The Navy in the Hills

The advancing Reds had closed the floodgates of the huge Hwachon Dam just above the 38th parallel. Result: the level of the Pukhan River, which is fed by the Hwachon Reservoir, fell sharply, depriving retreating U.N. troops of a valuable defensive barrier. Last week the U.S. Army asked the U.S. Navy to do something about it.

From the deck of the carrier Princeton, cruising in the Sea of Japan, rose a flight of Douglas Skyraiders. When they got to the dam and tried to blow it up, they found that their bombs were as futile as BB guns against the concrete structure--900 ft. long, 275 ft. high, 20 ft. thick.

Aboard the Princeton that night there were set jaws, much work and little sleep. The crews rummaged deep in the hull, came up with eight 1,000-lb. torpedoes, fitted them laboriously to the Skyraiders.

Next morning eight torpedo-bearing Skyraiders came in to the dam on a wide arc, flying low between the mountains, ready for a quick run and a sharp pullout. The first two planes dropped their torpedoes in close parallel, blowing out completely a central floodgate. Four other Skyraiders dropped torpedoes; one of them tore a ten-foot hole in a second floodgate. Water poured out of the dam; minutes later, the Pukhan began to rise. From the U.S. Army to the U.S. Navy--which had never before used torpedoes on inland targets--went an enthusiastic "Well done."

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