Originally Posted by TopHatter

Tell that to the aircrews of the more than 50 aircraft lost attacking the Dragon’s Jaw Bridge at Than Hoa. The Dragon’s Jaw was struck by almost seven hundred aircraft with more than 10,000 tons of ordnance between 1965-1968 without success. In 1965 alone, the Air Force and the Navy sent more than 800 sorties against the Dragon’s Jaw and lost 11 aircraft in the process.


SEVEN YEARS LATER...

In 1972, during Linebacker, Air Force F-4s dropped the Dragon’s Jaw Bridge with 24 laser guided bombs.

USS New Jersey could have dropped that bridge and levelled everything around it with a day's work.

Primary weapons system or not, the aerial bomb took another 30 years from your "pre world war II" date to bring itself on par with the battleship's firepower and accuracy.