#medium bomber

June 1943 Polish Wellington ground crew RAF Hemswell.

B-25J 2nd Squadron

During 1942 and 1943 No 2 Squadron flew bombing, ground-attack, anti-shipping, and reconnaissance missions over the Japanese-occupied Netherlands East Indies. As a result of these operations the squadron was awarded the US Presidential Unit Citation in July 1943 for “outstanding performance of duty in action”. Having begun to train with Beaufort aircraft, in May 1944 the squadron converted to B 25 Mitchell bombers, which remained in service for the rest of the war. The squadron disbanded in May 1946.

B-25

A Japanese Mitsubishi Ki-21 bomber (Type 97 Army Bomber) over China during a combat mission. The Ki-21 was codenamed "Sally" by the Allies.

A French Bloch MB.131 bomber and its pilots (not just the crew, as the plane had a crew of four). The aircraft belonged to the GR I/35 air unit. September 3, 1939.

On this day in 1952 the United Nations decided to throw more aircraft at one city in a single day than had ever hit it before, and they actually warned the people first.

By the summer of 1952 the Korean War had frozen into a bloody stalemate. The front line barely moved, the peace talks at Panmunjom were going nowhere, and the Communists seemed happy to just sit and stall forever while men died over the same hills again and again. So the air commanders decided to change the math. If they could not win it on the ground, they would make staying in the war unbearable from the sky.

The target was Pyongyang, the enemy capital. The operation was called Pressure Pump, and the whole point was in the name. Keep the pressure on until something breaks.

Here is the part that surprises people. Before the raid, the Americans told the city it was coming. Radio broadcasts and leaflets warned civilians of the coming attack and told them to get out and stay away from military targets. Then they hit it with everything they had.

On July 11 more than twelve hundred aircraft came over Pyongyang in daylight. Not just American planes. Air Force, Navy and Marine aircraft flying alongside South Korean, Australian, South African and British pilots, wave after wave all day long. Then after dark the B-29 heavy bombers came and worked the city over through the night.

Thirty separate targets were marked out across the city. When the smoke cleared, most of them were wrecked, a handful completely obliterated, and only a couple came through untouched. Radio Pyongyang, the voice of the North Korean government, was knocked clean off the air. The enemy lost the day for the price of only three aircraft.

It did not end the war. Nothing in that grinding stalemate summer did. But Pressure Pump was a message written in fire above the enemy capital. You can drag out the talks as long as you want, but every day you stall, we own your sky.

An American B-25J-30/32-NC Mitchell bomber (serial number 44-31162) with Soviet markings in flight over Alaska, during its Lend-Lease ferry to the USSR. 1944

CAF SoCal PBJ -1J / B-25 on a beautifully sunny day at Mojave Air & Space Port. Thanks to the incredible crew for the tour, it’s nice to see a piece of history!