-28, F-4, AC-119, F-100, AC-47, etc.

 

B-52 conventional loadouts during Vietnam were chiefly (but not exclusively) Mk 82 and M117 bombs.

 

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a586115.pdf

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Gentlemen,

Thank you so much for the pointers, it never ceases to amaze me how much knowledge this community has. 

I'd considered the F105 & F4 as possible contenders but the load outs they carried in combat would likely never get near the maximum and whatever caused the craters in this instance was flying a straight track, high up, possibly using a rotary dispenser which has resulted in a series of evenly spaced holes with minimal lateral drift. Hence the assumption that a B52 was the culprit.

Fascinating stuff and I have some reading to do tonight to catch up with you. Once again thanks.

Tramatoa

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1 hour ago, Tramatoa said:

possibly using a rotary dispenser

The Common Strategic Rotary Launcher (CSRL) was developed in the 1980's, for the B-52H only, and was not designed to be used with ordinary GP bombs. Back in the 60's, only bombracks were used.

 

 

5 hours ago, Tramatoa said:

I know its a bit vague but I can't post the pic

May I ask why?

Edited by Creepy Pete
grapejuice
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Operation Barrel Roll saw a bit more than occasional strikes by the B-52 force: as part of this operation, the USAF launched operation Good Look, that saw around 2500 individual missions with over 58,000 tons of bombs dropped in a small area of Northen Laos over 3 years.

Edited by Giorgio N
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Creepy Pete,

I was asked for help by someone working on this and I can't put the picture on here at the moment, please accept my apologies. Maybe we can have a proper look at it later in the year as I would like to know a bit more about the sequencing of bomb release. In my youth the closest I got to anything that could go bang was hanging upside down with my head under a Tornado ejector seat trying to find missing canopy hinge nuts, bolts and washers and I make no claims to know anything about things under wings. 

Again, thanks to everyone for the help.

Tramatoa

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