Overview

An hour and a half before sunup, nine B-29s of the 307th Bombardment Wing lifted off from Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, on a bombing mission against Namsi, a North Korean airfield under construction in the heart of MiG Alley. Five and a half hours later they would engage in an air battle that would forever change the conduct of strategic aerial bombardment. Six of the nine would not return, the highest percentage of United States bombers ever lost on a major mission. Astonishingly, virtually nothing has been published about this event. Black Tuesday Over Namsi chronicles the calamitous B-29 daylight-bombing mission flown by the 307th Bombardment Wing on 23 October 1951 against Namsi Airfield. What many experts consider the epic air battle of the Korean War and perhaps the greatest jet engagement in the history of aerial warfare has largely become another forgotten battle in a forgotten war. Here, Lt. Col McGill presents the facts and circumstances of the mission from first briefing to final landing. This book also records, from verifiable historical documents, the broader events and conditions that led up to the confrontation, plus the first-hand accounts of aircrew members and ground personnel who were there. This thoroughly researched narrative history is enhanced by numerous photographs, a bibliography, and an index to full names, places and subjects. This is the story of the Americans and Russians who clashed in the skies above Namsi, the events leading up to it, Black Tuesday's historical impact on aerial warfare, and, for the first time, fresh conclusions based on a careful analysis of the specific factors that went into the execution of this and other bombing missions.

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9781907677212

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Born in Pennsylvania during the Great Depression, E. J. McGill moved to Colorado after his stepfather, a B-17 gunner, was liberated from a German prison camp. McGill graduated from Fort Collins High School, joined the Air Force and became a weather obser

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