F-105s flying cover against migs?

Once the 105 dropped its bombs, it should have been a capable air to air machine…albeit not in the class of the Phantom or 21.

It’s not quite like a He-111 in the BoB. 😀

Did they run short of f-4s or something?

There is something the F-105 had that no F-4 had at that time, an internal cannon and sighting system.
Considering that the Thud was a large fighter bomber it equited itself well against MiGs.

Fighter development of the 1950s and early ’60s relied just too heavily on missile AAM missile development and many designs dropped the gun option altogether, that was fine for the envisaged scenario of intercepting a large enemy bomber or fighter and using radar guidence to conduct the kill with missiles. Come the Vietnam war and the close in dog fights encountered it was realised just how valuable a weapon the gun was, thankfully designs such as the Thunderchief and Crusader had a cannon and a decent aiming system built in to the design, the Phantom obviously did gain an external cannon after a while.
Don’t forget that the 105 was more fighter than the F-4 which was an interceptor, the one thing that Vietnam did was to prove successfully that both designs could do all sorts of tasks, fighter, bombing, anti-ground missile strike, well.

I remember seeing some incredible Thud vs MiG footage somewhere viewed through the American’s gunsight, the action in front of the pilot was just chaotic with MiGs dropping in and out of view with the odd Thunderchief getting in the way aswel.

Apparently North Vietnamese Migs shot down 22 F105’s in the war (SAM’s and flak claimed the rest), where the F105 shot down 27 MIGS, Not sure of the time lines though possibly there was insufficent available phantoms in the area or for the strike package.

Or maybe it is just a general perception that the Phantom was the fighter and the Thud was just the bomb truck, where in tonnage the Phantom dropped a lot more bombs but was more widespread though.

curlyboy