HISTORY
Black
night over
Gwaksan
On the boxart of the kit Cat. No. 7461 by Adam Tooby the scene depicts the Hot to Go seconds after
the attack and just moments before the explosion. Karelin inherited his MiG-15bis No. 325 from
196th IAP commander Evgenyi Pepelyaev, who
scored 18 kills flying it. Karelin added two more
victories on the night of June 10-11, 1952, making
the aircraft the second most successful MiG-15 in
history, behind the aircraft serial number 121032,
with which Captain N. V. Sutyagin scored all of
his 22 kills.
TEXT: RICHARD PLOS
The June 10, 1952 was a black day for the 19th Bombardment Wing. Or night, better to
say. Two B-29As were lost in a raid on a railroad bridge near Gwaksan, another was
badly damaged. Altogether 27 men never returned to base, 26 of them were killed.
The two losses that night were B-29A Miss
Jackie The Rebel (44-61967) of the 30th Bomb
Squadron and Hot to Go (44-62183) of the 28th
Bomb Squadron. While some sources attribute the downing of the former B-29 to anti-aircraft fighters, this is not likely. Both aircraft
are believed to be victims of Soviet fighters.
It's just a question which ones shot them
down...
Miss Jackie The Rebel
The Superfortresses took off from Kadena
Base in Okinawa late at night. As they approached their target on the northwestern Korean
peninsula, four MiG-15s took off against them.
They were piloted by Lt. Col. Mikhail I. Studilin,
commander of the 147 GIAP (Guard´s Fighter
Air Regiment), his deputy, Major Bykovets,
the navigator of the 351 IAP (Fighter Air Regiment), Captain Anatoly M. Karelin, and Lieutenant Commander Ikansangaliyev. According
to the book Soviet MiG-15 Aces of the Korean
War by Leonid Krylov and Yuri Tepsurkayev,
the first to attack was Studilin, who took aim
at B-29A caught in the searchlights. The hits
after the second attack set it on fire and the
crippled bomber curled up over the sea and
descended faster and faster. According to
Igor Sejdov's book Sovjetskie asy korejskoj
vojny (Soviet Aces of the Korean War), it was
the Hot to Go, with a subsequent emergency
landing at Kimpo Base (K-15). But that is an
easily refutable fallacy. The Hot to Go did not
return to the base, it was shot down and its
wreckage landed near Sinmi-do Island. It was
B-29A (44-61902) named Apache which made
an emergency landing at Kimpo. A number of
other sources credit Studilin with shooting
down Miss Jackie the Rebel. The fact is that
she crashed into the sea at about 0315 local
time about 20 km off the coast. All 14 crew
members were declared missing in action
(MIA), then finally declared dead on December
31, 1953 when it was confirmed that none of
the crew were among the captives. On board
of her was also the Squadron Commander,
Major George Allen Hadley, who had been visited by his family in Okinawa shortly before.
44
INFO Eduard
After the tragedy, one of the squadron officers
was assigned to the family to help devastated
Mrs. Hadley with return to the United States.
It's worth noting that the two later married...
The problem with Miss Jackie the Rebel is
that, according to Igor Sejdov, she was supposed to be the victim of Anatoly Karelin that
night. The same author attributes the downing
of 44-86433, named Peace Maker, to him. However, the latter was written off by USAF only
in August 1954 and is not listed as damaged
anywhere else in the action of 10-11 June.
The Crew of B-29A (44-61727)
Miss Jackie the Rebel
Maj. George Allen Hadley
Captain Marvin Jr. Cessna
1st Lt William Sidney Earns
1st Lt Richard Melvin Friedman
1st Lt Wilbur Eugene Lewis
1st Lt John Richard Miller
1st Lt Preston Skinner
S/Sgt John Harrison Errington
S/Sgt Elwood John Thompson
A2c Douglas Earl Attinger
A2c Westervelt Charles Stagg Jr.
A1c Buddy Joe Bonney
A1c John Francis Flaherty
A1c Carl August Jenkins
Hot to Go
According to Krylov and Tepsurkayev, Karelin
made his first attack on the B-29A illuminated by radar-controlled ground searchlights
and opened fire from a distance of 300-400
meters. The bomber began to burn after the
hit and moments later broke into three pieces after the explosion. These sections hit
the ground about 15 km southeast of Sonchon
near Sinmi-do Island. As it later turned out,
the debris from the explosion of the American
bomber hit Karelin´s Mig and damaged its left
wing. This ill-fated machine was almost certainly (and the reports from the American side
are consistent with this) a Hot to Go aircraft.
According to the testimony of sixteen other
Superfortress crew members, no parachutes
were seen, and so it seemed impossible that
anyone on board had survived. However, fortune was very much in Captain Anton Brom's
favor that night and he managed to escape the
fiery inferno and save himself. He was captured and repatriated in 1953 as a part of Operation Big Switch. Interestingly, USAF casualty
records indicate a missile hit in the Hot to Go
case, but this is almost certainly a mistake,
due to the huge explosion of the aircraft after
the Karelin´s attack.
On the morning of June 11, the area of the Hot
to Go wreckage was surveyed by Soviet troops. The 64 IAK (Air Fighter Wing) staff operational summary of that day (No. 00163) states,
“On the night to 11 June, a search team found
the wreckage of a B-29 and eight bodies west
of the Kakusan area. Further, Korean and Chinese comrades reported seeing one B-29 fall
into the sea and explode in an area 20 km southeast of Simni-do Island.” That was almost
certainly Miss Jackie the Rebel. According to
USAF casualty records, she was last seen at
39°41' N latitude and 125°04' E longitude. The
last positive radio transmission was made on
VHF at control point 38°15' N and 124°51' E. However, no distress signal was sent by the crew
(source: Status of POW/MIA negotiations with
North Korea, June 20, 1996).
The Crew of B-29A (44-62183)
Hot to Go
Captain Louis Paul Gorrell
Captain Anton Brom Jr.
1st Lt John Howard Adams
1st Lt Robert Black Baumer
1st Lt Harold Ray Holmes
1st Lt Robert Edward Hudson
1st Lt David Mandell
S/Sgt William Alfred Canning
A2c Paul Kenneth Kellstrom
A2c Thomas J. Pettit
A2c Robert Lewis Ross
A1c Edgar Foy Barrington
A1c Elbert Josephus Reid Jr.
April 2022