Despite the application of US naval and air power against enemy targets and forces in both North and South Korea, the North Korean Army continued its relentless advance southward through the end of August 1950. The 2 months following the invasion marked an increase in Air Force activity, to include B-29 strikes and the introduction of F-51 aircraft. By mid-September, the North Korean offensive had clearly failed; the UN forces had survived savage blows and grown steadily stronger. Fighting the North Koreans to a standstill required the combined efforts of the air, land, and sea forces of several nations. Although air power did not prevail, it did help to stop the enemy’s drive: the burned-out hulks of hundreds of tanks destroyed by air strikes marked the invasion route and B-29s damaged the North Korean transportation network and destroyed whatever industry the nation possessed.
On 15 September 1950, US forces spearheaded by the First Marine Division successfully landed at Inchon, near Seoul, South Korea, effectively cutting supply lines to the North Korean Army deep in the south and threatening its rear. The US Eighth Army launched its own offensive from Pusan a day later, and what once was a stalled North Korean offensive became a disorganized retreat. So complete was the rout that less than one-third of the 100,000 strong North Korean Army escaped back to the north. On 27 September 1950, President Harry Truman authorized US forces to pursue the beaten army north of the 38th parallel.
Air power played a significant role in the Allied offensive. Airlift actions ranged from the spectacular, to include the drop of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team to cut off retreating North Korean troops, to the more mundane but critical airlift of personnel and supplies. Foreshadowing a versatility shown by the B-52 in later decades, FEAF B-29s performed a number of missions not even considered before the war, to include interdiction, battlefield support, and air superiority (counter airfield). On 9 November 1950, Corporal Harry LaVene of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, serving as gunner, scored the first B-29 victory over a jet by downing a MiG-15. LaVene’s victory was the first of 27 MiGs shot down by B-29 gunners during the course of the war. Sgt Billie Beach, a tail gunner on an Okinawa-based B-29, shot down two MiGs on 12 April 1951, a feat unmatched by any other gunner. His own plane was so shot up, however, that it and the crew barely survived an emergency landing with collapsed gear at an advanced fighter strip. Enlisted members served in many other ways as well.
