Steadfast and courageous : FEAF Bomber Command and the Air War in Korea, 1950-1953.

Format:

Book

Government document

Contributor:

Air Force History and Museums Program (U.S.), issuing body.

Series:

U.S. Air Force in Korea.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Air Force. Far East Air Forces. Bomber Command (Provisional).

United States.

United States. Air Force. Far East Air Forces.

Korean War, 1950-1953--Aerial operations.

Korean War, 1950-1953.

Military operations, Aerial.

Genre:

Online resources.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (58 pages) : illustrations, maps.

monochrome.

Edition:

Korean War 50th anniversary commemorative edition.

Other Title:

FEAF Bomber Command and the Air War in Korea, 1950-1953

Place of Publication:

[Washington, D.C.] : Air Force History and Museums Program, 2000.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

For 3 years, beginning in June 1950, air and ground crews of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) conducted bombing operations with Boeing B-29 Superfortresses in support of the United Nations (UN) forces engaged on the peninsula of Korea. Powered by four large radial piston engines, the propeller-driven Superfortress had been the most advanced very long-range heavy bomber developed during World War II, but it was now considered just a medium bomber outclassed by early jet aircraft. Manned principally by officers and men from the Strategic Air Command (SAC), the B-29 units carried out missions very different from the task for which SAC was trained. Instead of striking at the homeland of a major industrial power with atomic weapons, the crews attacked targets of many types, showing the variety of functions that air power could perform. The bombers carried out battlefield support, interdiction, and counter airfield missions. They hit industrial targets of the type normally classified as strategic and also took part in an effort to utilize air power to pressure the enemy to agree to a cease-fire. This study traces the war fought by the Far East Air Forces (FEAF) Bomber Command (Provisional), the B-29 force created to attack targets in Korea from bases in Okinawa and Japan. Consisting of units belonging to FEAF and others from SAC assigned on temporary duty, Bomber Command cooperated with other USAF organizations to support operations in the Korean peninsula. The B-29 crews earned credit in all 10 of the recognized campaigns of the Korean War. Following a brief but intensive air campaign in the summer of 1950, North Korea posed negligible air opposition, but when the Chinese entered the war in November, assisted by Soviet fighter pilots flying MiG-15 jet fighters, the limitations of the obsolescent B-29s became apparent. By Oct 1951, the B-29s had switched to a night campaign that went on for 1 1/2 years. By 1953, SAC was well on the way to removing the B-29s from its inventor7.

Contents:

Into the breach: The B-29 and the outbreak of the Korean War

Off to combat in Korean skies

Interdiction and support: The Superfortress versus bridges & battlefields

Combat by day: Superfortress versus MiG in North Korea's skies

Fire in the night: bombing under the not-so-impenetrable cloak of darknesss

MiG crisis: night duels over the Yalu

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 57-58).

Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010.

Online resource, PDF version; title from PDF title page (USAFH, viewed May 1, 2018).

Other Format:

Print version: Steadfast and courageous

OCLC:

603716056

Access Restriction:

Use copy Restrictions unspecified

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE NOT AVAILABLE IN MICROFICHE.