Posted on 10/31/2001 4:00:53 PM PST by Pokey78
AMERICA intensified its attacks on Taliban front-line positions yesterday, launching the first raids by giant B52 bombers north of Kabul.
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The appearance of B52s cheered anti-Taliban commanders, who have spent the past week deriding American "pin pricks", and raised their hopes that the enemy positions might at last collapse. As a B52 barrelled across the sky, its four vapour trails clearly visible, the whole landscape appeared to shake.
It sent down one salvo of bombs, setting off a series of at least 15 explosions over a distance of half a mile, before returning for a second attack. Previous air raids on the strategic sector of the Taliban front line guarding the approaches to Kabul have been carried out by smaller fighter-bombers which release one or two bombs at a time.
The attacks continued throughout the day, and commanders said that it was the most intense since America began bombing the front line on Oct 17. "This is the most successful day so far," said Alou Zeki, commander of a sector of the front to the west of the Soviet-built Bagram air base. "If it continues like this, the front line will collapse and the Taliban can be defeated."
The intensified bombing was apparently in response to criticism from congressmen that America was not making enough use of its military clout. The B52 Stratofortress was used in the bombing of Cambodia, to destroy Iraq's Republican Guard during the Gulf war and against Yugoslav troops in Kosovo.
It was used against Taliban and al-Qa'eda bases in the early part of the campaign, but until now has not attacked Taliban front-line troops. The Pentagon indicated that additional US forces would move into Central Asia over the next few weeks from where they could attack targets in northern Afghanistan.
Several thousand troops, including Green Berets, have been in southern Uzbekistan for some weeks. Independent observers in northern Afghanistan have said that US F-15 Strike Eagle aircraft attacking Taliban front lines have flown off towards Uzbekistan.
The admission that more assets would be moved into the former Soviet republic came after a visit by Gen Tommy Franks, commander-in-chief of US Central Command, who is running the US campaign. US defence sources in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, said a number of countries were providing "concrete, solid assistance to the war on terrorism" but were not prepared to acknowledge this publicly.
Charles Heyman, editor of Jane's World Armies, said the movement of further assets to Uzbekistan came amid signs that the Americans were preparing to set up a forward operations base in northern Afghanistan as a prelude to a ground invasion in the spring.
Yesterday's raids have long been sought by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance to make up for their weakness in men, materiel and strategic location, as the Taliban control high ground on the approaches to Kabul. Northern Alliance officials have said repeatedly that three days of carpet bombing of the front lines would open the way to the capital.
But Alou Zeki was careful not to say when the march on the capital might begin. "I am glad they are bombing the troop concentrations, where there are no civilians to be killed," he said. "This is really weakening the Taliban." After the B52 raid, the whole front line - which can be silent for days - burst into life, with exchanges of mortar and machine gun fire.
There was a new buzz in the bazaars of the opposition territory that the phoney war might be drawing to a close. The streets seemed more warlike as soldiers adopted winter camouflage. There were reports that Russia was providing armour to boost the Northern Alliance's inventory. But no tanks have been seen crossing the icy pass through the Hindu Kush.
There has been great disappointment on the opposition side - and equal relief among the Taliban - that the American front-line raids have so far been relatively restrained. Reports from Taliban-controlled areas suggest that the militia are constantly on the move to avoid being hit.
Anti-Taliban commanders say they see signs of the enemy creeping back to their bases at night. But the air campaign has yet to deliver a blow that would persuade the Taliban that the balance of forces has turned against them.
It would be strategically unsound to attempt a massive sweep through the country until the rearground is secure. The rearground is other countries bordering Afghan that are either not friendly at the moment, or that are assisting to some limited degree.
The stated objective is to get the terrorist groups of global reach. If Afghan is harboring these groups, then military means are being used to change the situation so that the groups can be rooted out and destroyed. Afghanistan itself is of next to no interest to America, or probably to anyone else. The same goes for Islam. If we stay focused on the objective -- eliminating the terrorist groups of global reach wherever they are -- this can be accomplished and Afghan and whoever else is harboring the groups will be of no further interest to America.
If air bombing will aid in reaching this goal, then by all means continue. If some targets would respond to ground attack, then do that when feasible.
An Arc Light strike, from even miles away was terrifying. The newer B52 models, without the mods, carried 27 500lb bombs, I believe.
This pic:
I called up the page, right-clicked on the image, and left-clicked on 'Save Image Location'. The location is now stored in my right-hand (cache, really)
Then ya go to where ya wanna post the pic, do the < IMG SRC=", left-click, and right-click 'Paste', close with "> , and when ya hit 'Post', yer pic will appear.
The pic has to be somewhere on the web to post it here. If you see a pic, you can do the same thing, like this:
and here's the location of that pic: 'http://saturn.he.net/~danger/b52.jpg'.
You can make a free website in several places. Have fun, and Freepmail for help. We can learn anyone here, bud. I learned all my HTML right here - Thanks again, Michael....FRegards
Don't even try to leave. It will make you feel even more guilty when you come back!
Glad to have you here and look forward to your contributions.
You can check out Photopoint.com. They will host pictures (jpg, gif, bmp files) that you upload to their servers. You'll need to set up at least a $20/year account with them if you want to link those images to FreeRepublic. There are lots of other "free" web hosting sites but they often block the images from being linked to another domain. Even Photopoint is iffy due to it's unprofitable business model.
If you have print photos and need to get them in electronic format, scanners are fairly cheap and will give you plenty of resolution for web based imaging. You can also go to a neighborhood print shop and they can probably help too.
Damn Commies... Audio
Most of the bombers were in use for only about 7 years or less---B-17, B-29, B-36, B-49, etc. but the B-52 has been in use since 1954. BTW, there was once a movie starring Jimmy Stewart about another jet bomber. Was that the B-49? Whichever it was, I don't think it was in use for more than about 4 years when the B-52 made it obsolete.
The response was....Imagine that (sic level of bombing), 24hrs a day.
We haven't even scratched the surface of what we can do.We are picking and choosing the spots to drop.We could probably intensify this to unbelievable proportions but what would that prove? Why p^ss away bombs just for show...
The two aircraft shown in the movie were the B-36 Peacemaker and the B-47 Stratojet. I had the chance when I was a kid during the 50s to actually see a B-36 up close at an Armed Forces Day open house. Six pusher piston engines and 4 jet engines and just a HUGE aircraft. I believe they nicknamed it "The Aluminum Overcast."
Yeah, the B-47 is the one I remember now. Apparenly that bomber wasn't used for long. Wasn't there also a Delta wing Bomber, The B-70 in development in the 1960s but that project had to be cancelled when that bomber crashed in its first test flight?
http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/history/bna/xb70.htm
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