The first part of this book covers the role of US aircraft carriers
and aircraft in stopping the North Korean initial push to the south and also
their role in the famous Inchon Landing and Pusan Perimeter Break out. The last
part of the first chapter deals with naval operations during the Marine's Chosin
Reservoir march to the sea in December 1950. The book goes on to describe the
stabilization of the front lines after the Chinese had entered the war during
1951. At this time, the emphasis for naval air operations is centred on
interdiction behind the lines. The focus is on trying to stop road and rail
traffic from re-supplying the communist troops and allowing them to build up to
a major offensive. Also, it includes the entry of the F2H Banshee into carrier
operations which gave the USA four major
types of aircraft to wage the war. During 1952 most carrier air groups spend
their time off the coast of North
Korea while hitting targets up along the Yalu River. This puts them well within the
range of the MiG-15s. Navy F9F Panthers were used as top cover while the
Corsairs and Skyraiders went after major targets such as the dam complexes up
river and marshalling yards north of Pyongyang. During 1953 naval air operations
were stepped up in an effort to get the communists back to the truce talks. The
number of MiG-15s had grown to a figure many times that of the UN for overhead
protection. The deep missions were more dangerous than ever and the Chinese
brought in state of the art anti-aircraft automatic weapons. The number of
sorties flown by the US Naval aircraft increased over the previous year's record
numbers. The war ended on 27th July 1953.
