"On the night of June 13,
1952, I was flying a combat mission out of Kunsan Air Base in South
Korea where my A-26 squadron, the 90th of the 3rd Bomb Wing, was
stationed. My navigator, Captain Bill Sanders rode in a jump seat to my
right in the cockpit. Sergeant Bob Verkstis was at his gunner's
position in the rear of the A-26 manning two .50 caliber machine guns
defending our Six o'clock. It was about 2 AM and we were just south of
Pyongyang North Korea when we received garbled transmissions from a
ground station. Since the station was unreadable we continued north
toward our target in the northeast corner of North Korea. I was more
attentive to the coming bombing and strafing procedures to be used in
the enemy area outside our normal targeting territory than worrying
about garbled radio receptions.
When north of Pyongyang the radio
came up loud and clear directing us to divert from our assigned mission
and proceed ASAP to the southwest coast of North Korea. We immediately
turned back to the south. The station gave us the radio frequency for
contact, target information and location of friendly forces. Upon making
radio contact approaching the coast, we were told that a small,
friendly held island just off the west coast of Korea was being invaded
by a large enemy force crossing from the mainland over the mud flats at
low tide. They further advised that a flare ship was available and
would light up the mud flats.
"I was flying an early model of
A-26 'hardnose' which had the usual six 50s in the wings but only six in
the nose instead of the normal eight which gave us 12 instead of 14
forward firing 50s. When overhead the target, we were cleared to
attack. Tracers, explosions and flak seemed to fill the air as we
rolled in under the flares in our first firing run on the enemy crossing
to the island. As we pulled off that first run and turned left to
start another strafing run, the friendly forces radioed that we were
right on target and to 'Keep it up!' We made nine runs before all our
HEI bombs and our .50 caliber ammo was expended. We reported ammo nil
and proceeded toward Kunsan. As we departed the target area, the
friendly ground station was elated and expressed their gratitude for our
saving them from being overrun. They were not going to be wounded,
killed or taken prisoner that night.
After landing at Kunsan and
being debriefed we were told that our attacks had knocked out the
enemy's command post, artillery and mortar positions and had completely
destroyed the invasion attempt. Friendly ground forces counted
approximately 250 dead North Korean communists out of an invading force
of an estimated 500 troops. The Far East Air Forces reported the KBA as
a record for a single sortie. The report of our highly successful
mission caused quite a stir. After further confirmation of the results,
the Air Wing sent the entire crew of my A-26 to Headquarters Far East
Air Forces in Tokyo, Japan where we met the press and were given wide
coverage in American newspapers."
Bob Mosley 
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