yes, and I know two member of the crews of the two cells that perished on that 3rd leg of the operation.
I was dumbfounded about the “misplanning” when other crew managed to return and decades later bitched about the planning.
then decades later, I read the Vietnam excepts, it was a gamble as these anti-aircraft missile launchers were mobile enough to try for a different flight path. But they didnt change the missile sites. Mentions were made that it would have had taken too long to pack-up/move/recalibrate. I would have faulted on-ground intelligence for that lack of insight.
at any rate, modern gaming (Monte Carlos?) theory says always to try different routes.
I was dumbfounded about the “misplanning” when other crew managed to return and decades later bitched about the planning.
then decades later, I read the Vietnam excepts, it was a gamble as these anti-aircraft missile launchers were mobile enough to try for a different flight path. But they didnt change the missile sites. Mentions were made that it would have had taken too long to pack-up/move/recalibrate. I would have faulted on-ground intelligence for that lack of insight.
at any rate, modern gaming (Monte Carlos?) theory says always to try different routes.