thedrifter
02-06-03, 01:19 PM
http://www.military.com/pics/mh0398WEAPONRYf.jpg
A Yakovlev Yak-18 of the North Korean air force -- the crew of which defected and landed in United Nations territory in 1953 -- awaits restoration at the National Air and Space Museum's Paul E. Garber Facility in Suitland, Md. (Jon Guttman)
Amid the ascent of the jet age, North Korean airmen harassed United Nations forces with flying anachronisms.
By Clayton W. Harrell
It was like entering a bicycle in an Indianapolis 500 auto race on Memorial Day. While the most modern jet fighters in the Communist arsenal seldom ventured far beyond the Yalu River, a handful of daring North Korean airmen were driving their United Nations opponents to distraction with some of the most rudimentary aircraft in existence.
Although both sides were still using propeller-driven aircraft of World War II vintage when the war began on June 25, 1950, Korea was the first full-scale proving ground for jet fighter aircraft. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet fighter appeared over Korea in November 1950, and the North American F-86 Sabre jet arrived to counter it the following month.
Korean Aircraft
Even while the jets fought it out over MiG Alley, North Koreans flew nocturnal raids in low-speed, low-altitude, propeller-driven aircraft to harass U.N. ground forces as part of their strategy of psychological warfare. By dropping small fragmentation bombs, artillery shells, hand grenades or propaganda leaflets, the North Korean air force (NKAF) marauders kept the U.N. troops alert through the night. The flights were conducted throughout the war, but particularly during the last six months, when the front lines were relatively static. The U.N. troops called them "Bed-Check Charlie" flights because air raid alerts announcing the approach of the old planes would sound at night and awaken the weary soldiers. At that time, "Charlie" was an epithet used to describe any unknown Asian.
The two principal Soviet aircraft used by the NKAF in this role were the Polikarpov Po-2LSh, a slow biplane of 1927 vintage, and the Yakovlev Yak-18, which had been designed shortly after World War II. Neither of those aircraft had been designed as a bomber, but during World War II, the Po-2 had been used as a nuisance raider against the Germans. The objective then, as it was in Korea, was to wear down enemy troops and lower morale by attacking front-line positions during the night. Some Po-2s were fitted with wing racks capable of carrying up to 550 pounds of bombs, and often a single 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun was mounted in the rear cockpit. On July 1, 1951, when Captain Edwin B. Long and Warrant Officer Robert C. Buckingham, a Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat crew of Marine Squadron VMF(N)-513, sent a Po-2 crashing into a mountainside, Long believed that he saw the biplane's rear-seat occupant gamely shoot back at them with a hand-held PPSh-41 7.62 submachine gun.
The Yak
Developed from the UT-2MV primary trainer of World War II, the Yak-18 first flew in 1946 and, after three engine changes, went into production in 1947. Originally of metal construction, covered partly in metal and partly in fabric, and powered by a 160-hp M-11FR five-cylinder engine, the little tandem-seat trainer was later produced by the Chinese as the CJ-5. The later CJ-6 version had tricycle retractable landing gear and larger engines with outputs as high as 285 hp. In Korea, the Yak-18's rear-seat occupant had the job of tossing bombs or hand grenades while the pilot maneuvered the plane at low altitude over enemy lines. With a top speed of 154 mph, the Yak-18 was a bit faster then the Po-2 but had a shorter range -- about 310 miles. It served alongside the Po-2 from December 1952 through the Panmunjom cease-fire on July 23, 1953.
An advantage of using these aircraft types for harassment missions was that they could land on and take off from unimproved, even improvised, airstrips close to the front. They did not require the support equipment of modern aircraft and could run on automotive fuel. During daylight hours, the North Koreans hid the Po-2s and Yak-18s from U.N. bombers and ground-attack planes by pushing them under trees or hiding them inside barns or other structures. Bombing raids by Boeing B-29s and B-50s on the air bases in the North did nothing to eradicate the nocturnal pests.
Raiders
Radar was almost useless because the planes flew so low over the mountainous terrain, and their small airframes did not present a good reflecting target for ground-based radar. The U.N. troops deployed anti-aircraft guns, but they were ineffective. The gunners could not see the low-flying planes during the night hours and at times could not fire on them for fear that their shells would fall on friendly troops.
The history of VMF(N)-513 records: "Even when a raider was located and a night fighter of the 68th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron or of VMF(N)-513 was vectored to an interception, the Po-2's slow speed and extreme maneuverability often allowed it to escape. On several occasions, Marine night fighters nearly rammed the small planes and yet could not pick them out amid the ground clutter on airborne radar scopes." On June 24, 1951, Captain Richard M. Heyman, an ex-fighter pilot who was flying a Douglas B-26B Intruder of the 8th Squadron, 3rd Bomb Group, responded to a call from Kimpo Air Base Direction Center and throttled down slow enough to overhaul and shoot down a Po-2 north of Seoul.
Pilots from U.S. Navy squadron VC-3, flying radar-equipped Vought F4U-5N Corsairs, tried to rid the area of the raiders. To help, a pair of British Fairey Fireflies and two Douglas AD-4W Skyraiders from Marine squadron VMCJ-1 were equipped with APS-31 radar in belly radomes for the specific mission of finding and destroying the antiquated night-flying aircraft. The cost of modifying the U.N. planes far exceeded the toll they inflicted on the "Charlies," but the U.N. high command said that the raiders had to be destroyed at any cost.
Sometimes, a Charlie could be more than just an annoyance. On June 17, 1951, a Po-2LSh struck at Suwon air base for the first time, destroying a North American F-86A Sabre jet fighter of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group on the ground and damaging eight others. In the most daring and successful NKAF raid of the war, four or five Yak-18s attacked fuel dumps at Inchon and destroyed nearly 5.5 million gallons of fuel on the night of June 16-17, 1953. Although the North Koreans employed high-performance MiG-15 jet fighters to defend themselves, the jets did little to support their ground troops, and the NKAF rarely conducted regular bombing raids, aside from the Bed-Check Charlies' nuisance raids.
Baffled
A U.S. Air Force log documenting the Charlies' activities illustrates the raiders' effectiveness: "On October 13, 1952 four Po-2s dropped small bombs and strafed the radar installations on the island of Cho-do, wounding two Americans and killing five Korean civilians. On the night of November 12, several attacked Paengnyong-do without causing any damage. They repeatedly attacked Cho-do on November 26 and again on the fifth and tenth of December. One Po-2 was caught in the radar sights of one plane and it fell into the sea. On the night of December 30, Fifth Air Force radars tracked two planes flying over Seoul, Kimpo, and Suwon, dropping propaganda leaflets. During the next few cold months, the night hecklers were absent from the sky. In April, they again attacked Cho-do, killing two anti-aircraft artillery men and destroying a weapon. Again, airborne aircraft in the area could not 'see' their targets.
"Geared to act against high-performance aircraft," the account concluded, "Fifth Air Force air defense were baffled by the 80 knot biplanes." Flying low down moonlit valleys to foil U.N. radar, the Charlies had the controlling hand in high-tech, jet-age warfare.
Taking 'Em Out
On the night of December 10, 1952, a Douglas F4D Skyknight all-weather jet fighter of VMF(N)-513, crewed by 1st Lt. Joseph A. Corvi and Sergeant Dan George, got lucky. Corvi locked onto a radar contact over Sinanju, fired his guns at long range and flew past a wing and flaming debris. His Po-2 was the first victim of radar alone, without visual contact.
Marine Major George H. Linnemeier and his radar operator, Chief Warrant Officer Vernon Kramer, of VMC-1 flew a propeller-driven Douglas AD-4 slowly enough to shoot down a Po-2 northeast of Kimpo air base on June 15, 1953. Navy Lieutenant Guy P. Bordelon of VC-3 flew his specially equipped F4U-5NL off the deck of the carrier Princeton with enough skill to down three Charlies (Yak-18s), as well as two Lavochkin La-9 or La-11 fighter-bombers between June 29 and July 17, 1952. The only U.S. Navy ace of the Korean War, he was awarded the Navy Cross. Such U.S. successes helped decrease North Korean enthusiasm for flying nighttime heckling flights over the front line, but the raids did continue.
continued........
A Yakovlev Yak-18 of the North Korean air force -- the crew of which defected and landed in United Nations territory in 1953 -- awaits restoration at the National Air and Space Museum's Paul E. Garber Facility in Suitland, Md. (Jon Guttman)
Amid the ascent of the jet age, North Korean airmen harassed United Nations forces with flying anachronisms.
By Clayton W. Harrell
It was like entering a bicycle in an Indianapolis 500 auto race on Memorial Day. While the most modern jet fighters in the Communist arsenal seldom ventured far beyond the Yalu River, a handful of daring North Korean airmen were driving their United Nations opponents to distraction with some of the most rudimentary aircraft in existence.
Although both sides were still using propeller-driven aircraft of World War II vintage when the war began on June 25, 1950, Korea was the first full-scale proving ground for jet fighter aircraft. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet fighter appeared over Korea in November 1950, and the North American F-86 Sabre jet arrived to counter it the following month.
Korean Aircraft
Even while the jets fought it out over MiG Alley, North Koreans flew nocturnal raids in low-speed, low-altitude, propeller-driven aircraft to harass U.N. ground forces as part of their strategy of psychological warfare. By dropping small fragmentation bombs, artillery shells, hand grenades or propaganda leaflets, the North Korean air force (NKAF) marauders kept the U.N. troops alert through the night. The flights were conducted throughout the war, but particularly during the last six months, when the front lines were relatively static. The U.N. troops called them "Bed-Check Charlie" flights because air raid alerts announcing the approach of the old planes would sound at night and awaken the weary soldiers. At that time, "Charlie" was an epithet used to describe any unknown Asian.
The two principal Soviet aircraft used by the NKAF in this role were the Polikarpov Po-2LSh, a slow biplane of 1927 vintage, and the Yakovlev Yak-18, which had been designed shortly after World War II. Neither of those aircraft had been designed as a bomber, but during World War II, the Po-2 had been used as a nuisance raider against the Germans. The objective then, as it was in Korea, was to wear down enemy troops and lower morale by attacking front-line positions during the night. Some Po-2s were fitted with wing racks capable of carrying up to 550 pounds of bombs, and often a single 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun was mounted in the rear cockpit. On July 1, 1951, when Captain Edwin B. Long and Warrant Officer Robert C. Buckingham, a Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat crew of Marine Squadron VMF(N)-513, sent a Po-2 crashing into a mountainside, Long believed that he saw the biplane's rear-seat occupant gamely shoot back at them with a hand-held PPSh-41 7.62 submachine gun.
The Yak
Developed from the UT-2MV primary trainer of World War II, the Yak-18 first flew in 1946 and, after three engine changes, went into production in 1947. Originally of metal construction, covered partly in metal and partly in fabric, and powered by a 160-hp M-11FR five-cylinder engine, the little tandem-seat trainer was later produced by the Chinese as the CJ-5. The later CJ-6 version had tricycle retractable landing gear and larger engines with outputs as high as 285 hp. In Korea, the Yak-18's rear-seat occupant had the job of tossing bombs or hand grenades while the pilot maneuvered the plane at low altitude over enemy lines. With a top speed of 154 mph, the Yak-18 was a bit faster then the Po-2 but had a shorter range -- about 310 miles. It served alongside the Po-2 from December 1952 through the Panmunjom cease-fire on July 23, 1953.
An advantage of using these aircraft types for harassment missions was that they could land on and take off from unimproved, even improvised, airstrips close to the front. They did not require the support equipment of modern aircraft and could run on automotive fuel. During daylight hours, the North Koreans hid the Po-2s and Yak-18s from U.N. bombers and ground-attack planes by pushing them under trees or hiding them inside barns or other structures. Bombing raids by Boeing B-29s and B-50s on the air bases in the North did nothing to eradicate the nocturnal pests.
Raiders
Radar was almost useless because the planes flew so low over the mountainous terrain, and their small airframes did not present a good reflecting target for ground-based radar. The U.N. troops deployed anti-aircraft guns, but they were ineffective. The gunners could not see the low-flying planes during the night hours and at times could not fire on them for fear that their shells would fall on friendly troops.
The history of VMF(N)-513 records: "Even when a raider was located and a night fighter of the 68th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron or of VMF(N)-513 was vectored to an interception, the Po-2's slow speed and extreme maneuverability often allowed it to escape. On several occasions, Marine night fighters nearly rammed the small planes and yet could not pick them out amid the ground clutter on airborne radar scopes." On June 24, 1951, Captain Richard M. Heyman, an ex-fighter pilot who was flying a Douglas B-26B Intruder of the 8th Squadron, 3rd Bomb Group, responded to a call from Kimpo Air Base Direction Center and throttled down slow enough to overhaul and shoot down a Po-2 north of Seoul.
Pilots from U.S. Navy squadron VC-3, flying radar-equipped Vought F4U-5N Corsairs, tried to rid the area of the raiders. To help, a pair of British Fairey Fireflies and two Douglas AD-4W Skyraiders from Marine squadron VMCJ-1 were equipped with APS-31 radar in belly radomes for the specific mission of finding and destroying the antiquated night-flying aircraft. The cost of modifying the U.N. planes far exceeded the toll they inflicted on the "Charlies," but the U.N. high command said that the raiders had to be destroyed at any cost.
Sometimes, a Charlie could be more than just an annoyance. On June 17, 1951, a Po-2LSh struck at Suwon air base for the first time, destroying a North American F-86A Sabre jet fighter of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group on the ground and damaging eight others. In the most daring and successful NKAF raid of the war, four or five Yak-18s attacked fuel dumps at Inchon and destroyed nearly 5.5 million gallons of fuel on the night of June 16-17, 1953. Although the North Koreans employed high-performance MiG-15 jet fighters to defend themselves, the jets did little to support their ground troops, and the NKAF rarely conducted regular bombing raids, aside from the Bed-Check Charlies' nuisance raids.
Baffled
A U.S. Air Force log documenting the Charlies' activities illustrates the raiders' effectiveness: "On October 13, 1952 four Po-2s dropped small bombs and strafed the radar installations on the island of Cho-do, wounding two Americans and killing five Korean civilians. On the night of November 12, several attacked Paengnyong-do without causing any damage. They repeatedly attacked Cho-do on November 26 and again on the fifth and tenth of December. One Po-2 was caught in the radar sights of one plane and it fell into the sea. On the night of December 30, Fifth Air Force radars tracked two planes flying over Seoul, Kimpo, and Suwon, dropping propaganda leaflets. During the next few cold months, the night hecklers were absent from the sky. In April, they again attacked Cho-do, killing two anti-aircraft artillery men and destroying a weapon. Again, airborne aircraft in the area could not 'see' their targets.
"Geared to act against high-performance aircraft," the account concluded, "Fifth Air Force air defense were baffled by the 80 knot biplanes." Flying low down moonlit valleys to foil U.N. radar, the Charlies had the controlling hand in high-tech, jet-age warfare.
Taking 'Em Out
On the night of December 10, 1952, a Douglas F4D Skyknight all-weather jet fighter of VMF(N)-513, crewed by 1st Lt. Joseph A. Corvi and Sergeant Dan George, got lucky. Corvi locked onto a radar contact over Sinanju, fired his guns at long range and flew past a wing and flaming debris. His Po-2 was the first victim of radar alone, without visual contact.
Marine Major George H. Linnemeier and his radar operator, Chief Warrant Officer Vernon Kramer, of VMC-1 flew a propeller-driven Douglas AD-4 slowly enough to shoot down a Po-2 northeast of Kimpo air base on June 15, 1953. Navy Lieutenant Guy P. Bordelon of VC-3 flew his specially equipped F4U-5NL off the deck of the carrier Princeton with enough skill to down three Charlies (Yak-18s), as well as two Lavochkin La-9 or La-11 fighter-bombers between June 29 and July 17, 1952. The only U.S. Navy ace of the Korean War, he was awarded the Navy Cross. Such U.S. successes helped decrease North Korean enthusiasm for flying nighttime heckling flights over the front line, but the raids did continue.
continued........