First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Pen and Sword Aviation An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd 47 Church Street Barnsley South Yorkshire S70 2AS Copyright © Martin Bowman, 2016 ISBN: 9781473837737 PDF ISBN: 9781473874633 EPUB ISBN: 9781473874626 PRC ISBN: 9781473874619 The right of Martin Bowman to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Printed and bound by Replika Press Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Pen & Sword Discovery, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe True Crime, Wharncliffe Transport, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Contents Acknowledgements Chapter 1 First Jet War; Task Force 77: Korea Chapter 2 The MiG Killers: Sabres in the Korean War 1950-1953 Chapter 3 The Indo-Pak Wars Chapter 4 QRA Photo Gallery Chapter 5 The Six Day War Chapter 6 A Hostile Peace Chapter 7 Yom Kippur (Ramadan) War Chapter 8 Carrier-borne Combat Viêtnam 1964-1973 F-105 Thunderchiefs passing Mount Fuji. Acknowledgements My thanks also go to the late Roland H. Baker for images aboard the USS Philippine Sea during the Korean War; Larry Davis for Sabre images during the Korean War; the late Group Captain R. J. F. ‘Dickie’ Dickinson ; Mohammed AFC Shaukat-ul-Islam; Reg Adams. Thanks also go to my fellow author, friend and colleague, Graham Simons, for getting the book to press ready standard and for his detailed work on the photographs; to Pen & Sword and in particular, Laura Hirst; and Jon Wilkinson, for his unique jacket design once again. AD-4B Skyraider of VA-115 taking off from the deck of the USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) crowded with F9F-2 Panther Jets during the Korean War. Before sailing from San Diego, California on 5 July 150, the carrier embarked Air Group 11 (CVG-1); two F9F-2B squadrons (VF-111 and VF-112); two F4U-4 fighter- bomber squadrons and the AD-4 Skyraider squadron. The F9F-2 remained the US Navy’s first-line jet fighter throughout the first year of the Korean War. Demobilization following the Second World War had severely reduced the fighting capability of the US forces and no fewer than twenty-eight Navy and Marine Reserve squadrons were called to active duty from July to September 1950. In all eighteen Reserve squadrons made twenty-nine deployments on board carriers during the Korean War. (Roland H. Baker). Chapter One The First Jet War; Task Force 77: Korea The hand of the aggressor is stayed by strength - and strength alone. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a speech at an English Speaking Union Dinner (3 July 1951). When North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950 the USAF was actually at the lowest point in its strength since 1941. ‘Ike’ became the 34th president of the US in 1953. Six small silver jet fighters bearing red stars on their stubby fuselages and swept- back wings took off from the safety of their air base at Antung in Manchuria, climbed rapidly to 30,000 feet and crossed the Yalu River into North Korea. It was 1 November 1950. Five years earlier, on 2 September - VJ Day1 - the official surrender ceremony took place aboard the Missouri in Tokyo Bay. World War Two was finally at an end. The Japanese surrender to the Allies on 2 September 1945 created a vacuum in South East Asia and in China the Communist and Nationalist forces took up opposing stances. The US tried to mediate between the two sides and USMC squadrons were used in sporadic operations in northern China as tensions boiled over; a number of US personnel were killed. In January 1949 the Nationalist Chinese set up a government in exile on the island of Formosa (Taiwan) and in May the last of the US units left China. Tension in the area remained and it was to spread to other parts of South- East Asia. In 1945 the Soviet Union took the surrender of Japanese forces in Korea north of the 38th parallel, while the United States handled the enemy surrender south of the dividing line. Early on Sunday morning, 25 June 1950, in an attack reminiscent of Sunday 7 December 1941, peace in the land of the morning calm was shattered. The formation of F-51 Mustangs and F-80 Shooting Stars flying on the North Korean side of the river was surprised at the devastating closing speed of the Communist jets, whose pilots only failed to destroy the American aircraft through their own inexperience. It was one of a series of setbacks UN forces had suffered since 25 June 1950 when the North Korean Army, using the false pretext that the South had invaded the North, crossed the 38th parallel, completely wrong-footing the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army and its American advisers. From the outset the North Koreans enjoyed total air superiority, although on paper the NKAF had no chance against the UN forces but the USAF aircraft available for war in Korea were ill-suited to operate in a close air support and interdiction campaign. They needed paved runways 6,000 feet long and these only existed in Japan, which meant that air operations over Korea were restricted to no more than a few minutes. Up until that fateful November day US commanders had no reason to fear the Communist air threat because only piston- engined aircraft had confronted them but intervention by China and the appearance of the Soviet-built jets in North Korean airspace dramatically changed the balance of air power at a stroke. Fortunately, the North Koreans lacked the capability to strike back at the UN fleet off its coasts.2 The USN was in a state of transition, with the first jet fighters joining the more numerous piston-engined aircraft aboard its carriers. While Navy jets were about 100mph faster than the Corsair fighter-bomber or Skyraider attack aircraft, the early jets could not haul as great a war load over a long distance. And they were also slow to respond from the point when the throttle was advanced, to when the engine ‘spooled up’ sufficiently to accelerate the aircraft. This delay could prove fatal if a jet had to he waved off a landing at the last moment. American air superiority during 1950 meant that Korea was an ideal hunting ground for both the slower Corsair and the Skyraider in which to operate in the ground attack and interdiction roles. Flying from flat-tops, Navy and Marine units could operate in the Sea of Japan and be sent off at a point about seventy miles from the coast of Korea (the shallow sea bed off the east coast of Korea prevented them from getting any nearer). But of the fifteen US Navy carriers3 in service around the world on the day of the invasion, only Valley Forge (CV-45), which had sailed from Subic Bay in the Philippines with CVG-5 (Air Group Five)4 embarked, was deployed to the Far East. Valley Forge and the Royal Navy’s light fleet carrier HMS Triumph, which with other vessels constituted Task Force (TF) 77 arrived on station in the Yellow Sea off Korea on 3 July. At 0545 hours the first strike by TF 77 went ahead when sixteen of VF-53 and VF-54’s F4U-4s and twelve AD Skyraiders of VA-55 took off to hit North Korean lines of communications, railway bridges, rail yards, airfields and roads near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. Thirty F9F-3 Panthers of VF-51 ‘Screaming Eagles’ provided top cover for the Corsairs and Skyraiders and thus became the first jet fighters in the US Navy to go into action.