Bombing Encylopedia

"The Bombing Encyclopaedia (BE), later renamed the Basic Encyclopaedia, was a comprehensive U.S. Air Force catalogue of potential bombing targets developed during the Cold War. Each target was assigned a unique eight-digit BE number, typically formatted as four numbers separated by hyphens."

According to the CIA Reading room FOI files the first four digits which are in the format "0616" refer to the World Aeronautical Chart (WAC) where the target is located.  I would expect to find values with the following ranges:

0737

0738

0739

0615

0616

0617

The SEADB and CATC files have a field POSTB which when reading the detail from the 1970 description document indicates that a strike mission would use characters 1-12 for the BE number and all other characters (1-15) would be used for Recce Mission details.  This means that it is possible to extract the BE number from the cell with a bit of excel.

The POSTD field, in the 1967 set, has, what appear to be, free text descriptions which map to the BE detail for some target classes

BE values in the series 0615, 0616 and 0617 all appear in the record set for 1967 at least

Understanding the CATC records

 The data was grouped into sets

Control Set - (Mission Identification)

Sequence of mission

HQ

Target

 Sortie

Unit ID

Fixed Set  - (Mission Function)     

Classification

Nickname

Target Information

Coordinate of target

Terrain

Weather

Cloud cover

Periodic Set 1 - (Enemy Defences)

Position

Number

Response Time

Type of Fire

Periodic Set 2 - (Missile Data)

Tactical Unit

Missile position

Maneuver time

Visibility

Periodic Set 3 - (Load data)

Delivery Information

Periodic Set 4 - (Results data)

Measure of result

Periodic Set 5 - (Air Incident)

Friendly or enemy

Loss

Damage

Abort

Diversion

Time

Tactics

Period Set 6 - (Comments)

Comments

Record Structure V1

 This is my current analysis of the decode table.  It is WIP and a new one will be uploaded once I move to the 1966 record set.  I have discovered that cl_4203 only contains 3 records each of 1 character and assume that the clock position record is erroneous.

Downtown Scenario - Hang on Snoopy (Pt 2)

     Carrying on from Part 1

Chris Hobson's book mention a second strike later in the day.  Going back through the CATC set for October/November there is an Iron Hand Mission being flown out of Danang.  This is a USMC EF-10

Downtown Scenario - Hang on Snoopy (Pt 1)

This is a summary of the research into a user scenario for the Downtown system. It is set in October and November of 1965 during the early periods of Operation Rolling Thunder.

The background is based on the following snippets put together from various sources:

RT38 29-Oct-65 04-Nov-65 The USAF was assigned the Phu Ly RR Bridge and the Dong Em SAM Support Facility; the Navy was given the Hai Duong RR/Highway Bridge, Me Xa Highway Bridge and the Lang Luong Highway Bridge, with the Kep Highway Bridge as an alternate. Navy struck the Kep Highway Bridge on 31 October, with all spans reported off their piers and in the water.

RT39 05-Nov-65 11-Nov-65 The USAF was assigned the Phu Ly RR Bridge and the Dong Em SAM Support Facility; the Navy was given the Hai Duong RR/Highway Bridge, Me Xa Highway Bridge and the Lang Luong Highway Bridge, with the Kep Highway Bridge as an alternate. On 5 November the Hai Duong Highway Bridge was struck by Navy with damage reported to the east span.

The USAF struck both its targets on 7 November, dropping two spans of the Phu Ly RR Bridge and damaging 22 buildings of the Dong Em SAM Support Facility. On 8 November, moderate damage was inflicted on the Me Xa Highway Bridge.

The data can provide conflicting information and we are relying on several layers of transcription in recording the data into machine readable formats. There are also a range of snippets of narrative from a number of sources which can add or obfuscate the actual events

For example

The OPREA data from 62-67 with a basic filter applied for the first mission date and missions flown into North Vietnam throws this up

Another set of data from a set labelled 62-66 has similar data

What I do know is that the F-105s are reported as being part of a joint strike.  They were assigned an Iron Hand Mission and had a USN A-4 Skyhawk assigned as a pathfinder in support of the developing activities to improve SAM suppression.  The 8 F-105s were all assigned to attack one SAM site.  The Pathfinder, Skyhawk 151173, from Oriskany was shot down and the Pilot killed.  The periodic set in the archives contains some data:Chris Hobson's book says that a total of 27 SAMs were launched at this raid and another strike later in the day.

The Shoot down time is reported in the US archives as being 241 which I assume to be 0241.  But that isn't necessarily reflected in the data yet so more digging.

The CATC files have more reporting detail.  There are just under 110000 lines of data for the Period October/November 1965.  A filter on the date (assuming data entry is correct) throws up this data. Broken down by Launch Base and Operation.

RT = Rolling Thunder, BT = Blue Tree, IH = Iron Hand, SD = Steel Dart, VN = a possible data error, an USMC F-4 Flight into NVN.

What we do know is that the two Iron Hand flights led by Lt Cdr Powers (KIA) came from Takhli, the flights were numbered 2321 and 2322.  The two flights are listed as attacking Field Defences and AA.

The data indicates a local TOT between 0335 and 0336. The lat and long is close to Kep

What we don't have at the moment is the separation of the strike package from the USN