Attacking a Full Bridge Hex by Air

[JonS1]

Yes - and there is a great example where the Brits and French tried to knock out a German held Bridge in 1940 and not only were not successful, but they lost a hell of a lot of a/c doing so.

As I pointed out in the other thread, that was a function of the overall air situation and in particular the concentration of AA the Germans had around that bridge. It was not a function of a fundamental inability of a/c to drop bridges.

Selection of key points to be protected (HQs, supplies, tpt routes incl bridges, etc) is - IMO - very much a commanders dilemma. You can't protect everything, so figure out what's really important and protect that. Which is exactly what the Germans did at Sedan. Similarly, another commander's dilemma is figuring out what targets need to be attacked, and concentrating on those. Which, again, is exactly what the British and French did at Sedan, but the Germans did it better. In that instance.

Furthermore, and as I also said in the other thread (and has been referred to here independently by OJW) the USAAF got to the point where they could reasonably reliably drop Seine bridges with an eight (8) a/c strike. But, as a counter point, heavy bombers were hopeless for bridge destruction, taking hundreds of missions and thousands of bombs to achieve the same level of destruction.

Well I can tell you that the LGBs that the USN used to attack bridges in Viet Nam in '72 only needed one plane and one bomb during the Linebacker II strikes.

Well ... that's not really true, it is it?

On April 27 [1972], 12 Phantoms of the 8th Tactical fighter wing, ...attacked the Thanh Hoa bridge. 8 of their number carried laser-guided bombs. The raid was carried out without hitch, and when the dust of the explosions had cleared, it became apparent that the bridge had been dislodged from its western abutment, dropping one half into the river. To complete its destruction, a second attack was scheduled for the 13 of May. This time 14 Phantoms were engaged, with LGBs of up to 2,000 lb (910 kg) aimed at the central pillar supporting the bridge. Once again the attack was successful and the "Dragon's jaw" was rendered completely unusable. The US command, however, was not satisfied, and ordered a final attack on the 6th of October. This time US Navy A-4s successfully delivered six 2,000 lb (910 kg) LGBs on the target. After this, the Thanh Hoa bridge was considered permanently destroyed and removed from the target list.

Link. Making stuff up isn't a real effective way of getting your point across.

Note, incidentally, that the Thanh Hoa bridge was hit and disabled repeatedly between 1965 and 1972, although each time - up till Oct 1972 - it was repaired. Something to think about is just what "destroyed" means in the context of a scenario or campaign that spans, at most, up to about 10 weeks (thinking N'44 Grand Campaigns here).