Customer Reviews

F-105 Thunderchief Units of the Vietnam War (Combat Aircraft)

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From 1965 to 1968, Republic Aircraft's sleek F-105 was the main USAF strike aircraft of the Vietnam War. Facing some of the most sophisticated air defenses in the world, the Thud drivers from units such as the 366th and 388th TFWs pounded North Vietnamese targets day after day in an air campaign doomed from the start by White House mismanagement. By war's end, 397 F-105s had been lost, the highest losses on any USAF aircraft in the war. Peter Davies summarizes the war record of the F-105D and -105F crews who pitted their bravery and skill against Uncle Ho's MiGs, SAMs and AAA units in this 2010 Osprey 'Combat Aircraft' release, #54 in the series.

The F-105 had been designed for a tactical nuclear attack mission. Given the topsy-turvy world of Vietnam War politics, the Thud was loaded up with six 750-lb. bombs and mis-used as a strategic strike aircraft while the strategic B-52s leveled forests in tactical strike ops. Over North Vietnam, the F-105's glass jaw - a highly vulnerable hydraulic system - was revealed, a flaw that cost the Thud units dearly. Aside from bombing missions, the Thud was also later utilized in anti-SAM Iron Hand ops. And the needle-nosed warbird also downed 27 MiGs to boot.

After a short history of the F-105's development, Davies details its introduction to combat in late 1964/early 1965 via TDYs by units like the 18th TFW, 23rd TFW, etc. The main players - the 366th and 388th TFWs - soon took up shop at Takhli and Korat RTAFBs respectively and went to war. The learning curve of the Thud - and all US air units - over North Vietnam was a painful one and not aided by the White House dictating mission routes, attack formations and bomb-loads! The chapters on 'Rolling Thunder' and 'Strikes and Losses' paint a grim picture of the results. Davies also recounts the MiG battles fought by Thud crews and, lastly, the even more-dangerous Iron Hand/Wild Weasel missions flown by two-seater F-105F crews. Comments from Jack Broughton and a number of other F-105 drivers enliven the text. I wish Osprey had added a few more pages to include more comments from those other Thud drivers along with a list of F-105 MiG killers, etc.

F-105 THUNDERCHIEF UNITS OF THE VIETNAM WAR features a nice selection of b&w and color photographs of aircraft, crews, weapons, etc. and nine pages of Jim Laurier's always excellent color profiles. The cover by Gareth Hector is a stunning piece of artwork.

As a short, comprehensive and well-illustrated history of the F-105 at war, Peter Davies' book is hard to beat. It's a good read and a fine tribute to some brave airmen! recommended.

Osprey's new F-105 Combat History book does full justice to the men and machines and the god awful Washington direction of the air war in SEA with the 105. The airplane was a tremendous asset and did a job it was never designed for with many pilots and WSO's oweing their lives to it's ability to substain heavy damage and still get them RTB or at least far enough to eject with a pick up possible. The staggering loss rate only shows the quanity of AAA,SAM, and MiG defences they had to fly into. The restrictions placed on targets and weapons allowed by the DC "Planners" and 7th AF border on criminal action in time of war. The books points this out many times. The profiles are useful for model builders to a degree but should always include a top view for this purpose also. Over all another fine book from the publisher.

The F-105 Thunderchief was a stalwart in the air arm during the Vietnamese War (the aircraft was referred to derisively and by some of its supporters as the "Thud"). While its design began in 1953, it was not until years later that it was deployed. It was a workhorse in the Vietnamese War (page 6), "having completed 20,000 missions and suffered 330 losses to the most concentrated air defences ever experienced."

This volume, one among a number in Osprey's "Combat Aircraft" series, examines the development of this airplane, its problems (early on, there were a number), its modification, and its service during wartime. The discusion considers its role in Laos, the massive "Rolling Thunder" campaign, its fights with Migs, and the evolution of a small number of the F-105s into "Wild Weasels," designed to take out radar. The aircraft was asked to do things that it was not really designed for, but it did its job effectively.

A good solid work on a workhorse airplane from the Vietnamese War.

First off; this book is a great read from start to finish. It's very well researched and contains copious amounts of photos and color plates as one would expect from Osprey. Having read numerous books on Thud Drivers from the Viet Nam era I knew what to expect and was not disappointed. As a scale model enthusiast, I found the pictures to be of great help.
The salient point that runs through the entire book is how well these guys did in the face of stupidity and excessive rules put in place by those who had no business doing so. It's a testament to their resolve and sense of duty that I think will be most remembered. Speaking for myself I'm not sure I could have tolerated the B.S as well as they did!
As an aside: I recommend Ken Bell's book et al., to understand the complexities of what went on. That said, I can say this book was well worth the cost.

The F-105 is one of my favorite aircraft so I was excited to see this book.There is not much else out there going into much detail about the 105 in Vietnam to be honest the only other book I have read is "Thud Ridge" and some other books that cover the entire air war. The first thing that I really liked about this book was its coverage of operations in Laos which comes up before Rolling Thunder which is logical as action started over Laos in 1964.The author must have done a lot of research for this book because with anything related to the Vietnam era there is the "USAF" version and then there is the version that the actual airmen can tell you the author clearly spoke to the airmen when he wrote this book.This fact makes the book very enjoyable because it allows you to understand just how hard the airman fought in Vietnam and often times for Thud jocks it seems that most of the "brass" was as much an enemy as North Vietnam thanks to the confused way they managed the war. It interesting to me how dedicated most jocks where many of them flew well past the 100mission mark some did 2 tours in 105 and then switched to F-100 or F-4s or where going to do so but got killed or captured before hand.

This book is loaded with information about F-105 operations and the insight given by actual pilots is very interesting like how they "misunderstood" orders to fly in formations that would have made them easy prey for AAA.The book has many good photos in it and of course a section of drawings of various aircraft.There also many good photos of the flight line and Ammo troops using a jammer and crew chiefs at work there is even a photo of an AGE troop towing a dash 60 with a Ford tractor which I really liked as I was an AGE troop in the USAF though many years after Vietnam we still use dash 60s.

Some of the aircraft in the profile section where fairly interesting a few of them ended flying long careers a few thousand hours past the supposed life span of the airframe one of the aircraft is on display at Lackland AFB right on the main road in front of the basic training squadron dorms I do not know how many wound up being static displays but several must have been so lucky because there was an F model in front of my tech school as well some less lucky 105s wound up being ground targets at ranges a sad fate for a plane that survived the toughest air defense in the world only to be scraped later.

I purchased this as a gift for a friend who was a Thud driver with the 80th TFS. Altough his particular deployment was early-on ( Rolling Thunder )and therefore mentioned only briefly, he was impressed with the book's detailed accounts of subsequent flight ops and its quality photos. A solid Four-Star.