A New Era in Aerial Warfare Began During the Korean War
The first months of the Korean War saw a struggle for air superiority acted out by the fighters of the World War II vintage. Then the MiGs arrived, and a new era in aerial warfare began.
By Ricardo Bonalume Neto On June 25, 1950, while the North Korean forces crossed the 38th Parallel and marched on the South Korean capital of Seoul, six Yak-9Ps of the Korean People's Armed Forces Air Force crossed the 38th Parallel and made for Kimpo airfield, near Seoul. Unopposed save for desultory ground fire, the Soviet-built fighters strafed the field and destroyed an American Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport before retiring. First blood had been drawn against the United States in a war that would never be officially declared, but that would rage on for three years.
In the months to come, South Korean troops and the growing American contingent committed to their defense were subjected the unpleasant surprise of facing a well-trained, well-equipped, tough and highly motivated enemy who sent them reeling southward to the brink of defeat.
In the air, the story would be different. Very different.
At the end of World War II, Korea was divided between the two rival countries that had liberated it from the Japanese--the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Both powers wasted no time in establishing governments along their own respective political lines. In addition, the Soviet Union provided the Communist government of Kim II-sung with a sizable arsenal of weapons and military advisers to train the North Koreans in their use. Prominent among the land weapons was the superb T-34/85 tank, which was the best medium tank in the world in 1945 and which could still outmatch its best American counterparts in 1950.
The North Korean Air Force (NKAF) also boasted the best of the World War II Soviet weaponry--Yakovlev Yak-9U fighters and Yak-9P interceptors--along with a smaller contingent of the nimble, radial-engined Lavochkin La-7 fighter. Air support for troops and armor would be provided by the cannon-armed, armored Ilyushin Il-10, the ultimate refinement of the Il-2 Shturmovik, which had reached the front just in time to join its more famous forebear on the road to Berlin. Numerous other types supplemented these first-line warplanes, including some unlikely candidates for front-line service that the North Koreans would nonetheless press into combat as they felt necessity demanded. Among the more prominent such second-line aircraft were the Yak-11 trainer, whose twin machine guns would see some use in the ground attack role, and the 1928-vintage Polikarpov Po-2 two-seat biplane, which would reprise its World War II role as a most troublesome night intruder.
While North Korea's soldiers and tankers were as tough as they were mercilessly cruel, its airmen would prove to be less swift in mastering the subtleties of aerial combat.
Against the 122 aircraft estimated to be in the NKAF, the Southern Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) had 13 Piper L-4 and Stinson L-5 light aircraft and three North American T-6 Texan trainers--none of them armed. But several American air groups were based in Japan at the time of the North Korean invasion and were quickly mobilized for transfer to the Korean mainland. Within 24 hours of the Communist assault, the Far East Air Force (FEAF) had arrived over South Korea as detachments of four North American F-82G Twin Mustangs of the 68th and 339th Fighter (All-Weather) Squadrons patrolled at low- and medium-altitude over Inchon, the two squadrons having flown in from Itazuke and Yokota airfields, respectively. The two-seat, long-range escort fighters, which virtually comprised two F-51H Mustang fuselages joined by a central wing and tailplane, were up to protect refugee ships steaming out of the port when, in the afternoon of June 26, a pair of La-7s were reported to have made firing passes at two of the 68th's Twin Mustangs. Significantly, the North Americans did not press home their attack, nor did the Americans engage them. It typified the lack of enterprise with which the North Koreans exploited their initial air superiority and gave away their inexperience to the Americans.
By June 27, Lockheed F-80C Shooting Stars--the first operational jet fighters in the USAF--of the 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing had also arrived to help cover the continuing evacuation of civilians before the Communist offensive. Two C-54s and 11 Douglas C-47s were flying from Itazuke to Kimpo and Suwon airfields near Seoul and 11 F-82Gs of both the 68th and the 339th squadrons were providing escort, with the F-80Cs flying top cover for the Twin Mustangs at high altitude.
Suddenly, a Yak-9 attacked a formation of five F-82s from the 68th, trying to pick off the Number 4 aircraft, crew by 1st Lt. Charles "Chalky" Moran and radar observer (R-O) Fred Larkins. Although the North Korean's attack was somewhat more determined than that of the day before, it did no more good, as 10 aroused Twin Mustangs pounced on him. Understandably unnerved, the communist pilot broke off his attack and tied to escape the hail of lead that he had brought upon himself while a mixed bag of two more Yak-9s, an La-7 and a Yak-11 trainer joined the melee in an attempt to help their comrade out. According to one of his squadron mates, Lieutenant Keith Bobo, it was the Yaks' intended victim, Moran, who finally got in the decisive burst of six .50-caliber machine guns that shot down his attacker. A few minutes later, the F-82 team of 1st Lt. William G."Skeeter" Hudson and R-O Carl Fraser downed the Yak-11. The 339th had also joined the dogfight, and Major James W. Little of that unit shot down the La-7, while Lieutenant Walt Hayhurst came away with credit for a "damaged probable." It might be noted that Major Little typified the disparity in training that made the principal difference in evaluating the performance of the FEAF versus the NKAF. What for the North Korean airmen was their first war was Little's second; flying P-51 Mustangs in the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force, during World War II, he had already accounted for six Japanese aircraft over China. Most of the American Squadrons had the benefit of the cadre of veterans with similar experience.
After the victorious Twin Mustangs returned, official Air Force credit for the first American aerial victory of the Korean conflict was given to Hudson. Keith Bobo later explained that apparent injustice: "Moran failed to come back from a night mission a few weeks later and since Hudson survived, the decisions seems to have been made to give credit to the living. The media was partly responsible for the confusion, too, since reporters were trying to interview everyone at the same time at the end of the mission and it got printed, I think, incorrectly.
An hour later, eight Il-10s tried to slip in and hit the transport aircraft on the ground, only to find four F-80Cs of the 35th Fighter Bomber Squadron waiting to streak down on them. In minutes, four of the Il-10s were shot down--one each to Captain Ray Schillereff and Lieutenant Robert Dewald, while Lieutenant Robert E. Wayne scored a double kill. The remaining four turned for home and survived only because the Shooting Star pilots had no orders authorizing pursuit--only defense of the evacuation. The F-80 jockeys had the satisfaction of chalking up a second "first" for the day: the first aerial victories for the American jets.
On June 29, the first arrivals of a soon-to-be sizable contingent of F-51D Mustangs made their first contribution to the struggle. The aircraft had been delivered to ROKAF, but their pilots were American, Prior to delivery, the Mustangs became embroiled in engagements with North Korean aircraft, during which 1st Lt. Harry T. Sandlin and 2nd Lt. Orrin R. Fox of the 80th Fighter-Bomber Squadron shot down an La-7 and two Yak-9s, respectively, while 1st Lt. Richard J. Burns of the 35th Fighter-Bomber Squadron accounted for an Il-10.
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