Night into Day

WAR IN ASIA

THE AIR WAR

"Boy, those Chinks are taking off from that hill. Swell work! Come on back any time, and thanks a lot."

Such messages, from U.S. ground controllers to tactical airplane pilots, are routine in Korea's brief winter daylight. By last week they were being sent in increasing numbers at night. Using air-dropped magnesium flares, of 600,000 to 1,000,000 candlepower, the Air Force was beginning to turn night into day over selected areas of the front lines. The flares brilliantly illuminated vehicle columns, tanks, ammunition and supply dumps, or enemy infantry positions for allied artillery or night-flying B-26 Invaders armed with machine guns, bombs, rockets and napalm.-The nights which the enemy had comfortably used for resupply, regrouping, attack and infiltration were gradually being taken away from him. Last week TIME Correspondent Tom

Lambert took a ride in a flare plane, an elderly, two-engine relic of World War II. Not long after the coppery Korean sunset had disappeared, the pilot called a ground station: "Hello, Bandbox. Hello, Bandbox. This is Firefly One, Firefly One."

Bandbox answered: "Hello, Firefly One. Hello, Firefly One. We have a target for you. We will mark the area with two volleys of white phosphorus shells. Take a heading north from your present position and look straight ahead."

"Roger," said the pilot. Soon, on the northern horizon, there were two quick orange bursts. "Got it," said Firefly One to Bandbox. "Saw 'em both." .

Firefly One's crew dropped the flares through three-foot metal tubes, ripping off a strip of white webbing that ignited each flare and opened its parachute. Suddenly the valley below, surrounded by paddy fields striding up sharp-shadowed mountains, leaped into garish light. Bandbox identified the target--an east-west ridge with a saddle in the middle--and Firefly called down an Invader. The Invader pilot, however, could not find the target ridge. "Okay, boy," said Firefly, 'Til turn on my landing lights and point 'em at it."

He flipped a switch, and a beam of strong light bore down through the flare-light. "Roger, Firefly, Roger," said the Invader pilot. He dived through winking flashes of small-arms fire and dropped two tanks of napalm on the hill, which burst into flame. "That's good, that's good, Firefly," exulted Bandbox. "That's right in there. Give 'em a few more."

When all of Firefly One's flares were gone, another plane, Firefly Two, came up and took over the night-into-day patrol.

*Napalm is gasoline chemically thickened or "jellied" so that it will spread over the ground while burning, instead of going up in an instantaneous whoosh, as ordinary gasoline would. The first satisfactory thickener found during experiments in World War II was a mixture of aluminum naphthenate and certain fatty compounds from coconuts, hence the name "napalm" (nap from naphthenate, and palm referring to the coconuts). In Korea, napalm is carried under the wings of Air Force, Navy and Marine tactical planes, in containers of 100 or 150 gallons, and is set off (when the containers hit the ground) by white phosphorus igniters. A napalm bomb can cover up to half an acre with fire burning at 3,000DEG F. U.S. airmen and G.I.s love it; there is plenty of evidence that the Reds hate and fear it more than any other weapon in the U.S. ground-support arsenal.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.