Korean War—USS Valley Forge action report & Kilju aerial target photomap 1953
£900
SKU
[Kilchu] Target # EA-2, formerly Target No. 19 /// USS Valley Forge CVA-45 and Air Group Five Action Report 20 April 1953 to 17 May 1953
Ten weeks before the Korean War armistice, the Skyraiders, Corsairs and Panthers of USS Valley Forge, which had flown the US Navy’s first strikes of the war, were still cutting the railways that supplied the communist armies. This once-confidential action report and an aerial target photomap of Kilchu document that campaign. Covering 20 April to 17 May 1953, the report and its Carrier Air Group Five enclosure log 1,301 sorties in seventeen operating days, including attacks near Kilchu on boxcars on 2 May and an ammunition store the next day. Kilchu, now Kilju, was where railways from the Chinese border joined the east-coast line south. Prepared by Carrier Division One’s intelligence staff, the photomap of Target ER-2 numbers storage, supply and billeting areas and marks anti-aircraft positions. Kilju County later became the site of all six of North Korea’s nuclear tests, at Punggye-ri. The cover bears the name “LT ENGLE”, and we think this was Lt Harry W. Engel, a VF-92 Corsair pilot aboard Valley Forge: the report records his ditching on 27 April and rescue by USS Princeton’s helicopter, its distribution list sent five copies to his air group, and we have found no other likely candidate.
Size 19 x 25 cm | 7.5 x 10.0 inches
Date Published: 17 May 1953 (report); photomap undated, Korean War period
Type: Vintage monochrome photographic military target plan with duplicated typescript action report
Author: United States Navy
Publication: USS Valley Forge action report & Kilchu target photomap
Condition: Good |
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