It had taken less than ten minutes to destroy three Yaks and seriously damage a fourth. In fact, the wreckage of the latter aircraft was later found in shallow water nearby
Though largely outclassed by the new generation of jet fighters, the F4U Corsair still found a role in the Korean War, primarily in close air support. A handful of Navy and Marine Corps Corsairs were also deployed in a night-fighter capacity against North Korean raiders operating after dark. Despite this, the odds of a Corsair encountering any enemy aircraft were slim, given that close air support remained the top operational priority.
Marine day squadrons rotated between land bases in South Korea and stints aboard light carriers, the latter offering pilots a greater range and slightly better chances of aerial engagement—though the North Korean People’s Air Force (NKPAF) had been largely wiped out within the first few months of the conflict. By late 1950, Corsairs were ranging as far north as the Yalu River with little opposition.
On April 21, 1951, as recounted in Warren Thompson’s F4U Corsair Units of the Korean War, the ‘Checkerboards’ of VMF-312 were operating from the carrier Bataan along the North Korean coast. Their Corsairs were fully loaded—external fuel tanks, 5-inch HVARs, and a pair of 500-lb general-purpose bombs—in preparation for a long-range armed reconnaissance mission. The division was led by Captain Phillip C. DeLong, a veteran ace who had downed 11 enemy aircraft over the Solomon Islands in early 1944.
Roughly an hour into the mission near Chinnampo Harbor, a distress call came in from another pilot in the squadron who was bailing out. DeLong dispatched two of his four aircraft to coordinate with a rescue helicopter while the remaining division continued toward the target area. Only DeLong and his wingman, Lieutenant Harold Daigh, pressed on.
As the pair climbed through 2,000 feet, four aircraft appeared from the northwest at 5,000 feet in a loose right echelon. Initially mistaken for friendly Mustangs, the aircraft revealed their true identity when one of their 7.7mm rounds struck DeLong’s cockpit and damaged his radio. The attackers were Soviet-built Yak-9 piston-engined fighters. While they focused their fire on DeLong, Daigh swung in behind the trailing pair.
Both Corsairs were still carrying their full weapons load, yet this did not prevent Daigh from maneuvering into firing position behind the third Yak. His first burst produced no visible result, so he shifted to the fourth aircraft. A sustained and accurate burst struck the tail, wing root, and rear fuselage. The enemy pilot broke hard to evade, but the damage was too severe—a wing separated, and the aircraft fell away uncontrolled.
Meanwhile, DeLong executed a split-S to build airspeed, briefly complicated by a cockpit full of loose maps obscuring his vision. He managed to clear them, recover from the dive, and return to the fight. Two of the remaining Yaks pressed an attack from behind, but one of them crossed his nose from right to left at precisely the wrong moment. DeLong fired a brief burst, and the Yak flew directly into the stream of fire. It rolled into a steep dive, trailing smoke, and struck the ground half a mile from where the first had crashed.
DeLong jettisoned his bombs and turned his attention to the remaining two fighters. Daigh was pursuing one, while the other had positioned itself on Daigh’s tail. DeLong called for his wingman to break left, then opened fire on the trailing Yak. Hits registered around the cockpit and wing root, and smoke began pouring from the aircraft.
DeLong then closed on the lead Yak that Daigh had been chasing, landing strikes on the forward fuselage. The aircraft began trailing heavy black smoke, and pieces began to break away. When the pilot stopped evading, the outcome was no longer in doubt. DeLong attempted to fire his rockets for a finishing blow, but the system failed to respond. Moments later, the enemy pilot jettisoned his canopy, scattered papers from the cockpit, and ejected. The aircraft struck the ground.
The entire engagement lasted less than ten minutes. Three Yaks had been shot down and a fourth badly damaged—though wreckage from that aircraft was later found in shallow water, confirming all four had been destroyed. It marked the first aerial victories of the war for both VMF-312 and the F4U Corsair.
F4U Corsair Units of the Korean War is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo by Aleksandr Markin and FlugKerl2 via Wikipedia. U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy
