"Minority Report" Maxima on Mount Kumgang – The Korean People's Army Air Force at the Beginning of the War (1)
"Minority Report" Maxima on Mount Kumgang – The Korean People's Army Air Force at the Beginning of the War (2)
"Minority Report" Maxima on Mount Kumgang – The Korean People's Army Air Force at the Beginning of the War (3)
"Minority Report" Maxima on Mount Kumgang – The Korean People's Army Air Force at the Beginning of the War (4)
Despite the bombing of the airfield by the U.S. Military, the 56th Wing of the Korean People's Army Air Force Fighter Aviation was not affected and soon resumed its attack, taking off from the "11th Field Airfield" near Seoul on June 30 and flying over the Han River again to provide close support and air cover for the KPA Army. The U.S. Air Force's F-80C also provides air cover for South Korean troops along the Han River. The U.S. formation encountered the Yak-9 twice that day, and in one of the air battles, the F-80 of the 36th Squadron of the 8th Brigade quickly bit Jacques, and Charles Wurster and John Thomas each achieved one result.
Taking advantage of the jet's speed, Worcester took advantage of the jet's speed, and he quickly shot his opponent down, and the North Korean pilot jumped out of the cockpit, but his parachute didn't open. It was only after Worcester's first record that Thomas noticed the enemy plane, which shouted to him on the radio that "the enemy plane is at six o'clock." Thomas piloted the plane away from the enemy plane and tried to bite the enemy in turn. To the surprise of the American pilot, the North Korean pilot did not rush to climb, but prepared to make a sharp turn to maneuver. But Thomas shot down the enemy plane anyway. This time the North Korean pilot was luckier, and his parachute was opened. To confirm his achievements, Thomas repeatedly skimmed over and took photos with a camera gun. In a later report, both American pilots mentioned the high morale and combat skills of their opponents, and the American pilots agreed that the two North Korean pilots who were shot down should be pilots of the old Japanese army. As mentioned earlier, some of the Korean Air Force in the early days of the war did have some people from the old Japanese army. However, this small victory did not help to improve the situation on the ground battlefield, and the Americans were forced to evacuate Suwon airfield that night, before blowing up the B-26B and F-82G, which could not fly because of damage.
According to North Korean records, at noon that day, the KPA fighter formation cruising near the Han River found that a fire had been lit on the ground, and the KPA troops and bridges that were crossing the river had been attacked by air. Jin Jiyu immediately reported on the radio: 45 degrees on the left, 5,000 meters away, and 4,000 meters in height, the enemy aircraft formation was found. After approaching the enemy planes, north Korean pilots found the planes strange in shape, never seen before. Li Wenchun and Li Dongkui shouted in unison:
"No. 21, enemy aircraft are jets"
In Jin Jiyu's eyes, the plane resembled a white shark running through the waves, with a black air intake and a blister-shaped auxiliary fuel tank hanging from the end of the wing, like a silver-white cross. Jin Jiyu immediately ordered the four machines to split into two formations. But the enemy plane climbed surprisingly fast, pulling the white trail and quickly rising to about 10,000 meters. Kim Ki-wook had already seen the tracer bullets flying nearby, he ordered the wingman to follow him, pushing the lever to swoop violently, he knew that the F-80 was much faster than the Yak-9, decided to fly ultra-low altitude to take advantage of the undulating terrain to get rid of the enemy aircraft, he circled to the inwang mountains west of Seoul, got rid of the enemy aircraft and then returned along the Han River. Kim Ki-wook spotted the F-80 pursuing friendly forces on the ground, while the B-26 also emerged to drop bombs on the Han River Bridge, and could see the column of water stirred up by the bomb.
Kim Ki-wook led Lee Dong-kuei towards the B-26, causing him to suddenly feel a shock in the fuselage, the cockpit glass was punched through a hole, and the wind whistled in, and Kim Ki-wook could only wear goggles. He asked Li Dongkui on the radio, only to learn that the other party's situation was worse, and the tail was cut off by half. Kim Ki-wook noticed that an F-80 had bitten Lee Dong-kuei from the rear and above. Kim Ki-wook took a sharp turn on the rudder, interfering with the movements of the enemy planes to cover Li Dongkui, and eventually the KPA Yak-9 returned to the airport with wounds, and for them, the first confrontation with the jets was not a pleasant experience.
Scott Miller and John Sullivan, veterans of the 8th Air Force And later historians, recorded a battle on June 30 in which the U.S. army nearly lost two pilots when the sky struck a train marshalling station near Suwon, and Lieutenant John Thomas's landplane was hit by anti-aircraft artillery, and Edwin Sullivan, who also belonged to the 36th Squadron of the 8th Group, was killed. Lieutenant Edwin T. Johnson's F-80C (serial number 49-603) was hooked to wires, the plane's wing fuel tank and wingtip were torn, there were three or four bullet holes in the wings, the cockpit cover, the hanging tail, the horizontal tail were all off, and Johnson parachuted around 13,000 feet, and his head hit the tail during the skydive. Johnson was airlifted to Japan for treatment after landing near Suwon.
U.S. military records do not mention the battle with North Korean fighters, but Johnson just hung the wires, his landline was damaged in many places, in addition to leaving bullet holes, he parachuted in the air at about 4,000 meters, all signs of which did not correspond to hanging the wires. On the contrary, it is similar to the damage caused by the close-range shooting of a novice fighter jet. Another point is that on this day, the KPA had just crossed the Han River, so why did the US military air raid the train marshalling station near Suwon. In addition, a U.S. Department of Defense spokesman claimed on July 1 that in the previous 24 hours, the U.S. military had lost 2 F-80s and 1 B-26 in South Korea, and that this B-26 (serial number 44-34277) was recorded as being hit by ground fire.
It should be noted here that the F-80 of the 36th Squadron fought the Yak-9 air battle over Suwon, and the ground troops of the Korean People's Army have not yet hit here, it is difficult to imagine any ground fire here that can shoot down The American aircraft, and perhaps it is difficult to admit that modern jet fighters were shot down in air battles with Piston fighters. In addition to the F-80s, the North Koreans claimed that on June 30, Ri Dong-kyu shot down two B-26 bombers, one of which may have been recorded by the U.S. military as being shot down by ground fire.
Summarizing the air battles in the days after the outbreak of the Korean War, because the US military has not yet deployed aviation units to South Korea, the F-80s taken off from Japanese bases have been left in the air over South Korea for too short, the number of F-82s is too small, and the aircraft carrier aircraft can only operate near the coast, so the US military has never been able to intercept the air raids and damage of the KPA Air Force on the South Korean army and airfields. The air battle in June lasted only 6 days, and the U.S. army admitted to losing 12 aircraft for various reasons, including 3 transport aircraft, 5 B-26s, 3 F-82s and 1 F-80. If you combine the records of the U.S. military and the war reports of the North Korean side, the U.S. military lost at least 17 aircraft during this time, of which 8 were shot down in the air (4 B-26s, 2 C-54s, 1 F-82, and 1 F-80), and 5 were destroyed on the ground (3 C-54s, 1 F-82, and 1 C-47). In addition, the South Korean army was destroyed about 30 aircraft. On 30 June, 1 more F-80 and 1 B-26 were badly damaged, most likely in air combat, in addition to 2 aircraft (one each for the F-82G and B-26). On the other hand, according to reports by American pilots, 21 KPA aircraft were shot down in air combat and 25 were blown up on the ground.
After a short week of fighting, the South Korean army lost as much as 50% of its irreparable losses (killed, captured, and missing), and only a third of the 54,000 men who crossed the Han River retreated were still small arms. As a result of the blow-up of the Han River Bridge, almost all heavy weapons were thrown on the north bank of the Han River. The next defensive node of the South Korean army is Cheonan, but the South Korean army is obviously unable to reach the attack of the Korean People's Army, and now all hope is placed on the intervention of the AMERICAN combat troops. Truman finally approved U.S. troops to enter the war. On 1 July, C-54 and C-4 of the 374th Wing of the Far Eastern Air Force began airlifting the vanguard of the U.S. 24th Division, including the division headquarters and 2 battalions of the 21st Regiment, to Busan. Based on one of the battalions, a battalion-sized combat team, Task Force Smith, was quickly sent to Osan, about 6 miles south of Suwon, to engage the KPA. The U.S. army transported the follow-up units of the 24th Division by sea to Busan, subject to transport capacity, followed by the 25th Division and the 1st Cavalry Division. In order to give the soldiers of the ground forces firm confidence in the face of the North Korean offensive, the United States launched what may be the most significant combat operation since it intervened in the Korean War, and it was also a strong political statement.
On July 2, 1950, 10 B-29s of the 19th Bomber Group of the Far Eastern Air Force bombed The Lienpo Airport near Hwangnam on the east coast of North Korea. U.S. air crews spotted 16 planes parked at the airport, but the 500-pound bomb they dropped was thrown into the air and did not cause any damage to the other side. In order to strengthen the bomber forces of the Far Eastern Red Army, the U.S. Strategic Air Command transferred the 22nd and 92nd bomber groups to Japan, and also appointed the commander of the 15th Air Force as the commander of the newly formed Far East Air Force Bomber Command.
On the morning of 3 July, Lieutenant Colonel Smith, commander of The Smith Task Force of the 24th Division, was the first to witness the powerful air fire of the Allies. Four Australian Air Force Mustangs raided Pyeongtaek Railway Station in Gyeonggi Province. The Australian Air Force, which had just entered the battlefield, was quite aggressive, skimming at low altitude six times, using rockets and machine guns to strafe ground vehicles and fleeing soldiers. In the end, they blew up 9 wagons full of ammunition, and the explosion caused blew up the railway station and almost half of Pyeongtaek Castle, and the bombed ammunition burned half a night. Despite the glorious results, unfortunately the Australians got the wrong target – the city of Pyeongtaek was still in the hands of the South Korean army.
In the afternoon, F-51s reappeared over Suwon, strafing the runway of the airport and South Korean troops on the outskirts of Suwon. The South Koreans lost patience and fought back and knocked out 1 plane. The parachute pilot was "captured" by U.S. advisers and South Korean troops. When the pilot learned that he and his comrades were all friendly troops in today's air raids, he showed a look of surprise and disappointment. An officer in the South Korean army later recalled that on July 3, he was hit by five friendly airstrikes. In the evening, the planes of the US 8th Wing attacked again, further exacerbating the chaos on the battlefield. Roks reported four F-80s attacking Suwon airport, train stations, and retreats on the Suwon-Osan highway. An oil storage tank was hit and caught fire, 30 trucks were destroyed, and more than 200 South Korean soldiers were killed. The ROKs had to demand that the U.S. Air Force should preferably concentrate its main energy on the Han River Bridge, after all, the KPA was constantly moving south through the Han River.
On July 3, the Soviet Tass News Agency quoted the Korean People's Army as saying: "On July 3, the Korean People's Army continued to conduct air raids on enemy forces between Seoul and Suwon, and air raided Suwon airfield, shooting down 1 enemy aircraft in the air battle." The U.S. military records that the commander of the 80th Squadron of the 8th Wing, Amos M. Major Amos L. Sluder's F-80 (serial number 49-711) was shot down and he himself was killed. According to U.S. war reports, Major Sludd was shot down in an unusual way—he was shot down by tanks during an air raid on a KPA convoy near Pangyo-ri, although there are also records that he was shot down by KPA aircraft. Sluder may have been the result claimed by the KPA, and he became the first senior U.S. military officer to be shot down in the Korean War.
Amos M. Major Amos L. Sluder
In early July, the British Navy aircraft carrier HMS Triumph arrived off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula to accompany the U.S. Navy's HMS Valley Forge. On the 3rd, the British and American carrier-based aircraft were jointly dispatched for the first time, and it is worth mentioning that the main target of the carrier-based aircraft is the airfield of the Korean People's Army, while the strategic bombers were liberated from the task of air raiding enemy airfields to provide air support for the collapsed South Korean army and the han river coastal defense line.
On July 3, 16 F4U and 12 AD-4s from the USS Valley Forge, escorted by eight F9Fs, attacked an air base near Pyongyang, destroying the runway and oil depots. The U.S. military formation reported destroying at least 15 to 20 aircraft and shooting down two in the air, W. Brown of the 51st Carrier-Based Aircraft Squadron. Lieutenant Brown) and Leonard M. Lieutenant Leonard H. Plog claimed to have shot down 2 Yak-9s in the air battle. In addition, 2 other pilots of the squadron destroyed 1 Yak-9 on the ground. Subsequent aerial reconnaissance confirmed that the airfield's hangars, oil depots and runways had been damaged to a considerable extent. On the day the F4U (serial number 96809) of the VF53 Squadron fell into the water during takeoff, and the pilot William H. William E. Brown survived, but three months later he was killed in battle on September 25, 1950. On the same day, 12 "Sea Spitfires" and 9 "Fireflies" from the British Navy's "Triumph" aircraft carrier attacked Haizhou Airport, and although the anti-aircraft fire was negligible, the British carrier-based aircraft were also damaged to varying degrees. Although the air raids of the United States, Britain, and Australia were not fierce, the momentum of the People's Army's offensive at this time was still unstoppable, and on the same day, the tanks of the North Korean army rushed into the port of Inchon.
The U.S. Navy carrier-based aircraft went all out the next day, On July 4, but this time they also tasted the anti-aircraft fire of the North Korean army, and the Valley Of Fudgee lost 3 carrier-based bombers (serial number 122909, 123804 and 123814) and 1 search and rescue helicopter (serial number 122725), two from VA55 Squadron and one from VC11 Squadron, all but one of them were rescued. Don Don R. Stephens was shot down by anti-aircraft guns, and although he soon continued his mission, he was shot down and killed a few weeks later on July 22. After several days of air raids on the North Korean railway line, the Triumph and Valley Forge left the theater for recuperation.
The aircraft carrier Triumph
On this day, the South Korean army once again faced a critical moment, with North Korean tanks approaching Suwon, and they needed air support more than ever. MacArthur ordered suwon airfields to be controlled at all costs because he planned to airlift U.S. ground troops to Suwon to reinforce South Korean troops. The 5th Air Force organized several more sorties, including the Australian 77th Squadron and the 51st Provisional Squadron. However, due to poor air-ground communication and inaccurate grasp of the situation on the ground battlefield, it was the F-51 that had been frequently blown up by the South Korean soldiers, not the North Korean T-34. It was also on this day that the South Koreans finally waited for their own air force, the F-51 of the South Korean Air Force flew an air raid on the KPA tank unit, was intercepted by the escort Yak-9, and in the process of the attack, the "ace" pilot of the South Korean Air Force, Colonel Lee Geun-sung, was shot down and killed.
Lee Gen-yu (이근석, Japanese name, Aoki Ne-yu) was born on January 17, 1919: Born in Aoyama-myeon-san, Pyongan-nam-do-gun, he graduated from Pyongyang Higher Normal School in 1933. In 1935, Lee entered the second stage of the Japanese Army Cadet Corps and graduated in February 1937. In August 1938, he joined the newly formed 64th Army Flying Corps and fought in the Chinese battlefield and Nomonhan. After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, Lee was transferred to the 2nd Squadron of the 77th Squadron, and was captured by the British after being shot down during the battle in Burma in December 1941. Although Lee was Korean, he was not honest in the prisoner-of-war camp, and in March 1944 he led Japanese prisoners of war against British guards in the prisoner-of-war camp, and in August 1945, in the process of demobilization and repatriation, he organized a prisoner-of-war riot.
In June 1946, Lee returned to South Korea and later joined the South Korean Army, working with Kim Jung-yeol, who was also from the Japanese Army, to build the Korean Air Force. After the outbreak of war on June 25, 1950, Lee led a team to urgently receive 10 F-51Ds provided by the United States. On July 2, Despite the opposition of the U.S. military, Lee led the F-51, which had only been trained for a few days, to Daegu. Upon arriving in Daegu, Lee Immediately demanded an attack, but Kim Jeong-yeol refused, asking him to train for another day. On July 3, due to the critical situation of the battle, Kim Jeong-yeol ordered an attack, and on July 4, Lee Gen-hyun once again led a team to attack, and was hit by ground fire during the air raid on the KPA tank unit, and his body was gone after the explosion of his landline. Kim Jeong-yeol, who heard the news, lamented: "He who survived the Pacific War actually died during the second attack of this war..."
"The young People's Army engaged the U.S. army for the first time with the ground forces of the United States army, which dealt a fatal blow to the aggressors and made the American aggressors realize how powerful the Korean People's Army, which fought for the freedom and independence of the motherland, was. ......
During this period, the flying corps of the People's Army flew over Suwon and its south, bravely engaged in air battles with enemy aircraft, shot down and wounded enemy B-29 bombers and other aircraft, and attacked important positions of enemy ground forces, covering the battle of our army's ground forces."
——"History of the Korean People's Just War of Liberation of the Motherland"
Although the air strikes of the Us, British, and Australian aviation units were becoming more and more intense, the 56th Wing of the People's Army Fighter Aviation and the 57th Wing of the Strike Aviation Force, which were placed at the front, were not too affected. On the morning of 5 July, the U.S. Air Force Forward Liaison Group and the 507th Air Defense Battalion hastily evacuated Suwon after destroying their weapons and other materiel, following rumors that North Korean tanks had broken through the defensive line. On 6 July, four Yak-9 airstrokes attacked the transportation hub in Osan, and on the same day, The Smith Task Force was crushed by KPA tank units. As KPA advanced south, the 21st and 34th Regiments of the U.S. 24th Division's successors attempted to hold their ground at Chonan, while the 5th Air Force opened a forward airfield and forward command post in Daegu, in the middle of Daejeon to Busan. There are only 3,800-foot-long non-hard runways and rudimentary facilities left over from the Japanese army. It became the base for the 51st Fighter Squadron (provisional), later the 1st Fighter Squadron of the Korean Air Force, and a transit base for the Royal Australian Air Force's 77th Squadron, which was stationed at Iwakuni Airport in Japan with 26 F-51Ds. Thus, between June 30 and July 10, 1950, the ROK Air Force squadron led by Major Dean Hess was the only aviation unit that could fly to the battlefield within minutes and remain in the air for two or three hours after receiving a call to ground troops. Until July 15, the squadron was tasked with intercepting North Korean Air Force aircraft. However, due to the insurmountable language barrier between the pilot and the ground guidance unit, misfire has almost become a common thing, and there is a bottleneck in the flight and tactical level of The Korean pilot, which can only be carried out under the leadership of the American pilot, and the Korean pilot in the air does not have the right to fire freely and must obey the command of the Americans.
In early July 1950, the U.S. Air Command began to realize that air combat in Korea was not a "turkey hunt" as they had envisioned. Six aircraft and one helicopter were lost in two days alone from 3 to 4 July, and it was not the newcomers who were lost, including two battle-hardened commanders. Although the war lasted only two weeks, it entered a whole new phase. By 6 July, the KPA had completed the second phase of the "War of Liberation of the Fatherland". On July 7, the United States manipulated the United Nations Security Council into passing an illegal resolution agreeing to the use of the United Nations flag by invading U.S. and other countries' invading forces and organizing the United Nations Command. This marked a full-scale Involvement of the Americans in the Korean War, and it also meant that the KPA Air Force would face a more difficult battle.
(To be continued)