"Patrol squadrons in the Korean War"

[Mike Yared <mikeyared@yahoo.com>]

Patrol squadrons in the Korean War 
Rick Burgess; 
Naval Aviation News; 
Jul/Aug 2002; Vol.84; I.5; Page:18-21.

Abstract:
Because most of the combat action of the Korean War
took place over the Korean peninsula, the bulk of the
Navy's aerial contribution to the war took the form of
carrier-based tactical aircraft. For Navy patrol
squadrons, the war was fought primarily on the
peripheries of the main front, mostly in sea-control
and sea-denial missions, and other roles such as mine
hunting.

Because most of the combat action of the Korean War
took place over the Korean peninsula, the bulk of the
Navy's aerial contribution to the war took the form of
carrier-based tactical aircraft. For Navy patrol
squadrons (VP), the war was fought primarily on the
peripheries of the main front, mostly in sea-control
and sea-denial missions, and other roles such as mine
hunting. 

The Korean War was one hot spot of many along the
Asian landmass attracting the attention of VP
squadrons in the early 1950s. The broader Cold War was
in full chill. The Soviet Union had tested its first
nuclear weapons in 1949, and its large submarine fleet
presented a credible threat to the Navy's carrier and
amphibious task forces. Also in 1949, the Communist
Chinese People's Liberation Army forces had pushed the
Chinese Nationalist forces off the Asian mainland
across the Formosa Strait onto Formosa (now Taiwan).
French colonial forces in Indochina were embattled by
an increasingly strong Viet Minh force led by Ho Chi
Minh. From the Bering Strait to Singapore, Navy patrol
planes had much to monitor. 

Although the U.S. Seventh Fleet's carrier task forces
were committed to the Korean area of operations, the
fleet still was charged with the protection of
Formosa. The fleet was able to maintain routine
surveillance of the Formosa Strait with patrol
aircraft, which made it impossible for the Communist
Chinese to launch a surprise invasion of the island. 

In the Korean area of operations, VP squadrons
participated in the blockade of North Korea, keeping
merchant shipping and fishing fleets under
surveillance and deterring hostile submarine activity.
In addition, patrol aircraft hunted and destroyed
mines, dropped flares for air strikes, and conducted
weather reconnaissance and search-and-rescue
operations. 

At the beginning of the Korean War, Pacific Fleet VP
squadrons were equipped with three heavily armed
aircraft types. Martin PBM-5/SS/5S2 Mariners were the
only flying boats in active patrol squadrons (the PSM
Marlin had not yet entered service.) Seaplanes were
increasingly being displaced by land-based patrol
bombers, such as the four-engine Consolidated
Privateer P4Y-2/2S/2B, a holdover from WW II; and
versions of the new twin-engine Lockheed Neptune
(P2V-- 2/3/3W/4/5), successor to the post-WWII PV-2
Harpoon patrol bomber. 

The Pacific Fleet was equipped with only nine VP
squadrons in June 1950, having disestablished four
squadrons in the first half of the year. VP squadrons
were based at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash.; NAS San
Diego, Calif.; and NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii. They
deployed to NAF Yokosuka, Japan; NAS Sangley Point,
R.P.; NAS Kodiak, Alaska; and NAS Agana, Guam. By the
end of 1950, seven reserve VP squadrons were
activated, five of which were assigned to the Pacific
Fleet. By the end of 1951, two more active duty VP
squadrons were established in the Pacific Fleet, and
two more reserve squadrons were activated to augment
them. NAS Alameda, Calif., and NAS Seattle, Wash.,
accommodated some of the new squadrons. Only one
Atlantic Fleet patrol squadron, VP-7 at NAS Quonset
Point, R.I., was deployed to the war zone, arriving
less than one month before the truce on 30 June 1953. 

When the war broke out in 1950, Fleet Air Wing (FAW) 1
at Guam controlled squadrons deployed to the western
Pacific. In July 1950 FAW-1 moved to Naha, Okinawa, to
control patrols over the Formosa Strait using one
land-based and one flying boat squadron. FAW-6 was
established at Atsugi, Japan, to coordinate patrols in
the Yellow Sea and Sea of Japan. Eventually the
typical strength of FAW-6 included three land-plane
squadrons and two flying boat squadrons, as well as
two squadrons of Royal Air Force Sunderland flying
boats. These command structures remained in place
throughout the war, except during a short period when
they were relieved by FAW-2 and FAW-14, respectively. 

Only eight patrol planes-PBMs assigned to VP-46 and
the squadron it was relieving, VP-47-patrolled the Far
East when the North Korean invasion began, while VP--
28's PB4Ys were deployed to Guam. Soon, VP-47 was
regrouped and retained on deployment, VP-6's P2V-3s
arrived at Johnson Air Base near Tokyo, Japan, and
VP-42's PBMs staged at Iwakuni, Japan. VP-28 staged to
Naha and began daily patrols of the Formosa Strait and
the coast of China. Other squadrons rotated in turn,
and also deployed to far-flung bases and anchorages
such as Hong Kong; the Pescadores, Buckner Bay and
Kadena in Okinawa; Tachikawa and Itami in Japan; and
Kodiak and Shemya in the Aleutians. 

As the North Korean invasion pushed south, VP-6's
Neptunes were used on three occasions to provide naval
gunfire spotting for United Nations warships on the
western coast of South Korea. The squadron's P2V-3s,
armed with 20mm cannon, bombs and rockets, also
launched many attacks themselves against North Korean
targets along the northeast shore. 

On 29 July 1950, two crews destroyed a railroad train
with their rockets and guns. On 13 August, crews sank
three boats and two barges engaged in minelaying near
Chinnampo, and damaged two surface craft near Wonsan.
One VP-6 Neptune was damaged in the attack. An attack
on a patrol boat near Chinnampo on 16 August was fatal
to another VP-6 aircraft, which ditched after taking
fire. The crew was rescued by the Royal Navy cruiser
HMS Kenya. Patrol planes were prohibited thereafter
from undertaking attack missions over Korea. VP-6
became the only patrol squadron awarded the Navy Unit
Citation during the Korean War. 

Patrol planes-PBMs, P2Vs and Sunderlands-were used
extensively in mine hunting, particularly in the
harbors of Inchon and Wonsan. This tedious activity
required the PBMs to fly low and slow, close enough to
detonate a moored mine with machine gunfire, but high
enough to avoid the mine's explosion. p2Vs dropped
depth charges to wipe out magnetic mines. 

Caption: Opposite, a VP-28 PB4Y-2 is superimposed over
the squadron's first insignia, approved in 1948. The
pirate, or Privateer, symbolized the type of squadron
aircraft. The cartoon character holds a bomb in each
hand, intent on sinking enemy ships. Below, a VP-1
P2V-5 Neptune leaves Atsugi, Japan, on a patrol over
the Sea of Japan on 12 Sept 1952. 

Caption: Opposite, a PBM Mariner is hoisted aboard
Curtiss (AV 4) for servicing during the Korean War, 8
November 1950. 


In 1951 VP squadrons were pressed into another role,
this time over land, dropping illumination flares in
support of air strikes. Known as Firefly missions,
they helped deny the night to enemy supply movements.
Admiral Arthur W. Radford suggested the use of P4Y-2
Privateers as flare ships to replace the more
vulnerable R4D Skytrains in illuminating targets for
Marine Corps F4U-SN Corsair and F7F-3N Tigercat night
hecklers. One NY from VP-772 was modified for the
mission and proved highly successful, and three more
P4Ys from VP-772 and VP-- 28 were assigned as "Lamp
Lighters" (later operated by successive squadrons).
During a typical mission, the NY would rendezvous with
four attack aircraft, search for truck convoys and
illuminate the targets for the attack aircraft. 

Although United Nations forces were successful in
maintaining air superiority ove most of the Korean
peninsula, lumbering patrol aircraft had a few
encounters with enemy aircraft. A VP-42 Mariner was
damaged on 11 May 1952 by a MiG-15 fighter over the
Yellow Sea, and on 31 July 1952 a VP-731 PBM was
seriously damage( by gunfire from a MiG-15, which
killed twc crewmen and injured two others. 

Flights off China and the Soviet Union, far from
protective cover, were more dangerous. VP-28 P4Ys were
attacked over the Formosa Strait on 26 July by an F-51
Mustang in North Korean markings, and on 20 September
and 22 November 1950 by MiG-15 s, all without result.
A VP-42 PBM was lost to unknown causes in the southern
Formosa Strait on 5 November. On 6 November 1951 a
VP-6 P2V-3W was shot down, with no survivors, by
Soviet fighters near Vladivostok. On 18 January 1953
Chinese antiaircraft batteries shot down a VP-22 P2V
off Swatow. A Coast Guard PBM-5G picked up the
survivors but crashed on takeoff, resulting in the
loss of 11 fliers, including 7 from the P2V. The
survivors were rescued by a Navy ship. Further such
aircraft incidents and losses occurred in the years
after the Korean truce. 

[Table]
Caption: U.S. Navy Patrol Squadrons in the Korean War 

One daring P2V crew amazingly survived a series of
eight or nine intentional overflights of the Soviet
Union's Kamchatka peninsula between April and June
1952. A VP-931 P2V-3W-modified with special electronic
intelligence equipment in its nose and flown by a
handpicked crew-flew in radio silence over the
peninsula at 15,000 feet in search of military
installations. When military sites were detected, an
Air Force RB-50 flying above and behind the P2V
photographed the sites. The snoopers were intercepted
on two missions by Soviet MiG fighters but apparently
never were fired upon. Fortunately, the recently
declassified operations never required the services of
the Air Force SB-17 rescue plane assigned to the
missions. This VP-931 (later VP-57) crew also
performed a daring search and rescue flight in July
1953 over Vladivostok harbor for the crew of an RB-50
that was shot down by Soviet fighters. A U.S.
destroyer rescued one of the crewmen. 

Land-based patrol planes saw greater use than flying
boats in the Korean War, proving to be more efficient.
In Korea, land-based patrol planes flew 12 sorties for
every 9 flown by flying boats. 

As with U.S. forces in general, patrol aviation
maintained a high level of presence in the Far East
after the Korean War. Its operations increasingly
focused on peripheral reconnaissance of the Soviet
Union and China, particularly surveillance of the
growing Soviet submarine force and vigilance against
Chinese sabre-rattling against Formosa. 

By LCdr. Rick Burgess, USN (Ret.) 
Rick Burgess, a former NANews editor, is Managing
Editor of the Navy's League's Seapower. 

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