RESCUED FROM HUNGNAM HARBOR: A SKYRAIDER PILOT'S LUCKY DAY

Flight Journal, Feb 2004 by Thompson, Warren E

ALTHOUGH CONCEIVED IN 1944 (when WW II was at its height), the AD Skyraider was not ready in time to enter that war, but it had plenty of action ahead of it. No one would have believed that this single-engine, powerful airframe would carry more payload than some of the workhorse four-engine bombers did in WW II. It was the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps that brought the AD into their inventories, and they used it to a great extent in the Korean War. The first squadron to introduce the aircraft into combat was VA-55 that flew off the USS Valley Forge on July 3, 1950. For the next two decades, the Skyraider would earn a reputation as one of the most feared weapons in the world-at least to enemy ground troops.

This story takes place during the early weeks of the USS Essex's first combat cruise. It was October 26, 1951, and the carrier was cruising up the east coast of North Korea. Immediately prior to this, the "Hell's Angels" from VF-54 with their ADs had wreaked havoc on a vast array of targets that included bridges and trains, and they fire-bombed Wonsan and closed down rail tunnels by using large bombs with threesecond delay fuses. With pinpoint accuracy, Skyraider pilots watched their bombs skip into tunnels and detonate. Sometimes, they caught locomotives hiding in them; the enormous secondary explosions blew out both ends of the tunnels.

Lt. j.g. William "Wille" Burgess was one of the squadron pilots who flew missions on October 26. He recalls the events that took place on that fateful day. "I had a lot of confidence in my flying abilities, and on a beautiful day like we had, I was looking forward to delivering some heavy blows to whatever targets I could. The day before, I had scored a direct hit on a bridge bypass, and I was eager to earn more bragging rights!

"Our division took off from the Essex-heavily loaded with bombs-clawing our way up to altitude en route to target. We began our mission by running rail reconnaissance and making numerous cuts on the tracks between Pachungjang and Hamhung.

"As we approached Hamhung, I noticed an intact bridge and realized that I had a chance to add another one to my 'kill' list. Glancing at my chart, I saw that it was one of only a few that was protected by radarcontrolled triple-A. Although this registered with me, I thought of my recent successes in putting the bombs right square on target, so I figured I was too 'hot' for any gunner to lay a glove on me. I radioed my division leader, Lt. j.g. 'Mac' McCallum and requested permission to go down and hit thé bridge. The answer was an immediate 'Go for it.' My wingman, Ensign Don Frazor took a loose interval on me as we climbed up to 10,000 feet and set up for the long diving attack. We would bomb from north to south with the sun in the west.

"Just seconds after I rolled into a 40-degree dive, I noticed light flashes on the ground, and I figured it was sunlight reflecting off the water, but as I was placing my gun sight onto the bridge, a loud thump startled me. My aircraft flipped over instantly! A split second later, after the initial shock wore off, I struggled to roll it back over and pull out of the dive. Smoke had begun to fill the cockpit, so I opened the canopy and pointed the nose toward the coast and Hungnam. I didn't want to go down over land because we had all heard the horror stories about how cruelly the enemy treated captured aviators!"

By this time, smoke was pouring in around Burgess' feet, but there weren't any flames or unbearable heat, so he dismissed all thoughts of bailing out. His main objective was to make it to the coast so that he could ditch his Skyraider in the water. The wingman initially reported that a triple-A round had hit the 1,000-pound bomb that was being carried on Burgess' port-wing inboard rack, but this was not the case. Actually, two 88mm explosive rounds hit him; one hit the bottom of the engine and the second hit under the port wing and blew a 3-foot-wide hole through the wing alongside the cockpit. When the rounds hit the AD, there was a large explosion, and the aircraft immediately began to trail thick smoke.

"When I heard my wingman's transmission about the bomb exploding, I immediately radioed that I still had the 'Big Boy,' and it was intact. My wingman was trailing a distance behind me; he added full power to quickly close the distance between my aircraft and his. I glanced at my oil pressure gauge and saw the pressure was dropping quickly. I had to add full power to close the gap between what was below me and the coast. I knew the engine could quit at any time. While I was sweating the flight to the coast, my problems seemed to mount quickly; as I pulled the handle to release the 1,000-pound bomb, nothing happened! It didn't take me long to figure out that the explosion had severed the manual release cable. Things were starting to get a bit tense because I knew that the added weight would increase my stall speed when I ditched the plane in Hungnam Harbor."

This was a serious problem because with the additional weight and drag, when the aircraft touched the water (wheels up), it would more than likely start to cartwheel. The only way to escape safely from such a landing was with a lot of luck. With his emergency bombrelease option negated, there was another way to release the "Big Boy." Burgess set up the normal switching configuration: left inboard, nose/tail (fusing), master arm: on and hit the "pickle" button. To his amazement and great relief, the bomb dropped from its station and hurdled earthward. Burgess later stated that it probably blasted a huge crater in some poor farmer's rice paddy.