|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Air Force Korean War Chronology50 - 51 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
| |
Congressional Medal of Honor Korean War
The U.S. Air Force's First War: Korea 1950-1953 Significant Events 1950
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
August 1950
The North Koreans continued their offensive into South Korea, advancing on the UN's perimeter around Pusan from three directions: toward Masan from the west, toward Taegu from the northwest, and toward Pohang from the north. The communists even established bridgeheads over the Naktong River, along which UN forces held a defensive line. The United States launched its first ground offensive of the war, advancing from Masan westward toward Chinju to stabilize the southwestern end of the Pusan perimeter. The approach of enemy troops forced USAF units to evacuate Taegu and Pohang, where they had only recently arrived.
The USAF moved two additional B-29 groups from the United States to the Far East, making a total of five in the theater. During August, the Superfortresses bombed marshalling yards, industrial targets, and port facilities in North Korea, marshalling yards in Seoul, and bridges in both North and South Korea, especially in the Seoul area. They also conducted one major carpet-bombing raid near the front.
The Fifth Air Force continued to raid enemy lines of communication, airfields, and close air support targets in South Korea. Fifth Air Force B-26s and F-82s conducted night raids south of the 38th parallel. The H-5 helicopters based at Taegu evacuated 124 casualties from the battlefields of South Korea.
During August, General MacArthur and his staff drafted plans for the invasion of Inchon, near Seoul, which would take place in September. In support of the planned UN offensive, Far East Air Forces devoted most air resources to the interdiction campaign. By mid-month, each North Korean division was receiving less than twenty-two tons of food, fuel, and ammunition, a mere trickle of what was needed to maintain enemy positions against a UN attack. To coordinate the growing airlift between Japan and Korea and to prepare for the coming invasion, Far East Air Forces organized a provisional Combat Cargo Command. General Stratemeyer failed to persuade MacArthur to give Far East Air Forces sole responsibility for all air raids over North Korea.
August 1: The 6147th Tactical Control Squadron, Airborne, was established at Taegu for forward air control operations with T-6 aircraft. Forty-six B-29s of the 22d and 92d Bombardment Groups bombed the Chosen Nitrogen Fertilizer Factory at Hungnam, the largest chemical plant in the Far East.
August 2-3: In response to an Eighth Army request, the 374 Troop Carrier Group (TCG) airlifted 300,000 pounds of equipment and supplies from Ashiya AB, Japan, to Korea in twenty-four hours, a new airlift record for the war.
August 3: The 18th FBG headquarters moved from Japan to Taegu, South Korea, for expanded F-51 operations. SA-16 amphibious rescue aircraft began flying sorties along the Korean coast to retrieve U.S. pilots forced down during operations.
August 4: B-29 attacks against key bridges north of the 38th parallel initiated FEAF "Interdiction Campaign No. 1."
August 5: Maj. Louis J. Sebille, USAF, Commander, 67th FBS, dived his damaged F-51 into an enemy position. For this action he posthumously received the first Medal of Honor awarded to a USAF member. In the first SA-16 rescue operation of the war, Captain Charles E. Shroder led a crew in saving a Navy pilot who had crashed into the sea off the Korean coast.
August 6: Far East Air Forces began nightly visual reconnaissance of enemy supply routes.
August 7: The 98th BG flew its first mission in the Korean War shortly after twenty of its B-29s landed at Yokota, Japan. The 822d Engineer Aviation Battalion completed the first phase of new runway construction, which allowed expanded USAF operations at Taegu.
August 8: The enemy threat to Taegu forced the 18th FBG to evacuate to Ashiya, Japan. The 307th BG, newly based in Okinawa, flew its first mission.
August 10: The U.S. Air Force called up two Reserve units, the 437th TCW and the 452d Bombardment Wing (BW), for Korean War service. Forty-six B-29s of the 22d, 92d, and 98th BGs hit an oil refinery and railroad shops at Wonsan, North Korea.
August 11: C-119 Flying Boxcars began airlifting trucks from Tachikawa AB in Japan to Taegu, South Korea.
August 12: USN Task Force 77 stopped close air support and interdiction strikes in South Korea and moved up Korea's west coast to attack interdiction targets in North Korea, leaving all air attacks in South Korea to Far East Air Forces. More than forty B-29s attacked the port of Rashin in northeastern Korea, near the border of the Soviet Union.
August 13: Endangered by the NKA advance to Pohang, two squadrons of F-51s in the 35th FIG moved from nearby Yonil AB, South Korea, to Tsuiki AB, Japan.
August 16: Because of the enemy threat to Taegu, the advanced Fifth Air Force headquarters moved to Pusan. Ninety-eight B-29s carpet-bombed suspected enemy troop concentrations in a twenty-seven-square-mile area near Waegwan northwest of Taegu. The Superfortresses dropped more than 800 tons of 500-pound bombs in the largest employment of airpower in direct support of ground forces since the Normandy invasion of World War II. Subsequent reconnaissance showed little destruction of enemy troops or equipment, because they had already left the area.
August 19: U.S. troops, aided by air strikes, drove North Korean forces in the Yongsan bridgehead back across the Naktong River, ending the Battle of the Naktong Bulge. Sixty-three B-29s attacked the industrial and port area of Chongjin in northeastern Korea. Nine Superfortresses of the 19th BG dropped fifty-four tons of one thousand-pound bombs on the west railway bridge at Seoul, called the "elastic bridge" because repeated air attacks had failed to bring it down. Thirty-seven USN dive bombers from two aircraft carriers followed up the USAF attack. Aerial reconnaissance the next day revealed that two spans had collapsed.
August 19-20: General Partridge moved the Joint Operations Center from Taegu to Pusan because of enemy advances.
August 22: Antiaircraft gunners fired from across the Yalu River at RB-29s reconnoitering the border, the first hostile Chinese action against UN aircraft.
August 23: General MacArthur set September 15 as the date to invade Inchon. The 19th BG flew the first Razon mission, but with the exception of one bomb that hit the railroad bridge west of Pyongyang, the World War II-era control equipment failed to guide the bombs to the target.
August 25: Far East Air Forces directed Fifth Air Force to maintain constant armed surveillance of enemy airfields to prevent enemy build-up of air strength before the Inchon invasion.
August 26: Fifth Air Force organized the 47th and 48th Troop Carrier Squadrons (Provisional) at Tachikawa with C-46s from all over the Far East theater to augment FEAF airlift resources for UN offensives planned for September. At Ashiya, Japan, Far East Air Forces organized the 1st Troop Carrier Task Force (Provisional) as the nucleus of the new Combat Cargo Command (Provisional). Maj. Gen. William H. Tunner, USAF, architect of the "Hump" airlift of World War II and the Berlin airlift , 1948-1949, assumed command of Combat Cargo Command.
August 27: Two USAF Mustang pilots accidentally strayed into China and strafed an airstrip near Antung, mistaking it for a North Korean airstrip at Sinuiju. The Chinese exploited the incident to the fullest for propaganda and diplomatic purposes. The 92th BG sent twenty-four B-29s to Kyomipo to bomb the largest iron and steel plant in Korea. Far East Air Forces experimented with delayed action bombs to discourage enemy repairs on bridges.
August 30: Before dawn an experimental B-29 flare mission illuminated the Han River in the Seoul area for a B-26 strike on an elusive enemy pontoon bridge, but it could not be found. B-26s attacked the permanent bridge.
August 31: After a ten-day lull in the ground fighting, North Korean forces launched a coordinated offensive against the entire Pusan perimeter. Fifth Air Force provided close air support for the defending UN troops. Seventy-four B-29s bombed mining facilities, metal industries, and marshalling yards at Chinnampo in the largest strategic bombing mission of the month. Among the targets were aluminum and magnesium plants.
September 1950
September witnessed the first major turning point in the Korean War. At the beginning of the month, North Korean forces were at the threshold of total victory, but by its end they were in full retreat across the 38th parallel.
A final desperate week-long communist offensive along the Pusan perimeter failed to drive UN and ROK forces out of Korea. Relentless air attacks exacted a terrible price on enemy forces, and by mid-September, with the Eighth Army prepared to go on the offensive, UN forces confronted a starving enemy who was short of ammunition and other essential supplies. At the same time, General MacArthur launched an amphibious invasion at Inchon, just west of Seoul and more than 150 miles northwest of the front lines. While U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft covered the invasion area, the USAF cut enemy lines of communication and patrolled enemy-held airfields to keep them out of action. The Inchon invaders drove a wedge between the North Korean Army in the south and its main supply routes in the north, threatening to cut it off and squeeze it against advancing Eighth Army forces from the southeast. Hoping to escape the trap, the North Koreans retreated rapidly northward. By the end of September, U.S. forces from Inchon and Pusan had linked up near Osan. UN forces captured over 125,000 prisoners of war (POW). UN troops marched into Seoul and restored the ROK government there.
FEAF activities in Korea rose to a crescendo during September. Bomber Command pursued a major B-29 strategic bombing campaign to its conclusion, attacking North Korean industrial facilities and troop training centers in such cities as Wonsan, Hungnam, Hamhung, Pyongyang, Songjin, and Chonjin. Superfortresses also raided marshalling yards and railroad junctions in North Korea and flew interdiction and close air support missions in South Korea for the Eighth Army offensive. The Fifth Air Force moved fighter squadrons from Japan back to Korea and began basing jet fighters there. Fifth Air Force F-51s, F-80s, and B-26s destroyed large numbers of tanks and enemy troop concentrations, allowing UN and ROK forces to move northward to the 38th parallel. Combat Cargo Command, using newly recaptured airfields at Kimpo and Suwon, airlifted ammunition, rations, and other supplies to the fast-moving UN forces. Seventy C-119 flights airlifted a pontoon bridge from Japan to the Seoul area to span the Han River for UN troops. Flying Boxcars also dropped paratroops and supplies at the front, while C-54s, having delivered supplies to bases near Seoul, returned to Japan with casualties who had been airlifted from the battle area by H-5 helicopters.
September 1: Fifth Air Force strafed and dropped napalm and bombs on NKA troops and armored columns attacking along the Naktong River front. Carrier-based aircraft from USN Task Force 77 also provided close air support to the perimeter defenders. The 21st TCS dropped rations and ammunition to U.S. troops temporarily cut off by the enemy thrusts. General MacArthur directed General Stratemeyer to use all available FEAF airpower, including B-29s, to help the Eighth Army hold the "Pusan Perimeter," the southeast corner of the Korean peninsula that South Korea still controlled.
September 3: Task Force 77 withdrew its aircraft carriers from the Pusan area for replenishment at sea and movement north to strike communications targets, leaving all close air support responsibility with Far East Air Forces.
September 4: In the first H-5 helicopter rescue of a downed U.S. pilot from behind enemy lines in Korea, at Hanggan-dong Lt. Paul W. Van Boven saved Capt. Robert E. Wayne. Three squadrons of C-119 Flying Boxcars arrived at Ashiya AB in Japan for use in the Korean War.
September 6: As North Korean forces approached Taegu, Eighth Army headquarters withdrew to Pusan. Col. Aaron Tyler, airfield commander at Taegu, began moving the remaining aircraft, including the T-6 "Mosquitoes" of the 6147th Tactical Control Squadron, southward to Pusan.
September 7: FEAF Bomber Command attacked the iron works at Chongjin in the extreme northeast of North Korea, employing 24 B-29s of the 22d BG.
September 8: The 18th F BG, which had departed Korea a month earlier, returned from Japan, settling at Pusan East (Tongnae).
September 9: North Korean forces attacking southeast of Hajang reached a point only eight miles from Taegu, their farthest penetration on the western front. FEAF Bomber Command began a rail interdiction campaign north of Seoul to slow enemy reinforcements , which might counter the UN Inchon landing. In this campaign, the medium bombers combined attacks on marshalling yards with raids to cut rails at multiple points along key routes.
September 10: As a result of the USN Task Force 77's unexpected withdrawal from close air support of the Eighth Army on September 3, General Stratemeyer persuaded General MacArther to direct that all close air support requests must be routed through the Fifth Air Force. If Fifth Air Force lacked resources to meet the requests, they were to be forwarded to FEAF headquarters for coordination with the Commander, Naval Forces, Far East.
September 13: Typhoon Kezia hit southern Japan, hampering FEAF operations and forcing some aircraft to move temporarily to Pusan and Taegu.
September 15: U.S. Marines invaded Wolmi-do in Inchon Harbor at dawn, occupying the island in less than an hour. The main U.S. X Corps landings at Inchon occurred at high tide, in the afternoon, after a forty-five-minute naval and air bombardment. USN and United States Marine Corps (USMC) aircraft from carriers provided air cover during the amphibious assault. At the same time, FEAF air raids in South Korea prepared the way for the planned Eighth Army advance from the Pusan perimeter.
September 16: U.S. forces secured Inchon and began moving toward Seoul. From the vicinity of Taegu, the U.S. Eighth Army launched its long-awaited offensive.
September 17: U.S. Marines captured Kimpo Airfield near Seoul. To support the Eighth Army offensive, Fifth Air Force F-51s and F-80s flew napalm attacks, reportedly killing over 1,200 enemy soldiers in Tabu-dong, Yongchon, and other strongholds near the Naktong River. Far East Air Forces began a week of dropping four million psychological warfare leaflets.
September 18: Forty-two B-29s of the 92d and 98th Bombardment Groups carpet-bombed two 500x5000-yard areas near Waegwan. The 1,600 bombs effectively destroyed enemy troop concentrations blocking the Eighth Army offensive.
September 19: FEAF Combat Cargo Command began an airlift to Kimpo, located near Seoul.. Thirty-two C-54s landed with equipment and supplies for ground troops. Supported by Fifth Air Force close air support missions, the 24th Infantry Division began crossing the Naktong River near Waegwan, and the 1st Cavalry Division broke through communist lines.
September 20: FEAF Combat Cargo Command expanded its airlift into Kimpo into an around-the-clock operation by using night lighting equipment it had transported the previous day. U.S. Marines entered the outskirts of Seoul. To destroy enemy reinforcements, B-29s attacked three separate barracks areas in and near Pyongyang, North Korea.
September 21: USAF forward air controllers in T-6 Mosquitoes equipped with air to ground radios spotted about thirty enemy tanks preparing to ambush the advancing 24th Infantry Division. They called USAF aircraft and USA ground artillery, which destroyed fourteen enemy tanks and forced the rest to flee. FEAF Combat Cargo Command C-54s began airlifting supplies, including sixty-five tons of rations and ammunition to newly captured Suwon airfield south of Seoul. C-119s initiated airdrops of food and ammunition to front-line UN troops.
September 22: North Korean resistance crumbled all along the Pusan perimeter. Lt. George W. Nelson, a USAF pilot in a Mosquito aircraft, dropped a note to 200 enemy troops northeast of Kunsan demanding their surrender. They complied, moving to a designated hill to be captured by nearby UN ground troops. B-29s dropped flares over rail lines, allowing B-26s to attack enemy trains at night.
September 23: HQ Fifth Air Force in Korea moved from Pusan to Taegu. In the first recorded special operations mission of the war, SB-17 aircraft of the 3d Air Rescue Squadron made a classified flight in Korea.
September 25: Far East Air Forces flew flare missions over Seoul all night to allow USMC night fighters to attack North Korean troops fleeing the city. FEAF Combat Cargo Command landed a battalion of 187th Airborne Regiment paratroopers at Kimpo to guard the U.S. Army's X Corps' northern flank as it moved out from Inchon.
September 26: U.S. military forces from Inchon and Pusan linked up near Osan, while ROK troops with Fifth Air Force support moved northward along the east coast toward the 38th parallel. Twenty B-29s of the 22d BG bombed a munitions factory at Haeju, destroying the power plant and five related buildings. Other B-29s belonging to the 92d BG raided the Pujon hydroelectric plant near Hungnam. These attacks marked the end of the first strategic bombing campaign against North Korea. Fifth Air Force organized the provisional 543d Tactical Support Group at Taegu to manage tactical reconnaissance squadrons in Korea.
September 27: U.S. Marines drove enemy forces from Seoul and took control of the capital building. More than a hundred communist troops, each carrying a "safe conduct pass" that B-29s had dropped, surrendered to U.S. forces near Seoul.. The Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered General MacArthur to destroy the North Korean Army, which involved crossing the 38th parallel into North Korea. Only ROK troops were to be allowed by the UN Command in provinces bordering China and the Soviet Union. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also cancelled further strategic bombing of North Korea. FEAF Combat Cargo Command finished airlifting the 187th Airborne Regiment to Kimpo.
September 28: ROK troops advanced into North Korea for the first time. General MacArthur officially restored Seoul to ROK President Syngman Rhee. The first jet fighter squadron to operate from a base in Korea, the 7th FBS moved from Itazuke to Taegu. Three RB-45 Tornadoes, the first jet reconnaissance aircraft in the USAF inventory, arrived in the Far East.
October 1950
By this month few organized units of North Korean soldiers remained in South Korea. General MacArthur prohibited further destruction of rail facilities south of the 38th parallel unless the enemy were actively using them. UN and ROK forces advanced steadily into North Korea, taking Pyongyang and Wonsan and driving toward the Yalu River, which ROK troops reached by the end of the month. During October, most Fifth Air Force subordinate combat organizations-four fighter groups and two reconnaissance squadrons-and much of the support infrastructure moved from Japan to Korea. UN forces captured North Korean airfields at Wonsan, Sinmak, Pyongyang, and Sinanju, all of which became available to Far East Air Forces and Fifth Air Force aircraft. A scarcity of strategic targets in North Korean permitted the return of the 22d and 92d Medium Bombardment Groups to return with their B-29s to the United States. The FEAF interdiction campaign against enemy bridges south of the Yalu River concluded, and as the daily number of fighter and bomber sorties declined, daily cargo sorties increased. During the month, FEAF aircraft transported 2,840 patients within Korea and 3,025 patients from Korea to Japan. To communicate a surrender ultimatum from General MacArthur, FEAF aircraft dropped 4,440,000 leaflets over parts of North Korea not yet in UN hands. Just as a united, non-communist Korea seemed within reach, over 180,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) troops slipped over the Yalu River into North Korea.
October 2: In an effort to crush NKA reinforcements, twenty-two FEAF Bomber Command B-29s attacked a North Korean military training area at Nanam, destroying seventy-five percent of the buildings. The 8th TRS moved from Itazuke, Japan, to Taegu, Korea, to become the first USAF day reconnaissance squadron stationed in Korea.
October 3: In a message to the Indian ambassador, China warned that it would send troops to defend North Korea if non-Korean UN troops moved north of the 38th parallel.
October 4: Far East Air Forces gained operational control of all land-based aircraft in Korea, including USMC squadrons at Kimpo. Anticipating the acquisition of enemy air installations, Far East Air Forces stopped most attacks on airfields south of the 40th parallel. The 2d South African Air Force (SAAF) Fighter Squadron, theUnion of South Africa's contribution to UN airpower, arrived in the theater and was attached to Fair East Air Forces.
October 6: The U.S. Air Force took charge of Kimpo airfield, which the U.S. Marine Corps had commanded since its capture. Eighteen B-29s attacked an enemy arsenal at Kan-ni, North Korea. Far East Air Forces issued a new interdiction plan canceling attacks on bridges south of Pyongyang and Wonsan.
October 7: The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution authorizing General MacArthur to move into North Korea. For the first time, U.S. troops crossed the 38th parallel. USAF airplanes dropped food to a group of 150 former POWs who had escaped during the North Korean retreat.
October 8: Two F-80s accidentally strafed a Soviet airfield near Vladivostok, USSR, on the coast northeast of the Korea border. General Stratemeyer removed the group commander, reassigning him to FEAF headquarters, and instituted a court martial of the two pilots. Razon bomb missions resumed after more reliable radio-guided bombs arrived from the United States. The 162d TRS moved from Itazuke, Japan, to Taegu, becoming the first night reconnaissance squadron stationed in Korea.
October 10: A 3d ARS H-5 crew administered, for the first time while a helicopter was in flight, blood plasma to a rescued pilot. The crewmembers received Silver Stars for this action.
October 12: FEAF Combat Cargo Command began an airlift of ROK military supplies to Wonsan, which ROK forces had captured two days earlier. It also began transporting 600 tons of bridge sections to Kimpo airfield.
October 14: Two communist aircraft raided Inchon harbor and Kimpo airfield. Far East Air Forces suspected they had come from Sinuiju, North Korea, on the Chinese border. CCF troops began to enter North Korea from Manchuria.
October 15: General MacArthur, in a meeting with President Truman on Wake Island, predicted that the war would be over by Christmas and China would not intervene. CCF antiaircraft artillery for the first time shot down an F-51 over the Yalu River near Sinuiju. Headquarters Fifth Air Force in Korea opened in Seoul.
October 17: Just one day after the capture of Sinmak, less than fifty miles southeast of Pyongyang, North Korea, FEAF Combat Cargo Command began airlifting fuel and rations there to sustain a UN offensive toward the North Korean capital. The command also began aeromedical evacuations from Sinmak to Kimpo.
October 18: An RB-29 reconnaissance crew spotted more than seventy-five fighters at Antung's airfield in China, just across the Yalu River from North Korea, suggesting that Communist China might intervene in the war.
October 19: After a battle at Hukkyori, some ten miles south of the North Korean capital, UN forces entered Pyongyang. Fifth Air Force fighters provided crucial air support to U.S. 1st Cavalry Division troops during this battle.
October 20: FEAF Combat Cargo Command dropped the USA 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team thirty miles north of Pyongyang. Seventy-one C-119s and forty C-47s participated in the operation, dropping more than 2,800 troops and 300 tons of equipment and supplies at Sukchon and Sunchon. The command also began airlifting Eighth Army supplies to Pyongyang.
October 21: UN forces from Pyongyang linked up the with 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team in the Sukchon and Sunchon area. H-5s of the 3d ARS evacuated some thirty-five paratroopers in the first use of a helicopter in support of an airborne operation. H-5s also evacuated seven American POWs from the area. A C-47 equipped with loudspeakers persuaded some 500 enemy troops hiding in houses south of Kunmori to surrender. Combat Cargo Command began aeromedical evacuations from Pyongyang.
October 23: The cargo command concluded its fourth consecutive day of airlift for the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team. The Flying Boxcars had airdropped almost 4,000 troops and nearly 600 tons of materiel, including jeeps, trucks, and howitzers.
October 24: General MacArthur removed restrictions on how far U.S. troops could move into North Korea, giving them permission to go all the way to the Chinese border.
October 25: FEAF Bomber Command temporarily quit flying combat missions for lack of B-29 targets in Korea. Far East Air Forces removed all restrictions on close air support missions near the Yalu River, allowing fighter operations all the way to the Chinese border. FEAF Combat Cargo Command set a new daily record by airlifting 1,767 tons of equipment within Korea.
October 26: ROK forces reached the Yalu River along the Chinese border at Chosan in northwest Korea. Chinese forces severely savaged a ROK battalion near Onjong. ROK and UN troops captured the first CCF prisoners. FEAF Combat Cargo Command C-119s dropped supplies to friendly ground troops cut off in North Korea, delivering twenty-eight and a half tons of ammunition, fuel, and oil near Unsan, some fifty miles south of Chosan.
October 27: Chinese soldiers moving into Korea attacked the ROK 6th Infantry Division near the Yalu River. The 452d BG flew its first B-26 combat mission in the Korean War, less than a month after it was called to active duty in the United States.
October 29: C-47s made aeromedical flights from newly captured Sinanju, North Korea, the northernmost Korean airfield FEAF aircraft ever used. Sinanju was located at the mouth of Chongchon River, some forty miles north of Pyongyang.
November 1950
As UN forces occupied most of North Korea, Superfortress strikes on enemy ports and bridges over the Yalu River failed to shut off the flow of Chinese forces to North Korea. Even if FEAF bombers had been able to destroy every fixed bridge over the Yalu, the Chinese could have crossed on pontoon bridges or on thick ice that covered sections of the river by the end of the month. Unable to overfly Manchuria, B-29s attacked the bridges by following the course of the river. Fighter escorts could only fly on the Korean side of the bombers. Enemy fighters and antiaircraft guns based in China threatened the Superfortresses and persuaded Far East Air Forces to restrict their flights in the area. FEAF Bomber Command B-29s dropped incendiary bombs on enemy ports and supply and communications centers close to China. Following General MacArthur's orders, the command initiated in early November a two-week campaign of incendiary attacks on North Korean cities and towns to destroy supplies and shelter for enemy troops.
For the first time since July, USAF pilots shot down enemy aircraft in Korea, reflecting an intensification of the air war. Soviet-built MiG-15 swept-wing jet fighters, faster than any USAF aircraft in the theater, entered the war, flying from Chinese sanctuaries. During the month, USAF F-80s shot down a few MiGs, although some USAF fighters suffered heavy damage in these encounters. The United States transported F-84 and F-86 fighters to the Far East by sea, but by the end of the month the had not yet entered combat. At the request of General Partridge, Commander, Fifth Air Force, FEAF Combat Cargo Command diverted airlift resources from the logistical support of ground forces to move three F-51 fighter groups from South Korea to bases in North Korea.
The three RB-45 aircraft, which finally received proper photographic equipment after more than a month in the theater, began flying missions. But snow covered the North Korean landscape, hiding enemy installations, equipment, and troops.
Eighth Army units concentrated along the southern bank of the Chongchon River in northwest North Korea to prepare for a final offensive. General MacArthur launched his attack the last week in November, but the Chinese Communist Forces responded with an almost immediate counteroffensive that ended hopes of sending U.S. troops home by Christmas.
November 1: Three Yak fighters attacked USAF airplanes, including a B-26, over northwestern North Korea. The B-26 crew claimed one Yak, and two F-51 pilots shot down the other two enemy aircraft, scoring the first aerial victories since July. F-80s attacked Sinuiju airfield, destroying several Yak fighters on the ground, but antiaircraft artillery located across the Yalu River shot down a FEAF jet. Later that day, six MiG-15 jets appeared for the first time in the war and fired on a T-6 and a flight of F-51 Mustangs in the Yalu River area. A regiment of the USA 1st Cavalry Division experienced a strong CCF attack in the first encounter of the war between U.S. and Chinese forces.
November 2: Far East Air Forces flew the first RB-45 Tornado jet reconnaissance mission in the war.
November 3: In the face of strong CCF attacks, General Walker ordered the bulk of the Eighth Army to withdraw to the Chongchon River for regrouping and resupply.
November 4: B-26s providing close support for the Eighth Army attacked enemy troops near Chongju, killing an estimated 500 soldiers and providing hard-pressed U.S. troops some relief.
November 5: Bomber Command began incendiary bomb attacks on North Korean cities and towns. Twenty-one B-29s of the 19th BG dropped 170 tons of fire bombs on Kanggye, located less than twenty miles south of the Chinese border. The attack destroyed sixty-five percent of the town's center.
November 8: In the largest incendiary raid of the Korean War, seventy Superfortresses dropped some 580 tons of fire bombs on Sinuiju on the Chinese border. Other B-29s attacked bridges over the Yalu River for the first time. When MiG-15s challenged F-80s flying in the same area, Lt. Russell J. Brown, USAF, 16th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), shot down a MiG to score the first jet-to-jet aerial victory in history.
November 9: A 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron gunner, Sgt. Harry J. Levene, scored the first B-29 jet victory of the Korean War, destroying an attacking MiG-15. The damaged RB-29 limped back to Japan, but five crewmen died in the crash landing.
November 10: MiG-15s near the Yalu River shot down a B-29 for the first time. The crew, assigned to the 307th BG, parachuted behind enemy lines to become POWs. Less than thirty-six hours after its arrival in Japan, the 437th TCW began airlifting cargo on C-46s to Korea.
November 13: UN forces of X Corps, based in Hungnam, North Korea, began moving northward, with a regiment of the 1st U.S. Marines Division advancing into the Changjin Reservoir area.
November 14: Fifteen MiG-15s attacked eighteen B-29s bombing the bridges at Sinuiju and damaged two.
November 18: For the first time, a USAF fighter group moved to North Korea. The 35th FIG, which had also been the first fighter group based in South Korea, settled at Yonpo Airfield, near Hungnam.
November 19: In the first massed light bomber attack of the Korean War, fifty B-26s from Japan dropped incendiary bombs on Musan, North Korea, on the Tumen River border with China. The attack destroyed seventy-five percent of the town's barracks area.
November 20: FEAF Combat Cargo Command airdropped rations and gasoline at Kapsan, some twenty miles south of the Yalu River, to supply the 7th Infantry Division, the U.S. ground unit advancing the farthest north during the war.
November 24: To support the UN offensive beginning this day, B-29s attacked North Korean communications and supply centers and Yalu River bridges, while Fifth Air Force fighters intensified close air support missions, and FEAF Combat Cargo Command air-dropped ammunition to front-line troops.
November 25: Chinese Communist forces launched a major offensive and, with almost double the number of MacArthur's U.S. troops, stopped the UN offensive completely. The Royal Hellenic Air Force Detachment, a C-47 transport unit representing Greece's airpower contribution to the war, arrived in the Far East and was attached to Far East Air Forces.
November 26: USAF B-26s flew their first close air support night missions under tactical air control party (TACP) direction. The 3d BG flew 67 B-26 missions along the Eighth Army's bomb line in a five hour period. Still, the enemy drove the Eighth Army in northwest Korea and the X Corps in northeast Korea southward.
November 28: The FEAF Combat Cargo Command began a two-week airlift of supplies to U.S. troops, whom the Chinese had surrounded in the Changjin Reservoir area. From Yonpo, North Korea, the 35th FIG flew intense close air support missions for the encircled forces. For the first time, B-26s, using a more accurate radar than previously, bombed within 1,000 yards of the front line,. A small communist aircraft bombed U.S.-held Pyongyang Airfield, badly damaging eleven P-51 Mustangs on the ground. General MacArthur informed Washington that he faced "an entirely new war."
December 1950
Pressured by overwhelming numbers of CCF troops, the U.S. Eighth Army withdrew from western North Korea. Far East Air Forces aided this withdrawal by a "reverse airlift" that allowed U.S. forces to take out most of their equipment and supplies. FEAF Combat Cargo Command airlifted food and ammunition to encircled elements of the X Corps and evacuated their sick and wounded troops. The X Corps' units concentrated at Hungnam, so that the UN forces could leave eastern North Korea by sea. By the end of the month, the UN line had fallen back to near the 38th parallel, and most of North Korea was back in communist hands.
Three USAF fighter groups withdrew from North to South Korea, reducing Fifth Air Force's ability to provide air support for both Eighth Army and X Corps at the same time. Nevertheless, effective Fifth Air Force attacks on Chinese Communist Forces forced them to abandon daytime movements. FEAF Bomber Command conducted almost daily B-29 raids against North Korean cities that served as enemy supply or communications centers, including Sinanju, Anju, Kanggye, Pyongyang, and Wonsan. Far East Air Forces embarked on a new interdiction plan that divided North Korea into ten zones. The zones made target destruction more systematic and allowed Far East Air Forces and U.S. Navy aviation to coordinate their missions better. FEAF F-86s and F-84s entered combat in North Korea to challenge communist MiG-15s flying from Manchurian sanctuaries.
The newly organized Boat Section of the 6160th Air Base Group (ABG) received one 104-foot boat, one sixty-three-foot boat, and two 24-footers, with which it conducted fifty-one search and rescue missions.
December 1: The USS Cape Esperance arrived in Japan with F-86 fighters of the 4th FIW. Fifth Air Force headquarters moved from Nagoya, Japan, to Seoul, South Korea, and its newly activated 314th Air Division assumed responsibility for the air defense of Japan. In the first prolonged MiG attack of the war, six MiG-15s engaged three B-29s for six minutes, damaging them considerably despite the F-80 escorts. FEAF Combat Cargo Command evacuated about 1,500 UN casualties from the Pyongyang area.
December 3: U.S. troops from the Changjin Reservoir area fought their way to Hagaru-ri, while a relief column from Hungnam fought its way toward them, reaching Koto-ri, about seven miles away. Communist troops prevented the two groups from linking and encircled them both, forcing them to rely on airlift for resupply.
December 4: MiG-15s shot down one of the three USAF Tornado reconnaissance aircraft in the theater, making the first successful jet bomber interception in airpower history.
December 5: UN forces abandoned Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, which they had held since October 19. Greek C-47s joined the FEAF Combat Cargo Command airlift to supply UN troops surrounded in northeastern Korea. The command evacuated 3,925 patients from Korea to Japan in the biggest day of the war for aeromedical airlift. Transports flew most of these from a frozen airstrip at Hagaru-ri. The U.S. Air Force suspended attacks on the Yalu River bridges, because enemy forces were crossing the frozen river on the ice.
December 6: The 27th Fighter Escort Wing (FEW), a Strategic Air Command unit from Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas, began flying combat operations from Taegu, South Korea, introducing F-84 ThunderJet fighters to the war.
December 7: FEAF B-29s bombed North Korean towns in the Changjin Reservoir area to relieve enemy pressure on U.S. Marine and Army units attempting to break out from Hagaru-Ri and Koto-Ri. Troops in those two locations finally linked and built crude airstrips that allowed FEAF Combat Cargo Command airplanes to land food and ammunition and to evacuate casualties. Eight C-119s dropped bridge spans to the surrounded U.S. troops so that they could cross a 1,500-foot-deep gorge to break the enemy encirclement. This was the first air-dropped bridge in history of warfare.
December 10: A two-week FEAF Combat Cargo Command airlift for surrounded U.S. troops in northeastern Korea concluded after delivering 1,580 tons of supplies and equipment and moving almost 5,000 sick and wounded troops. Participating airlift units conducted 350 C-119 and C-47 flights.
December 11: The X Corps began loading on ships in Hungnam Harbor.
December 14: As Chinese forces approached, FEAF Combat Cargo Command began an aerial evacuation from Yonpo Airfield near Hamhung. A FEAF airplane dropped the first tarzon bomb to be used in Korea on a tunnel near Huichon, with limited effectiveness. The tarzon bomb was a six-ton version of the razon bomb, but generally it did not live up to expectations.
December 15: The 4 FIG inaugurated F-86 Sabrejet operations in Korea. FEAF Bomber Command launched its first mission in a new zone interdiction plan. ROK forces completed their withdrawal from Wonsan, North Korea, and the Eighth U.S. Army withdrew below the 38th parallel.
December 17: Lt. Col. Bruce H. Hinton, USAF, 4th FIG, scored the first F-86 aerial victory over a MiG-15 on the first day Sabres encountered communist jets. FEAF Combat Cargo Command abandoned Yonpo Airfield to communist forces, having transported in four days 228 patients, 3,891 other passengers, and 20,088 tons of cargo.
December 20: Twelve C-54s of the 61st TCG airlifted 806 South Korean orphans from Kimpo to Cheju-Do off the South Korean coast in Operation CHRISTMAS KIDLIFT.
December 22: One USN and five USAF pilots shot down six MiG-15s, the highest daily FEAF aerial victory credit total for the month, and the highest since June. A MiG-15 shot down an F-86 for the first time. Headquarters Fifth Air Force, Eighth U.S. Army in Korea headquarters, and the Joint Operations Center moved from Seoul to Taegu.
December 23: Three H-5 helicopter crews with fighter cover rescued eleven U.S. and twenty-four ROK soldiers from a field eight miles behind enemy lines. General Walker, Commander, Eighth U.S. Army, died in a vehicle accident north of Seoul.
December 24: X Corps completed the sea evacuation of Hungnam. More than 105,000 troops and 91,000 civilians had departed since the exodus began on December 11. USAF B-26s and U.S. Navy gunfire held the enemy at bay during the night as the last ships departed. The 3d ARS flew thirty-five liberated prisoners of war from enemy territory.
December 25: Chinese forces crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea.
December 26: Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, USA, took command of the U.S. Eighth Army in Korea, as it absorbed X Corps.
December 29: From Taegu, RF-51 aircraft began flying tactical reconnaissance missions in Korea for the first time. They had longer ranges than their RF-80 predecessors.
December 31: Chinese Communist forces in Korea launched an offensive against UN troops south of the 38th parallel. General Ridgway ordered Eighth Army troops to a new defensive line seventy miles farther south. 1951
January 1951
Early in January, the powerful new offensive by Chinese Communist and North Korean forces drove UN forces out of Seoul and nearby Kimpo and Suwon Airfields. The UN and communist ground forces fought a see-saw battle for the crossroads city of Wonju in north central South Korea. By mid-January, the enemy offensive had stalled on a line between Pyontaek on the west coast and Samchok on the east coast, partly because the UN Command retained air superiority over the front. By the end of the month, UN forces had launched a counter-offensive, forcing the enemy northward toward Seoul.
With the loss of Kimpo and Suwon Airfields, the U.S. Air Force moved most jet fighters to bases in Japan. From there, USAF F-86s did not have the range to reach the front easily, much less the MiG-infested skies of northwestern Korea. After almost two weeks out of combat, the Fifth Air Force returned some Sabres to Korea to test their capabilities in new missions of armed reconnaissance and close air support. These flew air to ground missions from Taegu, where F-80s and F-84s also continued to operate. communist jet fighters remained at their Yalu River bases and for the first nineteen days of January only occasionally challenged U.S. aircraft over North Korea. Lacking the range and air-to-ground weapons, enemy jets did not provide any air support for communist ground troops. Despite severe winter weather that sometimes curtailed sorties during January, Fifth Air Force conducted extremely destructive close air support missions for UN forces, killing or wounding an estimated 18,750 enemy troops. C-47s embarked on new roles-dropping flares in support of B-26 and F-82 night raids and serving as communications platforms to connect the Tactical Air Control Center, TACPs, and T-6 Mosquito airplanes.
FEAF Bomber Command raided enemy marshalling yards, airfields, and supply centers, dropping more than 6700 tons of bombs on over 720 sorties. Superfortress crews occasionally struck bridges with radio-guided bombs but largely avoided northwestern Korea, where they might have encountered scores of MiG-15s. In an air campaign intended to burn and destroy key North Korean cities, Bomber Command B-29s raided Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, with huge formations dropping incendiary bombs on the city. Targets of other major incendiary raids in North Korea included Hamhung, Kaesong, and Komusan. By the end of the month, FEAF Bomber Command, with a total force of about one hundred B-29s, was launching about twenty-four Superfortresses daily, rotating missions among the 19th, 98th, and 307th Bombardment Groups. The command also initiated B-29 night harassment attacks against North Korean cities during January.
Deprived of bases in the Seoul area, FEAF Combat Cargo Command could not easily respond to increased UN demands for airlift caused by rapid unit withdrawals and blocking of surface supply lines by heavy snow. Near the front lines, Eighth Army engineers bulldozed airstrips at Wonju and Chungju for the cargo landings, but Wonju fell into enemy hands, and frozen mud caused C-46 accidents at Chungju. The C-119s, which were too large to land at these airstrips, dropped supplies to UN forces in north central South Korea. Depending primarily on C-47 and C-119 airplanes, Combat Cargo Command delivered more than 14,000 tons of equipment and supplies; it also evacuated 10,000 combat casualties in South Korea during the first three weeks of January. Search and rescue units flew 452 missions, evacuating 112 critically wounded patients and rescuing sixteen soldiers from behind enemy lines. The Fifth Air Force's Boat Section conducted forty-two missions.
January 1: As almost half a million Chinese Communist and North Korean troops launched a new ground offensive, Fifth Air Force embarked on a campaign of air raids on enemy troop columns.
January 2: For the first time, a C-47 dropped flares to illuminate B-26 and F-82 night attacks on enemy forces. The flares also deterred enemy night attacks on U.S. troops. Fifth Air Force withdrew forward-based F-86s assigned to the 4th FIW from enemy-threatened Kimpo Airfield near Seoul to the wing's home station at Johnson AB, Japan.
January 3: As massive numbers of Chinese troops crossed the frozen Han River east and west of Seoul, Eighth Army began evacuating the South Korean capital. The ROK government began moving to Pusan. In one of the largest FEAF Bomber Command air raids, more than sixty B-29s dropped 650 tons of incendiary bombs on Pyongyang. UN forces burned nearly 500,000 gallons of fuel and 23,000 gallons of napalm at Kimpo in preparation for abandoning the base to the advancing enemy. Far East Air Forces flew 958 combat sorties, a one-day record.
January 4: For the third time in six months, Seoul changed hands as CCF troops moved in. The last USAF aircraft left Kimpo Airfield.
January 5: Fifty-nine B-29s dropped 672 tons of incendiary bombs on Pyongyang. The 18 FBG staged its final missions from Suwon. U.S. ground troops burned the buildings at Suwon's airfield before withdrawing.
January 6: FEAF Combat Cargo Command concluded a multi-day airlift of supplies to the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, which was fighting to prevent a break in the UN defensive line across South Korea. 21 TCS C-47s landed 115 tons of cargo at Wonju, and C-119s of the 314th TCG dropped 460 tons of supplies to the division.
January 8: When blizzards forced USN Task Force 77 carriers to suspend close air support missions for X Corps, Fifth Air Force took up the slack. Superfortresses cratered Kimpo Airfield to prevent its use by enemy aircraft. U.S. forces in central Korea withdrew to new positions three miles south of Wonju.
January 10: Continued severe winter weather forced Fifth Air Force to cancel close air support missions, and Far East Air Forces flew the lowest daily total of sorties since July 1950. Brig. Gen. James E. Briggs, USAF, replaced General O'Donnell as commander of FEAF Bomber Command. From now on, Strategic Air Command changed commanders of the Bomber Command every four months to provide wartime experience to as many officers as possible.
January 11: With improved weather, Fifth Air Force and FEAF Bomber Command resumed close air support missions for X Corps in north central South Korea.
January 12: After Wonju fell to communist forces, 98th BG sent ten B-29s to attack the occupied city. For the first time, B-29s dropped 500-pound general purpose bombs fused to burst in the air and shower enemy troops with thousands of steel fragments. The innovation slowed the enemy advance. To improve bombing precision, Far East Air Forces installed shoran (a short-range navigation system) on a B-26 for the first time.
January 13: Far East Air Forces flew the first effective tarzon mission against an enemy-held bridge at Kanggye, dropping a six-ton radio-guided bomb on the center span, destroying fifty-eight feet of the structure.
January 14: Chinese Communist forces reached their furthest extent of advance into South Korea with the capture of Wonju.
January 15: The enemy began a limited withdrawal in some areas of South Korea.
January 17: A 4th FIG detachment began operating from Taegu, restoring F-86 operations in Korea. For the first time, the Sabres flew in the air-to-ground role as fighter-bombers, conducting armed reconnaissance and close air support missions. Far East Air Forces temporarily suspended Tarzon bombing missions because of a shortage of the radio-guided bombs. Only three, earmarked for emergencies, remained in the theater.
January 17-18: FEAF Combat Cargo Command flew an extraordinary 109 C-119 sorties to drop more than 550 tons of supplies to front-line troops in Korea.
January 19: Far East Air Forces launched a thirteen-day intensive air campaign, by fighters, light bombers, and medium bombers, to restrict to a trickle the supplies and reinforcements reaching enemy forces in the field.
January 20: After weeks of almost unbroken absence, MiGs appeared again over Korea, resulting on this date in the first encounter between USAF F-84s and CCF MiG-15s.
January 21: Large numbers of MiG-15s attacked USAF jets, shooting down one F-80 and one F-84. Lt. Col. William E. Bertram of the 27th FEG shot down a MiG-15 to score the first USAF aerial victory by an F-84 ThunderJet.
January 23: No other day in January saw as much air action. Thirty-three F-84s staging from Taegu attacked Sinuiju, provoking a furious half-hour air battle with MiG-15s from across the Yalu. The ThunderJets shot down three MiGs, the highest daily USAF aerial victory credit total for the month. While forty-six F-80s suppressed Pyongyang's antiaircraft artillery, twenty-one B-29s cratered the enemy capital's airfields.
January 25: Far East Air Forces replaced its provisional Combat Cargo Command with the 315 Air Division (Combat Cargo), which reported directly to Far East Air Forces and did not depend on Fifth Air Force for administrative and logistical support.
January 25-February 9: The Eighth Army executed Operation THUNDERBOLT, the first UN offensive of the year. The objectives were to clear the area south of the Han River and recapture the port of Inchon and the airfield at Suwon. To sustain this offensive, sixty-eight C-119s in five days dropped at Chunju 1,162 tons of supplies, including fuel, oil, sleeping bags, C-rations, and signal wire.
January 26: Far East Air Forces flew its first C-47 "control aircraft", loaded with enough communications equipment to connect by radio all T-6 Mosquitoes, tactical air control parties, and the Tactical Air Control Center. This was the harbinger of today's warning and control aircraft.
January 30: The first USAF aircraft to land at the recaptured Suwon Airfield were C-54s of the 61st TCG, delivering 270 tons of supplies for the advancing UN forces.
January 31: In the first such mission recorded during the Korean War, a special operations unit of the 21st TCS dropped an UN agent behind enemy lines near Yonan, on the west coast just south of the 38th parallel.
February 1951
UN ground forces advanced slowly and steadily northward from a Suwon-Wonju-Samchok line. They gained an average of twelve to fifteen miles, making the most progress along the eastern and western coasts. By the end of the month, U.S. troops had reached the Han River near Seoul.
Communist forces refurbished airfields across North Korea, repairing runways and building revetments, but FEAF raids kept them largely free of enemy aircraft. A combination of bad winter weather and mountainous terrain in central Korea hindered USAF close air support operations. FEAF fighters on armed reconnaissance missions discouraged the enemy from moving in daylight by road or rail. To puncture tires on enemy-held roads, night-flying C-47s dropped tons of roofing nails. By assigning the same areas to the same units, Fifth Air Force encouraged fighter pilots to become familiar enough with the landscape to detect camouflaged enemy vehicles. Flights of B-26s flew around the clock, depending on C-47 flare drops for night raids and flying an increasing number of close air support missions by day.
Enemy aircraft activity declined sharply. RF-80s on reconnaissance missions near the Yalu River occasionally attracted MiGs, and Fifth Air Force began calling northwestern Korea "MiG Alley". Because of the MiG threat to B-29s, Far East Air Forces assigned interdiction missions in the Yalu River region to Fifth Air Force.
Superfortresses concentrated on interdiction targets outside MiG Alley, especially railroad bridges. They also bombed rail lines, airfields, and barracks in the area between Kanggye, Sinanju, and Pyongyang in western North Korea. FEAF Bomber Command continued harassment raids against cities in North Korea, including Anju, Sinanju, Sariwon, and Pyongyang, sending out two to six bombers per night after February 10. During the month, the Bomber Command flew 687 sorties in Korea and dropped 6,213 tons of bombs.
By contrast, the 315th Air Division (AD) flew more than 6,000 sorties and carried over 15,000 tons of equipment and supplies during the same month. That was more tonnage than Combat Cargo Command had flown during all of 1950. When poor field conditions at Wonju and Chungju prevented C-47 landings during the last nine days of February, C-119s and C-46s air-dropped 185 tons of supplies per day directly to frontline troops. Replacing FEAF Bomber Command B-29s on psychological warfare missions, 315th AD C-47s dropped 25 million leaflets during the month and broadcast messages to enemy troops. Using newly designed equipment, C-54s began airlifting FEAF aircraft engines among bases, replacing the C-97s and C-119s that formerly performed that mission in the theater. During the month, search and rescue detachments flew more than 300 missions, using helicopters to evacuate almost 160 critically wounded patients from battlefields and rescue seventy-two people who had been trapped behind enemy lines. The Boat Section, 6160th ABG, conducted fifty-eight search and rescue missions, including the rescue of sixteen from a downed USN flying boat.
February 4: Fifth Air Force modified some B-26s to drop flares because the flare-dropping C-47s that had accompanied B-26 night raiders had trouble keeping up with the fast bombers.
February 5: As part of Operation ROUNDUP, designed to disrupt enemy preparations for a new offensive, the U.S. X Corps advanced with strong air support near Hoengsong, northeast of Wonju in central Korea. Maj. Arnold Mullins, 67th FBS, in an F-51 Mustang, shot down a YAK-9 seven miles north of Pyongyang to score the only USAF aerial victory of the month. Captain Donald Nichols was transferred from Office of Special Investigations to the intelligence section of Fifth Air Force to work directly on special and clandestine operations.
February 6: B-26 crews proved that the new MPQ-2 radar equipment, which provided the aircrew better definition of targets, increased the accuracy of night bombing raids. To clear up a backlog of medical patients at Chungju, 315th AD C-47s airlifted 343 patients to Pusan. Eight C-54s airlifted a forty-ton, 310-foot treadway bridge, in 279 pieces, from Tachikawa AB, Japan, to Taegu. In a one-time effort to demoralize CCF troops, six C-119s dropped thirty-two booby-trapped boxes, designed to blow up when opened, on an enemy troop concentration at Kwangdong-ni. The 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron performed its first night photographic mission.
February 8: Far East Air Forces using B-29s, B-26s, and fighters launched an all-out attack on rail lines in northeastern Korea between Hoeryong and Wonsan. Brig. Gen. John P. Henebry replaced General Tunner as commander of the 315th AD and airlift operations in the Korean War.
February 9: U.S. troops reached the Han River seven miles east-southeast of Seoul.
February 10: UN forces captured the port of Inchon and the important nearby airfield at Kimpo. Air raids had cratered the field so badly that it required extensive renovation before USAF aircraft could use it. On the east coast, ROK troops crossed the 38th parallel and entered Yangyang.
February 11/12: In central Korea some fifty miles east of Seoul, Chinese and North Korean forces attacked the ROK 3rd and 8th Divisions north and northwest of Hoengsong and in two days captured the town, forcing the UN forces toward Wonju, a few miles to the south.
February 12: FEAF cargo aircraft air-dropped supplies to the X Corps command post airstrip at Wonju. A leaflet-dropping C-47 aircraft, hit by enemy antiaircraft fire, crash landed at Suwon. Far East Air Forces decided to launch subsequent C-47 leaflet drops at night. While B-26s attacked enemy positions at night behind the battle line by the light of air-dropped flares, two enemy aircraft used the same flare light to attack UN positions.
February 13: The 315th AD airlifted more than 800 sick and wounded U.S. troops from forward airstrips such as that at Wonju to Taegu and Pusan. This airlift used so many C-47s that they were not available for other airlift demands.
February 13-16: Three CCF divisions surrounded UN troops, including members of the U.S. 23rd Regimental Combat Team and the French Battalion, at a crucial road junction at Chipyong-ni in central Korea. Despite heavy enemy ground fire, ninety-three transports dropped some 420 tons of food and ammunition to the encircled troops. Twenty C-119s dropped supplies at night over a zone marked by burning gasoline-soaked rags. Also, H-5 helicopters delivered medical supplies to the troops and evacuated more than forty wounded. Fifth Air Force flew close air support missions for the surrounded troops, who held out until relieved by a friendly armored column.
February 16: For the first time, the U.S. Army began using its own aircraft, the L-19 Bird Dog, for forward air control, artillery spotting, and other front-line duties, relieving Fifth Air Force of demands for these types of missions.
February 17/18: B-26s flew the first night bombing mission using shoran, a short range navigation system employing an airborne radar device and two ground beacon stations for precision bombing.
February 20: Far East Air Forces activated a "Special Air Mission" detachment under 315th AD to provide air transportation for important officials and for psychological warfare missions, for example, aerial broadcasting and leaflet drops.
February 21: The Eighth Army launched Operation KILLER to destroy large numbers of enemy troops while moving the UN line northward to the Han River.
February 23: FEAF Bomber Command flew the first B-29 mission with the more accurate MPQ-2 radar, bombing a highway bridge seven miles northeast of Seoul.
February 24: The 315th AD dropped a record 333 tons of cargo to front-line troops, using sixty-seven C-119s and two C-46s.
February 28: UN ground forces eliminated the last communist presence south of the Han River.
March 1951
UN ground forces continued to advance slowly and methodically, pushing the front line an average of thirty miles northward. After friendly troops crossed the Han River east and west of Seoul, communist forces abandoned the city.
Aerial reconnaissance revealed new revetment and runway construction at North Korean airfields, but communist aircraft rarely appeared over the front lines. The enemy emplaced extensive antiaircraft batteries around such important North Korean cities as Pyongyang and Sinuiju, which UN aircraft frequently raided. Introducing a new tactic, the Fifth Air Force equipped some B-26 aircraft to detect and destroy hostile radar sites. B-29s returned to northwest Korea on interdiction missions that provoked MiG-15 attacks. To protect the Superfortresses, Fifth Air Force flew F-86 fighters out of Taegu and Suwon. Air-to-air combat consequently increased, especially in the Sinuiju and Sinanju areas in northwest Korea. B-29 enlisted gunners scored three of five aerial victories during March. Continuing to rotate B-29 bombing missions among three groups, FEAF Bomber Command in almost 800 sorties dropped 6, 372 tons of bombs, mostly on interdiction targets in North Korea. Many sorties lasted nine hours and more.
The 315th AD flew 6,878 transport sorties, carrying an increasing number of passengers but less cargo during the month. Far East Air Forces began airlifting military cargo into a newly constructed airfield at Hoengsong, while U.S. Army engineers rehabilitated airfields at Seoul and Kimpo for transports. Air transports dropped some 2,300 tons of equipment, supplies, and psychological warfare leaflets. They also dropped thousands of U.S. troops behind enemy lines in a major airborne operation. Search and rescue helicopters evacuated 115 critically wounded patients and rescued 170 personnel caught behind enemy lines. The Boat Section, 6160th ABG, rescued six people and recovered one body. It received two new sixty-three foot boats.
For the first time, General MacArthur proposed a cease-fire. UN aircraft dropped 7,000 copies of his proposal over Korea during the last week of the month.
March 1: FEAF Bomber Command B-29s launched the first mission of a new interdiction campaign. Twenty-two F-80s sent to escort eighteen B-29s over Kogunyong, North Korea, arrived ahead of the Superfortresses and returned to base because they were running low on fuel. MiGs attacked the unescorted B-29s, damaging ten, three of which had to land in South Korea. One B-29 gunner brought down a MiG.
March 3: A new shipment of tarzon bombs arrived in the Far East, allowing Far East Air Forces to resume raids, suspended since January 17, with the large guided weapons.
March 4: Fifty-one C-119s dropped 260 tons of supplies to the 1st Marine Division in the largest air-drop of the month.
March 6: 334th FIS used Suwon as a staging base from which F-86 Sabres began raiding the Yalu River area, where they had been absent for months.
March 7: UN forces launched a new offensive called Operation RIPPER to cross the Han River in central Korea east of Seoul, destroy large numbers of enemy troops, and break up preparations for an enemy counteroffensive. Fifth Air Force flew more close air support missions to support the operation.
March 14: Communist forces abandoned Seoul without a fight after General Ridgway's troops seized high ground on either side of the city north of the Han River. At night B-26s began dropping specially-designed tetrahedral tacks on highways to puncture the tires of enemy vehicles. They were more effective than the roofing nails dropped earlier.
March 15: UN forces entered Seoul, the fourth time the city had changed hands since the war began.
March 16: Far East Air Forces flew 1,123 effective sorties, a new daily record.
March 17: An F-80, flown by Lt. Howard J. Landry of the 36th FBS, collided with a MiG-15. Both went down with their pilots. Fifth Air Force lost no other aircraft in aerial encounters during the month.
March 20: Fifteen F-94B all-weather jet fighters arrived in the Far East for eventual service as night escorts for B-29s.
March 23: Operation TOMAHAWK, the second airborne operation of the war and the largest in one day, involved 120 C-119s and C-46s, escorted by sixteen F-51s. The 314th TCG and the 437th TCW air transports flew from Taegu to Munsan-ni, an area behind enemy lines some twenty miles northwest of Seoul, and dropped the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team and two Ranger companies-more than 3,400 men and 220 tons of equipment and supplies. Fifth Air Force fighters and light bombers had largely eliminated enemy opposition. UN forces advanced quickly to the Imjin River, capturing 127 communist prisoners. Some of the prisoners waved safe-conduct leaflets that FEAF aircraft had dropped during the airborne operation. Helicopters evacuated only sixty-eight injured personnel from the drop zone. One C-119, possibly hit by enemy bullets, caught fire and crashed on the way back. On the same day, twenty-two B-29s of the 19th and 307th BGs, protected from MiGs by forty-five F-86s, destroyed two bridges in northwestern Korea.
March 24: For the first time, Far East Air Forces used an H-19, a service test helicopter, in Korea for the air evacuation of wounded troops. The H-19 was considerably larger and more powerful, with greater range, than the H-5s.
March 24, 26-27: Fifty-two C-119s and C-46s dropped an additional 264 tons of supplies to troops at Munsan-ni, because they could not depend on surface lines of communication for supplies.
March 29: With fighter escorts, B-29s returned to the Yalu River to bomb bridges, which had become important targets again as the river ice thawed. Fifth Air Force light bombers and fighters, which had handled interdiction in the area during the winter, could not destroy the larger Yalu River bridges.
March 31: Flight Lt. J. A. O. Levesque, Royal Canadian Air Force, flying with the 334 FIS, scored the first aerial victory since 1950 of an F-86 over a MiG-15. Elements of the U.S. Eighth Army moved northward across the 38th parallel. 3d ARS used the H-19 to retrieve some eighteen UN personnel from behind enemy lines, the first use of this type helicopter in a special operations mission. The 315th AD grounded its C-119s for modification and reconditioning.
April 1951
For the first three weeks, UN ground forces advanced everywhere along the front except in a small area near the Hwachon Reservoir in the central sector. Then the communists launched an all-out spring offensive with over 330,000 troops using "human wave" tactics. By the end of the month the enemy had advanced to the vicinity of Seoul, but both men and supplies had reached their limits in the face of UN ground and aerial assaults.
In counter air operations, Fifth Air Force Sabre pilots destroyed fifteen MiGs without the loss of a friendly fighter. MiG pilots generally showed little aggressiveness but on several occasions demonstrated considerable flight discipline and improved tactics. In North Korea, the enemy constructed new airfields and rehabilitated previously damaged ones, pointing toward the possibility of a major enemy air-ground offensive. General Stratemeyer, Commander, Far East Air Forces, consequently directed most B-29s against North Korean airfields.
B-26 light bombers attacked rails, bridges, airfields, and supply storage areas during daylight. Following the start of the spring offensive, Fifth Air Force increased the number of B-26 close air support sorties from approximately five to twenty-five per day. B-26 night operations emphasized armed reconnaissance and interdiction of communications routes and facilities.
Before the Communist offensive began, Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers flew an average of 250 armed reconnaissance and interdiction, and eighty close air support sorties per day. Following the start of the attack, however, Fifth Air Force increased its close air support sorties to an average of 140 daily.
315th AD airdrop operations through most of April suffered from the grounding of seventy-five C-119s, which left C-46s as the primary airdrop-capable aircraft. By the end of the month, sixty C-119s were once again in commission. A clandestine C-47 outfit under the control of 315th AD and known as "Unit 4/Special Air Mission (SAM)" flew leaflet and personnel/resupply drops and made aerial broadcasts and radio intercepts over enemy-held territory. The 6160th ABG's Boat Section saved one individual, assisted with three other saves, recovered one body, and retrieved the wreckage of an aircraft.
April 3: The service test YH-19 helicopter with the 3d ARS picked up a downed F-51 pilot southeast of Pyongyang, receiving small arms fire during the sortie.
April 12: As of this date in the war, the heaviest concentration of B-29s against a single bridge encountered the largest and most determined enemy counter air effort, resulting in the largest jet air battle so far in the war. Forty-six B-29s attacking the Yalu River Bridge at Sinuiju and one hundred escorting fighters encountered between 100 and 125 MiGs, which shot down three bombers and damaged seven others. However, B-29 gunners destroyed seven MiGs, and F-86 pilots downed four more, by far the highest daily MiG tally thus far. The bridge, despite numerous direct hits, remained standing. At President Truman's direction, Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, USA, replaced General MacArthur, who had several times publicly criticized the administration's Korean War and foreign policies.
April 14: Lt. Gen. James A. Van Fleet, USA, assumed command of the U.S. Eighth Army in place of General Ridgway.
April 16-20: FEAF Bomber Command flew a daily average of ten B-29 sorties against Pyongyang, Kangdong, Yonpo, and other North Korean airfields.
April 17: President Truman signed an executive order extending U.S. military enlistments involuntarily by nine months, an indication of the manpower shortage facing the military services during the war. An intelligence operation behind enemy lines resulted in the recovery of vital components of a crashed MiG-15. In Operation MiG, a YH-19 helicopter transported a U.S. and South Korean team to the crash area south of Sinanju, North Korea. Under friendly fighter cover, the party extracted MiG components and samples and obtained photographs. On the return flight southward the helicopter came under enemy ground fire and received one hit. The successful mission led to greater technical knowledge of the MiG.
April 18: H-5 helicopters from the 3d ARS evacuated twenty critically wounded U.S. soldiers from front line aid stations to the nearest field hospital. Five of the ten sorties encountered enemy fire.
April 19: The first modified and reconditioned C-119 returned to service.
April 21: An SA-16, 3d ARS, attempted to pick up a downed enemy YAK pilot near Chinnampo for intelligence purposes. The aircrew landed and put out a raft but had to take off because of intense enemy fire, leaving the YAK pilot behind.
April 22/23: Enemy ground forces launched a massive spring offensive.
April 23: Far East Air Forces flew some 340 close air support sorties, one of the highest daily totals prior to 1953. The 336th FIS began operating from Suwon AB, South Korea, so that its F-86 aircraft could operate for longer periods in MiG Alley near the Yalu River.
April 23-26: Far East Air Forces daily flew over 1,000 combat sorties, inflicting enemy casualties and destroying supplies needed to sustain the offensive.
April 24: On separate pickups, an H-5 helicopter from the 3d ARS rescued first the pilot, then the navigator of a downed B-26 near Chorwon, about fifteen miles north of the 38th parallel, in the central sector. The navigator, suffering a broken leg, had been captured by two enemy soldiers. But he managed to seize a gun belonging to one of the enemy, causing them to run for cover. Friendly fighters kept them pinned down, while the helicopter made the pickup.
April 26/27: At night, over the western sector, a B-29 close air support strike against enemy troops forming for an attack on the U.S. Army IX Corps broke up the assault.
April 30: Fifth Air Force set a new record of 960 effective sorties. On separate sorties, two H-5 helicopters each picked up a downed UN pilot behind enemy lines. Small-arms fire damaged one helicopter. The first indication of enemy radar-controlled antiaircraft guns came with the loss of three out of four F-51s making an air-to-ground attack against a target at Sinmak.
May 1951
During the first half of the month, UN ground activity consisted mainly of patrols and preparation for another enemy offensive. By the end of the month UN ground forces had regained the initiative, advancing the front lines northward between fifteen and thirty miles across the peninsula. Far East Air Forces conducted heavy, continuous interdiction of enemy supply lines, which contributed largely to the complete failure of the communist offensive. But, the enemy increased anti-aircraft heavy guns and automatic weapons to approximately one thousand, at eighteen different locations in North Korea.
In a slow month, Fifth Air Force Sabre pilots downed five MiGs. FEAF Bomber Command B-29s initially bombed rail and highway bridges, airfields, and supply and troop centers in North Korea. When the communists initiated their offensive, however, Bomber Command shifted nearly its entire effort to close air support.
Until mid-May, Fifth Air Force flew a daily average of 171 armed reconnaissance and interdiction, and fifty-seven close air support sorties; later in the month, its aircraft averaged more than 140 close air support sorties daily. Prior to the enemy offensive, the light bomber, assisted by flare-dropping C-47s, flew night intruder sorties against enemy vehicles,. With the enemy assault, Fifth Air Force shifted its B-26 effort to daytime close air support. Led by the 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, between May 19 and 25, Far East Air Forces flew 388 reconnaissance sorties, a new record. At the end of the month, Fifth Air Force and the USN Task Force 77 initiated an interdiction campaign called Operation STRANGLE to paralyze enemy transportation between the railheads and the front. Fighter-bombers hit bridges, tunnels, rail lines, and roadbeds, trying to stop rail and highway traffic carrying supplies for enemy troops along the front.
In psychological operations, B-29 and C-47 aircraft dropped millions of leaflets. Most consisted of "strategic" leaflets dropped deep behind enemy lines, while the remainder were "tactical," directed at troops near the front.
The 3d ARS established an element on the island of Paengnyang-do, located off the west coast of Korea, where H-5 helicopters stood alert for rescue sorties. The squadron began rotating the SA-16 amphibious aircraft between Japan and Korea, with three flying from Korean bases for ten to fifteen days before being replaced with new crews and aircraft from Japan. The crash rescue Boat Section of the 6160st ABG saved three lives and evacuated two hundred guerrillas from behind enemy lines to safety.
Although ammunition and petroleum products made up the bulk of airlifted items, the 315th AD began daily delivery of approximately fifteen tons of fresh vegetables from Japan to Eighth U.S. Army supply points in Korea.
May 5: An H-5 helicopter from the 3d ARS rescued north of Seoul a downed F-51 pilot, encountering small arms fire in the area.
May 8: Another H-5 helicopter picked up two U.S. soldiers north of Seoul, encountering small arms fire in the area.
May 9: In one of the largest counter air efforts so far, Fifth Air Force and 1st Marine Air Wing fighter-bombers flew over 300 sorties against Sinuiju Airfield in extreme northwestern Korea.
May 15/16: As anticipated, the communists launched the second phase of their spring offensive against ROK corps in the east, a last vain attempt to drive UN forces from the Korean peninsula,. The enemy limited its tactical assaults to night because of FEAF day-time aerial attacks.
May 16-26: In a maximum effort, 315th AD cargo aircraft flew an average of over 1,000 tons of supplies daily from Japan to Korea in support of the UN ground forces seeking to halt the communist offensive.
May 17-22: Bomber Command B-29s flew ninety-four (mostly night-time) sorties against enemy ground forces, far more close air support missions in a similar period than previously in the war. The B-29s flew few other type missions during this time.
May 19: An H-5 helicopter rescued a downed F-51 pilot southwest of Chorwon in the central sector, sustaining damage from small arms fire during the pickup.
May 20: Capt. James Jabara, USAF, 334th FIS, destroyed his fifth and sixth MiGs in aerial combat, thereby becoming the world's first jet-to-jet ace. The Eighth Army successfully blunted the communist offensive, leaving the enemy over-extended and under constant aerial attack. General Stratemeyer, FEAF Commander, suffered a severe heart attack.
May 21: General Partridge assumed command of Far East Air Forces. Maj. Gen. Edward J. Timberlake, Jr., USAF, took his place as Fifth Air Force Commander.
May 22: In close air support sorties, Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers inflicted some 1,700 casualties on enemy forces, one of the highest daily totals thus far.
May 23: Brig. Gen. Robert H. Terrill, USAF, assumed command of FEAF Bomber Command, replacing General Briggs.
May 24: The 136th FBW, one of two Air National Guard organizations sent to Korea, flew its first combat sorties of the war.
May 27-28: Unit 4/SAM C-47s flew leaflet drop/voice broadcast sorties encouraging the enemy to surrender to elements of the U.S. Army's IX Corps. Some 4,000 enemy soldiers surrendered, many carrying leaflets. The captives reported morale problems among the enemy because of UN aerial attacks.
May 31: Fifth Air Force began Operation STRANGLE, an interdiction campaign against enemy supply lines in North Korea.
June 1951
Despite enemy resistance and spring mud, UN forces regained their losses from the communist spring offensive and broke into the Pyonggang-Chorwon-Kumhwa "Iron Triangle" fortified sanctuaries, enabling them to deny the enemy access to roads that traversed the Korean Peninsula just above the 38th parallel.
FEAF bombardment operations concentrated on radar bombing attacks against the Iron Triangle sanctuaries. FEAF Bomber Command began experimenting with B-29s using the shoran bombing technique. This technique used radio navigation beacons and extremely accurate maps to aim bombs, thereby avoiding the limitations of visual and radar bombardment. The problem of defending B-29s against MiG-15s and the development of shoran tactics would ultimately lead to the bombers operating almost exclusively at night. Far East Air Forces concentrated interdiction attacks on enemy airfields in North Korea, since the enemy were trying to reconstruct them to accommodate more aircraft. In mid-June General Weyland directed FEAF Bomber Command to keep the thirteen most important fields out of service.
Fifth Air Force combat units completed their movement from Japan to air bases in Korea. But much of the maintenance support remained in Japan, creating some problems with aircraft readiness. On the other hand, concentration of maintenance in Japan permitted the sharing of scarce skilled personnel and other resources.
The psychological warfare unit made sixty-six leaflet drops and twenty-five voice broadcasts, dropped eighteen people behind enemy lines and flying one resupply drop. The Boat Section, 6160th ABG, completed sixty-three missions, saving two lives, and used one boat in the Yellow Sea to insert South Korean guerrillas behind enemy lines and transport Chinese POWs to South Korea.
June 1: One flight of F-86s from the 336th FIS escorting B-29s engaged eighteen MiG-15s, destroying two. A flight of B-29s, 343th BS, defended itself against twenty-two MiG-15s in the vicinity of Sonchon. The MiGs destroyed one B-29 and damaged another, while the defenders destroyed two enemy jets. FEAF Special Air Mission C-47s dropped fifteen Koreans into enemy held territory to retrieve parts from a crashed MiG-15. Unfortunately, communist forces captured all fifteen Koreans. Maj. Gen. Frank F. Everest, USAF, assumed command of Fifth Air Force, replacing General Timberlake.
June 3: UN antiaircraft artillery destroyed two 315th AD C-119's while the aircraft were attempting a resupply airdrop. This fratricide incident led to the adoption of new Identification-Friend-or-Foe procedures for airdrop operations.
June 7-10: B-26 and B-29 aircraft undertook radar-directed area attacks against the Iron Triangle at night, raining 500-pound bombs set to explode over the heads of the enemy troops. These operations were in preparation for UN ground forces' assaults.
June 10: The airfield at Chunchon, some fifty miles northeast of Seoul and ten miles south of the 38th parallel opened to cargo traffic, adding to 315th AD's ability to meet the growing demand for airdrop capability. Lt. Gen. Otto P. Weyland assumed command in Tokyo of Far East Air Forces, replacing General Partridge.
June 11: An SA-16 of the 3th ARS made a pickup at dusk of a downed F-51 pilot from the Taedong River near Kyomipo, North Korea. The SA-16, although receiving fire from both sides of the river, made a landing approach without lights, avoiding low electrical transmission lines and rocks and debris on the river's surface. The pilot earned the Distinguished Service Cross for the rescue.
June 15: Fifth Air Force moved its headquarters from Taegu back to Seoul.
June 23: Jacob Malik, Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations, called for negotiations between representatives of UN forces and the communist forces for an armistice in Korea based upon the separation of the armies along the 38th parallel.
June 25: The 8th FBG moved to Kimpo Air Base in Seoul after completion of repairs to Kimpo's short runway. This marked the resumption of combat operations at Kimpo, although aviation engineers continued their work to restore the main runway.
July 1951
July 1951 marked the beginning of a new phase in the Korean War. Strategic military considerations of UN and communist commanders centered on armistice negotiations that began this month. Both sides began to bend their military efforts to effect favorable outcomes in these negotiations. Accordingly, Far East Air Forces increased the tempo of fighter and light-bomber activities in Operation STRANGLE, particularly against vehicular movements and targets of known troops, supplies, or installations. As the shortcomings of Operation STRANGLE became evident, FEAF planners looked for other ways to stem the flow of enemy resources toward the front.
The enormous buildup in the numbers of MiG-15 air supremacy fighters and growing experience and competence of pilots led the enemy to seek air superiority as far south as Pyongyang. Avoiding formidable jet fighter formations escorting FEAF Bomber Command B-29s, the MiGs attacked vulnerable fighter-bomber and reconnaissance aircraft operating north of Pyongyang. Greatly outnumbered, the USAF F-86s now had to defend UN aircraft engaged in reconnaissance and interdiction operations as well as the bombers operating in the north while fighting the MiG-15s head-to-head for air supremacy.
An absence of major ground activity and decline in airlift requirements coincided with frequent periods of unfavorable weather. Far East Air Forces also faced growing shortages of aircraft because of attrition and increased numbers of aircraft out of commission. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force, notified General Weyland that Far East Air Forces could not expect further augmentation in jet fighters, since a general build-up in Europe required more aircraft. Also, other aircraft types, particularly B-26s and F-51s, which were experiencing high attrition rates, could not be replaced because they were no longer in production.
July 1: Kim Il Sung, Premier, Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea and General Paeng Te-huai, CCF Commander, responded to UN overtures and agreed to participate in truce negotiations. Pioneer in aerial reconnaissance, Col. Karl L. Polifka, USAF, Commander, 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, while flying an RF-51 near the front lines, was shot down and killed.
July 6: An Air Materiel Command KB-29M tanker, operated by a Strategic Air Command crew assigned to the 43d Air Refueling Squadron, conducted the first in-flight refueling over enemy territory under combat conditions. The tanker refueled four RF-80 Shooting Stars flying reconnaissance missions over North Korea.
July 10: Vice-Admiral C. Turner Joy, USN, led the UN delegation that met the communists at Kaesong, some thirty miles northwest of Seoul and just south of the 38th parallel, in the first conference of the armistice negotiations. A flight of F-80s reported a long convoy of NKA trucks and tanks halted by a demolished bridge. Fifth Air Force diverted every available aircraft to attack with bombs, rockets, and gunfire, resulting in the destruction of over 150 vehicles, a third of them tanks.
July 14: In one of the more spectacular night strikes of the war, a single B-26 of the 452d BG attacked two enemy convoys north of Sinanju in the early morning hours, claiming sixty-eight destroyed or damaged vehicles.
July 21: A detachment of the 6004th Air Intelligence Service Squadron completed a week-long effort near Cho-do Island to recover the most components ever salvaged from a MiG-15 aircraft. A combined operation, this effort involved Fifth Air Force aircraft providing high cover, British carrier aircraft flying low cover, and the U.S. Army contributing a vessel outfitted with a crane.
July 24: The 116th FBW, the second Air National Guard wing deployed to the Far East, arrived with its F-84 ThunderJets at Misawa and Chitose Air Bases in Japan.
July 25: Fifth Air Force directed the formal establishment of an air defense system for South Korea, utilizing the resources of the 502d Tactical Control Group and its subordinate squadrons.
July 29: UN jet fighter-bombers and reconnaissance aircraft operating near Pyongyang encountered MiGs much further south than usual. Evading the attacking MiGs, the UN aircraft returned safely to base.
July 30: In the largest single mass attack for the month on targets in the Pyongyang area, ninety-one F-80s suppressed enemy air defenses while 354 USMC and USAF fighter bombers attacked specified military targets. In avoid adverse world public opinion during on-going peace negotiations, the Joint Chiefs of Staff withheld information on the strike from the news media.
August 1951
Armistice negotiations resulted in less ground combat. In turn, the comparatively static ground situation reduced the demand for FEAF close air support. But, negotiations at Kaesong went badly and then broke down.
Fifth Air Force F-86s maintained air superiority over Korea by destroying four MiG-15s and holding enemy aircraft to the vicinity of the Yalu River, thus allowing UN aircraft further south to operate without interference.
Planners reasoned that the CCF logistical system would quickly break down if the railroads could be made unusable. Far East Air Command therefore initiated a rail interdiction campaign, carrying the same code name, Operation STRANGLE, as the short-lived campaign in June and July 1951. The intent of this new campaign was to prevent an enemy buildup of supplies necessary for a sustained offensive or effective counteroffensive. Although intemperate weather adversely affected the tempo of air operations, Far East Air Forces stepped up the fighter-bomber campaign against North Korean railroads and began sending B-29s out for nightly shoran bombing attacks on enemy marshaling yards. Far East Command established a division of labor among the Fifth Air Force, FEAF Bomber Command, and the U.S. Navy to keep North Korean railway bridges down and rail lines cut. Bomber Command knocked down key railroad bridges. Fifth Air Force and the Navy fighter-bombers cut the rail lines. The B-26's shifted from daytime interdiction operations to nighttime truck-hunting.
The Boat Section, 6160th ABG, saved at least eight lives in ninety-four missions. 3 ARS rescued at least 168 people in Korea from floods.
August 4: Communist ground forces violated the Kaesong neutral zone, resulting in suspension of truce talks.
August 10: Armistice negotiations resume at Kaesong with North Korean promise to respect the neutral zone.
August 17: Typhoon at Okinawa halts B-29 operations.
August 18: Far East Air Forces began Operation STRANGLE against North Korean railroads.
August 22: The communist delegation trumped up evidence that a UN aircraft bombed Kaesong, resulting in suspension of the armistice negotiations once again.
August 24/25: B-26's claimed over 800 trucks destroyed in the new campaign of night anti-truck operations.
August 25: In FEAF Bomber Command's largest operation of the month, thirty-five B-29s, escorted by USN fighters, dropped 300 tons of bombs on marshaling yards at Rashin in far northeastern Korea. Previously excluded from target lists because of its proximity of less than twenty miles to the Soviet border, Rashin was a major supply depot.
September 1951
In the Punchbowl area of eastern Korea, U.S. Army X Corps captured Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge. UN ground forces successfully defended these new positions against enemy battalion-size attacks. The X Corps received fully two-thirds of Fifth Air Force's 2,400 close air support sorties for the month.
FEAF Bomber Command directed daily B-29 interdiction sorties against North Korean targets, especially airfields, rail bridges, and marshaling yards. Each night the medium bombers conducted a few close air support, leaflet drop, and reconnaissance sorties.
In air-to-ground activity, Fifth Air Force continued Operation STRANGLE against enemy railroads, although planners did not expect to stop all rail traffic. Basic repairs-involving earth, shovels, and thousands of unskilled laborers-were inexpensive for the enemy and often required only a few hours. While Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers made rail cuts by day, B-26 light bombers searched for trains and vehicles by night. The light bombers accounted for most damaged or destroyed enemy vehicles. Of the two B-26 wings in Korea, the 3d flew interdiction in the western half and the 452d in the eastern half. The enemy made effective use of searchlights in conjunction with flak batteries to track and shoot down UN aircraft. Fifth Air Force lost nearly forty aircraft to enemy ground fire, reflecting the high cost of heavy interdiction efforts.
In air-to-air activity, in comparison with previous months MiG pilots flew more sorties and demonstrated increased aggressiveness and better tactics, downing five USAF aircraft in aerial combat. Although usually outnumbered by greater than two-to-one during combat encounters, Fifth Air Force pilots destroyed thirteen MiGs.
The 315th AD flew daily airlift sorties, transporting cargo, medical evacuees, and troops. During September, C-54s airlifted more passengers and cargo tonnage than those carried by all other 315th aircraft combined. The 6160th ABG rescue boat unit completed 152 missions and saved at least seven lives in operations off the west coast and north of the 38th parallel.
September 9: Seventy MiGs attacked twenty-eight Sabres between Sinanju and Pyongyang. Despite such odds, F-86 pilots, Capt. Richard S. Becker, USAF, 334th FIS, and Capt. Ralph D. Gibson, USAF, 335th FIS, each destroyed a MiG, increasing the number of jet aces from one to three.
September 10: South of Pyongyang an H-5 helicopter from the 3d ARS, with fighter escort, rescued F-80 pilot Capt. Ward M. Millar, USAF, 7th FBS. He had suffered two broken ankles during his ejection from the jet but escaped after two months as a prisoner of the enemy and then evaded recapture for three weeks. The helicopter also brought out a NKA sergeant who had assisted Millar, delivering both to Seoul.
September 14: Capt. John S. Walmsley, USAF, 8th BS, on a night B-26 interdiction sortie attacked an enemy train, expending his ordnance. He then used a USN searchlight experimentally mounted on his aircraft's wing to illuminate the target for another B-26. Shot down and killed by ground fire, Captain Walmsley earned the Medal of Honor for his valorous act.
September 23: In an excellent example of shoran bombing technique, eight B-29s from the 19th BG knocked out the center span of the Sunchon rail bridge despite 9/10th cloud cover.
September 24: Attempts to reopen peace talks at Kaesong failed.
September 25: In the largest air battle in recent weeks, an estimated one hundred MiG-15s attacked thirty-six F-86s flying a fighter sweep over the Sinanju area. Sabre pilots destroyed five MiGs in aerial combat, the daily high for the month.
September 27: In Operation PELICAN, a service-test C-124A Globemaster flew its first payload from Japan to Korea, delivering 30,000 pounds of aircraft parts to Kimpo Airfield.
September 28: On the longest flight to date for a jet aircraft using in-flight refueling, a Yokota-based RF-80 flew for fourteen hours and fifteen minutes on a Korean combat sortie, refueling multiple times from two KB-29M tankers.
September 30: Replacing General Terrill, Brig. Gen. Joe W. Kelly, USAF, assumed command of FEAF Bomber Command.
October 1951
In late October, following a two-month suspension, armistice talks resumed at Kaesong. UN ground forces in the western and central sectors had gained up to six miles in some places along the front. In support of this advance, Fifth Air Force increased the number of close air support sorties. Still, the rail interdiction program, Operation STRANGLE, took most of Fifth Air Force's 20,000 air-to-ground sorties. The enemy responded to rail lines destruction by increased use of motor vehicles for transporting supplies. Assisted by flares dropped from transport aircraft, night-flying light bombers of the 3 BW and 452 BW claimed damage or destruction of thousands of such vehicles. Fifth Air Force suffered the loss of thirty-one aircraft to enemy ground fire.
FEAF Bomber Command continued daylight B-29 strikes against airfields, rail bridges, and marshaling yards, dedicating a few night sorties to close air support, leaflet drops, and reconnaissance. The enemy refined its searchlight techniques, using more and higher quality lights to track UN aircraft almost instantaneously for flak or MiG attacks. Furthermore, radar-controlled antiaircraft guns in northwestern Korea endangered B-29s even at altitudes above 20,000 feet. Then, in the last ten days of October MiG-15s downed five medium bombers and damaged eight others, forcing Far East Air Forces to end daylight B-29 raids.
In aerial combat, Sabre pilots downed twenty-five MiG-15s, an F-84 pilot destroyed one, and B-29 gunners shot down nine others. These thirty-five aerial victories represented the highest monthly total thus far in the war. Fifth Air Force lost five fighter aircraft in air-to-air battles.
The C-124A Globemaster transported cargo to and flew medical evacuees from Korea. 315th AD transported 3,200 passengers, including over 1,500 troops on "rest and recuperation" leave. Intelligence representatives from the Fifth Air Force, U.S. Eighth Army, and U.S. Navy decided to expand intelligence activities on the island of Cho-do, a prime location for infiltration/exfiltration of UN agents and interrogation of refugees. The Boat Section, 6160th ABG, in seventy-two missions saved one life and recovered a body and the wreckage of a B-26 from the Yellow Sea.
October 1-3: In Operation SNOWBALL, 315th AD C-119s dropped experimentally fifty-five-gallon drums filled with napalm behind enemy lines.
October 10: Far East Air Forces marked a significant date for the Chinese, the anniversary of the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty, by dropping special leaflets and making radio broadcasts aimed at Chinese Communist Forces in Korea.
October 16: Fifth Air Force Sabre pilots destroyed nine MiG-15s in aerial combat, a record daily high.
October 16/17: B-29s flew thirty-one day and night sorties, the high for the month, including attacks against rail bridges, marshaling yards, and the Samchang airfield, and leaflet drop and reconnaissance sorties.
October 19: The U.S. Army opened a 1000-bed hospital at Camp Drew, north of Tachikawa AB, Japan. Henceforth, C-54s flew medical evacuees from Korea to Tachikawa, then C-47s shuttled them to Camp Drew, thereby reducing transit time.
October 21-30: The enemy flew sorties over North Korea daily for the first time in the war. MiGs appeared in numbers over one hundred, consistently outnumbering their F-86 counterparts and downing three at a cost of five enemy fighters lost to Sabres.
October 22: Two SA-16s, 3d ARS, rescued the twelve-man crew of a downed B-29, the highest number rescued by SA-16s on any day in the war.
October 23: In one of the bloodiest air battles of the war, during a 307th BW raid on Namsi Airfield, MiG-15s destroyed three B-29s and one F-84, and damaged five other bombers. Fighter pilots and B-29 gunners shot down five MiGs.
October 25: In an unusually effective close air support strike, F-51 Mustangs inflicted approximately two hundred casualties on enemy troops in the I Corps sector. Enemy small arms fire hit a rescue helicopter picking up a downed UN pilot. The H-5 made a forced landing in enemy territory. The next day, two other H-5s hoisted all four men to safety from the mountainside where they had hidden from communist troops during the night. At the request of the communists, peace negotiations resumed.
October 27: MiGs flew approximately two hundred sorties, the high for the month. On a last medium bomber daylight raid, B-29 gunners shot down six MiG-15s, their highest number of enemy aircraft downed on any day of the war. A 3d ARS H-5, with fighter escort, rescued a downed UN fighter pilot despite intense fire from enemy ground troops.
October 31: The service-test C-124A departed for the United States, having successfully completed its test in the Far East and convinced the 315th AD of the need for a Globemaster squadron.
November 1951
During November the UN Command generally limited offensive forays to brief but vigorous probing attacks and patrolling, activities intended to keep the enemy off balance, deny him favorable terrain, retard his build-up of forces for a possible general offensive, and cause him maximum losses in personnel and equipment. The communist forces, however, made increasingly aggressive local attacks, which included strong armor support, particularly on the western front.
Far East Air Forces again flew a high rate of sorties. Air-to-air duels between FEAF jet fighters and MiG-15 interceptors continued to highlight the Korean air war. Although hampered frequently by poor flying weather, FEAF warplanes made around-the-clock attacks on enemy installations throughout North Korea, placing the greatest emphasis on interdiction, airfield neutralization, and close support of Eighth Army front-line units. Fifth Air Force fighters and fighter-bombers provided napalming, strafing, bombing, and rocketing attacks on enemy troop concentrations and artillery positions. Later, Allied airmen increased nighttime close support of Eighth Army ground troops.
Fifth Air Force fighters, fighter-bombers, and light bombers, together with attached SAAF, ROK, and USMC aviation units, interdicted enemy supply and communication routes incessantly to prevent or hinder the resupply of front-line Communist troops. Fighter-bombers worked systematically to destroy the enemy's rail network. During daylight hours, fighter and fighter-bombers attacked railroad rolling stock, while night intruder aircraft struck at vehicular traffic along highway supply routes. Fifth Air Force light bombers and FEAF Bomber Command B-29s nightly attacked key rail bridges and marshalling yards.
Medium bombers also made nighttime attacks on jet airfields at Saamcham, Taechon, and Namsi in northwest Korea to keep them unserviceable. Enemy jet fighters operated from an airbase at Uiju on the south bank of the Yalu River for a short time, but heavy B-29 attacks soon rendered it inoperable. Enemy night interceptors in northwest Korea increased their activity but failed to bring down a single B-29.
The 315th AD airlifted troops, supplies, and ammunition between Japan and Korea, flying 4,818 sorties that carried 70,664 passengers, 6,328 medical patients, and 8,406 tons of cargo. Airdrops to UN troops fighting in the mountains parachuted 120 tons of fuel, rations, and other supplies. Search and rescue units flew 324 sorties and helicopters evacuated 242 critically wounded patients and rescued six people trapped behind enemy lines. The Boat Section, 6160th ABG, saved twenty lives. UN reconnaissance aircraft flew more than 1,000 sorties to secure intelligence information on enemy ground dispositions, air targets, vehicle movements, airfield status, and weather. FEAF medium bombers dropped approximately 28,025,000 leaflets over rear area troops and civilians in North Korea, while C-47 cargo aircraft dropped approximately 58,814,000 over front-line areas.
November 3: Enemy ground fire damaged a 3d ARS SA-16 engaged in a failed rescue attempt; however, the aircrew, in spite of 6 to 8 foot seas, successfully landed in Korea Bay, off the west coast of North Korea, and rescued another downed pilot.
November 4: Thirty-four F-86s encountered an estimated sixty MiG-15s in the Sinamju area. The F-86 pilots destroyed two and damaged three others.
November 6: Eleven enemy piston-type, twin-engine, light bombers, probably TU-2s, bombed Taehwa-do, a UN-controlled island. This raid was the first confirmed report of air-to-ground action by an enemy light bomber formation since the Korean War started.
November 8: F-86s and F-80s encountered over one hundred MiG-15s, but only a small number chose to fight. USAF pilots destroyed one MiG and damaged another, while losing one F-86.
November 9: A C-47 landed on the beach of Paengnyong-do Island off the southwest coast of North Korea and rescued eleven crewmen of a downed B-29. The 19th BG attacked marshalling yards at Hwang-ju, Kowon, and Yangdok; the Saamcham Airfield; and a barracks area. In other night attacks, 98th BW B-29sbombed Taechon Airfield, flew five close support sorties and a leaflet sortie, and struck Hungnam.
November 12: Peace negotiations moved to Panmunjom, a village less than five miles east of Kaesong, in a newly established demilitarized zone on the 38th parallel. The UN Command ceased offensive ground operations.
November 16: Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers made over one-hundred rail cuts between Sinanju and Sukchon and between Kunu-ri and Sunchon. They also damaged bridges, knocked out gun positions, destroyed supply buildings, fired fuel dumps, and took a toll of enemy rail cars.
November 18: F-86 aircraft stafed eight MiG fighters on the ground at Uiju, destroyed four, and damaged the rest. MiG-15s forced three flights of F-84 fighter-bombers to jettison their bombs and abort prebriefed rail-cutting missions near Sinanju.
November 24: In night operations, 98th BW bombed Taechon airfield, the marshalling yard at Tongchon and flew five close support sorties; 307th BW bombed marshalling yard at Hambusong-ji; and 19th BG bombed Namsi airfield, the Hoeyang highway bridge, and the marshalling yards at Munchon and Hambusong-ji.
November 28: Representatives of all intelligence gathering organizations in Korea met at Far East Command, Liaison Division, to discuss how to coordinate their activities. Captain Donald Nichols, USAF, represented Detachment 2, 6004th Air Intelligence Service Squadron. The conference resulted in the establishment of the Combined Command for Reconnaissance Activities in Korea.
November 30: In one of the largest aerial battles of the war, F-86 pilots of the 4th FIG engaged over the island of Taehwa-do forty-four enemy aircraft flying south to bomb a UN target. The Sabre pilots destroyed twelve and damaged three others. Maj. George A. Davis Jr., USAF, 334th FIS, achieved Korean War ace status by downing a TU-2 and a MiG-15. He was the first to be an ace in two wars, since he had been an ace in World War II as well. Maj. Winton W. Marshal, USAF, 335 FIS, also became an ace, destroying an LA-9 and a TU-2. Enemy forces attacked Taehwa-do, north of Cho-do, forcing friendly forces to retreat to Cho-do. Fifth Air Force aircraft dislodged the enemy, enabling friendly forces to retake the island.
December 1951
As the year ended, negotiators at Panmunjom argued over concrete arrangements for an armistice and provisions pertaining to prisoners of war. Meanwhile, ground forces of both sides conducted small-scale patrol actions and sometimes engaged in vicious fire-fights. Overall, the Eighth Army maintained a vigilant readiness in case of a general enemy attack.
The lack of ground activity did not extend to UN naval and air forces. UN warships and naval aircraft interdicted the enemy's supply network, bombarded strategic coastal targets, and maintained the blockade of the Korean peninsula.
Far East Air Forces reduced close support for ground troops along the static front lines, although Fifth Air Force fighters, fighter-bombers, and light bombers destroyed numerous troublesome enemy artillery sites. At night B-29s dropped air fragmentation bombs on enemy front-line positions and troop concentrations beyond friendly artillery range.
Although hampered by poor flying weather later in December, Far East Air Forces maintained a high sortie rate of interdiction against enemy resupply activity. Fifth Air Force attacked enemy rail and highway transportation routes, frequently bombing, rocketing, and strafing bridges, marshalling yards, and rail and vehicular rolling stock. During darkness, B-26 light bombers and Marine fighter-bombers, aided by flare-dropping aircraft, made interdiction assaults on enemy road traffic.
FEAF Bomber Command repeatedly attacked key railroad by-pass bridges, marshalling yards, and highway bridges along the enemy supply routes, principally in west and northwest Korea. B-29s also kept enemy airfields at Namsi, Taechon, and Saamcham below the Manchurian border inoperable by almost nightly attacks. Despite increased enemy air resistance and more intense antiaircraft fire, no medium bombers went down during the month. After the communists released locations of Allied POW camps, Far East Air Forces stopped air strikes in those areas until the camps could be pinpointed.
The 315th AD airlifted 85,713 troops, 10,379 tons of cargo, and 6,249 evacuees in 6,032 sorties during the month. Search and rescue units flew 410 sorties on search, orbit, evacuation, and rescue missions. Helicopters evacuated 175 critically wounded patients and rescued five people from behind enemy lines. The 3d ARS helicopters also flew from enemy territory thirty-seven POWs who had escaped. UN reconnaissance aircraft secured intelligence information on enemy ground dispositions, air targets, vehicle movements, airfield status, and weather.
During December the enemy increased the challenge to UN air supremacy. Communists pilots flew more MiG-15 sorties from Manchuria, moved more aircraft near the Yalu River border, bombed and strafed UN ground installations and front-line positions, and increased night interceptor attacks against UN aircraft.
December 3: Enemy jets made their first air-ground attack of the war, bombing and strafing UN ground positions near Chorwon, almost sixty miles northeast of Seoul.
December 13: Twenty-nine F-86s encountered seventy-five MiG-15s over Sinanju, and in a wild melee the F-86 pilots shot down nine MiGs, giving USAF pilots a total of fourteen aerial victories for the day.
December 14: In the night, 19th BG B-29s inflicted severe damage on marshalling yards at Maengjung-Dong.
December 19: 307th BW sent ten B-29s to bomb marshalling yards at Chongju.
December 21: Fifth Air Force units flew 530 sorties, making thirty cuts in the main rail line between Sinanju and Sukchon and attacking a supply complex near Kunu-ri.
December 24: In a typical nighttime mission, B-29s from the 98th BW cratered the runway at Taechon Airfield and bombed the railroad bridge at Sinanju.
December 27: FEAF aircraft flew 900 sorties, the largest number of the month, damaging or destroying locomotives, railcars, buildings, vehicles, and gun positions. The U.S. Air Force's First War: Korea 1952-1953 Significant Events
|
|
|
|
|
|
Articles & Briefings
