Pyongyang Air Base also known as Heijo Airfield or Pyongyang (K-23) Air Base was a former

Imperial Japanese Army Air Service The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ja, 大日本帝國陸軍航空部隊, Dainippon Teikoku Rikugun Kōkūbutai, lit=Greater Japan Empire Army Air Corps) was the aviation force of the Im ...

Korean People's Air Force The Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force (KPAAF; ; Hanja: 朝鮮人民軍航空 및 反航空軍 ) is the unified military aviation force of North Korea. It is the second largest branch of the Korean People's Army comprising an estimated ...

(KPAF) and

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

(USAF) air base adjacent to the

Taedong River The Taedong River (Chosŏn'gŭl: ) is a large river in North Korea. The river rises in the Rangrim Mountains of the country's north where it then flows southwest into Korea Bay at Namp'o.Suh, Dae-Sook (1987) "North Korea in 1986: Strengthenin ...

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

. It was redeveloped after the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

as a Government and residential area.

History

The air base was originally developed during the Japanese Imperial period. The base was home to a Showa aircraft plant and the 6th Air Regiment and the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

's Heijo Arsenal with Nambu, which manufactured hand and long

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

weapons

Korean War

The Showa aircraft factory and air section of the arsenal were believed to be the center of North Korea's aircraft maintenance and supply system. On the afternoon of 29 June 1950, 18 B-26s of the 3rd Bombardment Group attacked Pyongyang Air Base, arriving at dusk they bombed the hangar line, ramps and revetments, destroying an estimated 25 aircraft on the ground. Only one KPAF

Yak-3 The Yakovlev Yak-3 (Russian: Яковлев Як-3) was a single-engine, single-seat World War II Soviet fighter. Robust and easy to maintain, it was much liked by both pilots and ground crew.Glancey 2006, p. 180. One of the smallest and light ...

fighter got airborne to oppose the attack and it was shot down by a B-26 gunner. From 3–4 July 1950 aircraft from Task Force 77 attacked Pyongyang and Pyongyang East airfields and Onjong-Ni Airfield shooting down two Yak-3s and damaging a further 10 aircraft on the ground. On 18 July 1950 aircraft from Task Force 77 attacked the Pyongyang airfields again destroying 14 aircraft and damaging 13. Following the capture of Pyongyang on 19 October 1950 the air base was put into service by the UN forces. The USAF designated the base K-23. USAF units stationed at the base included: * 8th Operations Wing from 25 November–3 December 1950 *

8th Fighter Wing The United States Air Force 8th Fighter Wing is the host unit at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea and is assigned to Seventh Air Force. Seventh Air Force falls under Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). The Wing's 8th Operations Group is the suc ...

operating F-51s from 1–9 December 1950 * 6131st Tactical Support Wing The US Army's D Battery 865th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion provided anti-aircraft defense for the base. UN forces abandoned the base on 5 December 1950 as part of the evacuation of Pyongyang in the face of the Chinese intervention. On 10 December 1950 B-29s bombed the airfield with high-explosive bombs. On 23 January 1951, 46 F-80s of the

49th Fighter-Bomber Wing "Thank God for Mississippi" is an adage used in the United States, particularly in the South, that is generally used when discussing rankings of U.S. states. Since the U.S. state of Mississippi commonly ranks at or near the bottom of such rankin ...

attacked anti-aircraft positions around Pyongyang and once this was completed 21 B-29s of the

19th 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics 19 is the eighth prime number, and forms a sexy prime with 13, a twin prime with 17, and a cousin prime with 23. It is the third full re ...

and 307th Bombardment Groups from Okinawa bombed the airfield.

Postwar

The area was redeveloped in the late 1950s as a Government and residential area.

References

{{authority control Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force Korean War air bases Military installations of North Korea

History

Korean War

Postwar

See also

References