IBRARY Maudaicrry Review
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SC7
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Preliminary Assessment of Black Shield Photographyndctober
Sumrr.ary
Three double-pass Black Shield missions flown over North Vietnamndctobercloud-free photographic coverage of aboutercent of the country, including the Hanoi,Pinghsiang and Dong Dang areas. All of North Vietnam's six major airfields, more than half of theites, overercent of the rail network north of the panhandle, andriority bridges and raiJ yards for bomb damage assessment were photographed. No evidence of surface-to-surface missile deployment was noted.
Note: This memorandum was prepared by the Directorate of Intelligence.
Three double-pass Black Shield missions flown over North Vietnamndctober provided cloud-free photographic coverage of aboutercent of the country, including the Hanoi, Haiphong, Pinghsiang and Dong Dang areas. ctober) and4ctober) flew two passes each over the area of North Vietnam north of the panhandle. One ofs passes was along the China border area. ctober) flew one pass primarily over the panhandle and the other pass along the China border area. No evidence of surface-to-surface missilewas noted.
Surface-to-Air Missile Sites: Over half of theites in North Vietnam were photographed by the three missions. Two new sites were detected. Thectober mission aloneites. Fourteen of these sitesnoccupied, andould only be identified. Thectober mission coveredites. On*
of these sites waa occupied,noccupiedone newndould only be identified. Thectober mission coveredites. of these sites were occupied (including one new4 unoccupied, and five could only be identified.
Good coverage of all sixVietnam's major airfields was provided byOctober mission. With the exceptionrateredtheappeared to be serviceable.
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4. At Phuc Yen Airfield, the bomb craters on the runway had beon filled in and the airfield seemed to be capable of supporting at least limited fightor
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strikes included: bomb craters on the two mainaprons and the parallel taxiway; interdiction of the taxiway to the northern aircraft revetments by one bomb crater; tworobably destroyed
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two other aircraft possibly destroyed; and seven damaged aircraft revetments.
Hoa Lac Airfield, all bomb cratersrunway had been repaired, and the runwaybe serviceable. At Haiphong/Kien An Airfield,
all bomb craters on the runway had bean repaired, making it serviceable. Other bomb craters could be seen on the half-loop taxiway, in six parkingand adjacent to the parallel taxiway.
from thectober missionconstruction at Yen Bai Airfield inpart of North Vietnam. Concretehave been laid for part of the runway and Three parking aprons, ircraft and a dispersal taxiway were identified. the first sign of progress at this airfield since
une. Photography taken at that time showed that preparations had been made to surface the runway. After four months, the Chinese engineers still have not completed the runway, although they havemade progress on some of the adjacent facilities.
7- Air Order-of-Battle: Th*ctoberof the six major airfields showed very few At Phuc Yen Airfield, ten aircraft could be seen: two small swept-wing aircraft, four possible aircraft, two probably destroyed, and two sibly det
At Hanoi/Gia Lam Airfield, oneas observed. Two derelictnd two duaaayere noted at Hoa Lac Airfield.
9. Naval Order-of-Battle: Thectoberphotographed the normal complement of navalin the Haiphong area. Identifiable vesselsthreelass submarine chasers, three or
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four Swatow-class gunboats,lass motor torpedo boats, andlass motor torpedo boats.
10. Bridges: ctober mission provided good coverage of the most important bridges. The Paul Doumer Railroad and Highway Bridge over the Red River was shown to be unserviceable. One span had been dropped into the river and the two adjoining spans had been severely damaged.
11' ThS Canal des RaPi<*es Railroad and Highway Bridge also was shown to be unserviceable. One span at the south end of the main bridge had been knocked out of position. The alternate rail bypass bridge was also unserviceable.
In the Haiphong area, the three mainrailroad and highway bridge and two highwayobserved to be still Ten highway bypass bridges there were
Transshipment Points; Photographyhowed normal levels ofactivity at the Ping-hsiang and Dong Dang railroad transshipment points.ieces of rolling stock, including flatcars carryingnidentifiable objects, were noted at Pinghsiang. ieces of rolling stock andocomotives were observed at the nearby Dong Dang transshipment point.
Thectober photography alsorobable rail-to-road transshipment point undernear Ho-Kou, China, just across the border from Lao Cai, North Vietnam. The installation is served by two rail spurs off the Kunming-Hanoi rail line. nstallation mayann,supply shipments via' truck to northwestern North Vietnam. "Chinese engineers have peen developing the road network and logistical fa-cilitles in the border area for the past two year's.'
Railroad lines: ctober missionercent of the Haiphong-Hanoi rail line.
ercent of the Dongline,ercent of the Kep-Thai Nguyen-Hanoi line,ercent of the Lao Cai-Hanoi line, andercent of the Hanoi-Dong Hoi line.
16. Hanoi Thermal Power Plant: Photography ofctober showed daxagc at.t the plant. ole in the generator hall roof indicatedossible internal detonation. Another hole in the generator hallhad beenafter theugustbeenossible hit immediately north of the coalentered the new boiler-house section. (This possible hit apparently did not detonate.) rater was visible on the north boundary of the plant. Aboutivilian structures in the areathe plant have been destroyed andamaged. No smoke or steam from the plant was evident.
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Original document.
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