While the Shooting Stars, Mustangs, Twin Mustangs, Douglas B-26 Invader bombers and others lent their firepower toward halting the North Korean onslaught and toward supporting a counteroffensive, Naval Task Force 77–comprising the aircraft carriers USS Valley Forge and HMS Triumph–arrived in Korean waters, and on July 3, it made its presence known by launching a bombing raid on the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang. The attack was carried out by the aircraft of American Air Group 5, consisting of the Vought F4U-4 Corsairs of squadrons VF-53 and VF-54, Douglas AD-4 Skyraiders of VA-55 and Grumman F9F-3 Panther jet fighters of VF-51 and VF-52. The raiders struck at lines of communications such as railroad bridges, rail yards, airfields and roads. A handful of NKAF Yak-9s rose to intercept, only to lose two of their number to Lieutenant (J.G) L.H. Plog and Ensign E.W. Brown of VF-51, who then went on to destroy two more Yaks on the ground. Plog returned to Valley Forge to be congratulated by his comrades on two firsts–the first Navy aerial victory of the war, and the first to be scored by a carrier-based jet airplane.

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Valley Forge’s aircraft paid Pyongyang a return visit on July 18, also striking at Onjong-ni. The next day, the Navy planes hit Yonpo and claimed a total of 32 NKAF aircraft destroyed on the ground and another 13 damaged in the course of their three raids.

Unable to defend their air bases in and around their own capital, the North Koreans withdrew their surviving aircraft across the Yalu into Manchuria. Meanwhile, the escort carrier USS Sicily launched the first strike by U.S. Marine aircraft as F4U-4B Corsairs of VMF-214 ("Black Sheep") attacked Communist facilities at Chinju and Sinban-ni on August 3. As the besieged American and ROK forces in Pusan counterattacked to enlarge their perimeter, the Marines joined their FEAF colleagues in providing air support against North Korean ground targets. As the Allied troops–now including a Marine brigade–slowly regained the initiative, the Marine pilots of VMF-214 and VMF-323 off USS Badoeng Strait were flying as many as 45 ground attack sorties a day.

On September, 1 the North Korean 4th and 5th Divisions made a final, all-out attack to break through the Pusan perimeter. The FEAF’s Fifth Air Force, whose command now encompassed the Marine squadrons, threw all its aircraft against the Communists thrust, which was finally blunted on September 5. On September 11, the U.S. Eighth Army began a general counterattack, pushing the exhausted North Koreans back along the entire front.

While this was going on, General Douglas MacArthur set in motion his daring amphibious assault on Inchon, designed to bisect Korea, cut North Korean supply lines and trap the North Korean People’s Army between two United Nations forces. Operation chromite, supported by aircraft from the U.S. carriers Philippine Sea, Valley Forge, Boxer, Sicily and Bodoeng Strait, and the British carrier Triumph, achieved complete surprise, the landing on September 15 meeting with little resistance. The only appearance made by the NKAF consisting of two Yak-9s which made a hit-and-run bombing attack on the cruiser line, They scored no hits and one was shot down by anti-aircraft gunfire from the ships, the other Yak managing to retire undamaged. Two days later, the Marines fought their way to Kimpo airfield, only to find it completely evacuated by the retreating North Koreans. Only three aircraft, two Il-10s and a Yak-9, remained behind to suggest that the Communist had ever occupied the field.

On September 28, Mustang pilot 1st Lt. Ralph Hall of the 35th Fighter-Bomber Squadron downed a Yak. More significantly, by that date the North Korean People’s Army had been driven back across the 38th Parallel and was still in full retreat. South Korea was free again and General MacArthur proposed to go on to eliminate Pyongyang’s Communist government as well. By the end of October, it appeared unlikely that anything would prevent him from doing so.

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