WAR IN KOREA: Best Shape Ever

Back in Washington last week after a tour of Korea, Air Force Under Secretary Roswell Gilpatrick announced that after two years of war the Far East Air Forces were in the best shape ever. In Korea, Army Chief of Staff J. Lawton Collins promised that more and heavier air blows would rain on North Korea “if they [the Communists] insist on prolonging the war.” Admiral William Fechteler, Chief of Naval Operations who was also in the Pacific, spoke up for the Navy. Fechteler said that two new carrier jets, able to cope with the enemy’s MIG-15, are in production, and that soon all the Navy’s big carriers would fly only jets.

Up to Strength. Last week nearly a full wing (58 planes) of F-84 Gs (new type Thunderjets belonging to the Strategic Air Command) touched down at a bomber base in central Japan after a leisurely multistop flight over the Pacific in which inflight refueling was successfully used. The F-84 Gs replaced a garrison wing of Thunderjets which went to Korea to fight. From Japan the new planes can reach any target in southern Manchuria, and they are equipped with bomb racks for carrying “tactical” (small) atomic bombs. Official Washington pooh-poohed any notion that the U.S. would use atomic weapons either in Manchuria or in North Korea—but the Communists knew that Washington might change its mind.

By ship, 175 more Thunderjets are being dispatched to Korea. These, plus 75 jets sent from Japan, will increase U.N. fighter strength at the Korean bases by 250 planes. The ten fighter wings on the peninsula, long operating understrength, are all being brought up to full combat strength. General Mark Clark started clamoring for more planes even before he left for Tokyo in May, and he was solidly backed up by his air commander, General O. P. Weyland. The maintenance situation has improved: whereas only 50% to 65% of U.N. planes used to be available for operations on any given day, the figure is now around 95%.

Theories for Scarcity. The U.S. now dominates the North Korean air from the battlefront to the Yalu, and the enemy’s MIGs are venturing across the border in much smaller numbers than a few months ago. (This month’s jet-combat score: eleven MIGs destroyed, two Sabres lost). Said one U.S. airman: “Last fall we were fighting them within 50 miles of this base. It’s nearly 250 miles to the Yalu, and now there’s not a single Commie pilot sitting across that goddam river who doesn’t know that, if he sticks his nose across it, he’s liable to get it shot off. First we drove them back to Pyongyang, then to the Chongchon. Since spring we’ve kept them penned between the Chongchon and the Yalu. Now any time we want to go to targets on the Yalu, we can go—and we can go farther if we’re ordered to.”

The enemy’s estimated air strength in Manchuria (1,900 planes, including 800 to 900 jets) has been nearly static for some time, which may indicate that the U.S.S.R. has made its maximum commitment in planes to the Chinese-North Korean adventure. There are two theories to account for the present scarcity of MIGs south of the Yalu. One is that Soviet instructors are trying to train an all-Chinese pilot force; the other is that the enemy is hoarding his strength for an all-out air blow. Says General Weyland: “They could hit us once and they might hurt us. But if they tried to sustain it, they’d lose their air force.”