Culture e- Magazine – Free e. Books – Web. Radio » The 1. Flight of the royal Hellenic Air force in Korea (. Kim Il Sung aimed at the unification of the country under a communist regime. The North Korean forces with the aid of the Soviet Union invaded South Korea, crossing the 3. QUESTION 0.04: Question 0.04: Why do you have to quote the Bible so often in your books and your website? I am disgusted at the numerous religious references. The “Cold War” had just turned hot. The request of the United Nations for military help to confront the invaders was answered by many countries. Greece responded with the dispatch of a reinforced Army infantry battalion and a RHAF flight of transport planes. The seven C- 4. 7s of 1. Graham Stevenson biographies, articles, speeches and monographs on political and trade union themes. He was elected as a Teachta D Forbes Welcome page -- Forbes is a global media company, focusing on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle. By Elias K.Maglinis (www.koti.welho.com) Part of the Flight’s aircraft en route to the “Land of the morning calm”. Dedicated to Hispanic Heritage and Diversity Issues. Click the atoms to make 'em expand and explode, sending particles into adjacent atoms. Express Helpline- Get answer of your question fast from real experts. World Population Awareness is a non-profit web publication seeking to inform people about overpopulation, unsustainability, and overconsumption; the impacts. Gmail is email that's intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access.Flight departed from Eleusis air base at 0. November 1. 1, 1. They belonged to the 3. Transport Sqdn, known for its participation in the civil war. The majority of the officers and NCOs of this first mission were experienced airmen, veterans of the Middle East campaigns of WWII and the Greek civil War. At noon of the 3rd of December, 1. Greek aircraft landed on Korean soil. Immediately the Greek flight was attached to the 2. Troop Carrier Sq. RHAF and Greek Army personnel pose in front of the aircraft. In the center, wearing black flight jacket major Fragoyannis, commander of the Squadron who was later killedin a tragic accident. The US Marines trapped. While the US and the rest of the U. N forces (at this point British and Turkish) were advancing on the Yalu river, on the borders of North Korea and China, the leader of that country Mao Tse Tung decided to act. That was something the U. S president H. Truman was afraid of. Those fears were not shared by the commander of the U. S Forces in the Far East General Douglas Mc. Arthur. What none of them knew though, was that almost half a million of Chinese troops were secretly crossing the Yalu river, advancing south. On November 2. 8 1. U. N. In very short time the numerically superior communist forces had taken the surrounding hills and established control over the only road that the troops could be supplied and reinforced . The U. N forces were retreating from valley to valley and from hill to hill. All this was happening under polar temperatures of - 3. C. The only available way to achieve these two goals was by air. So, an “air- bridge” had to be established between the positions of the beleaguered Marines and the rear bases for the re- supply and the evacuation of the dead and wounded. Only in Hagaru- Ri , a village near the Korea- China border 1. Manchuria almost a thousand wounded were waiting their rescue. For their evacuation the trapped Marines prepared a 2. This will be used by the C- 4. Three of those C- 4. Flight of the Royal Hellenic Air Force. The Greek Airmen remember. The RHAF unit had only being in Japan for two days before they were called to assist in the dangerous operation of disengagement of the US troops. Under normal conditions the Greek crews would have to go through an “adjustment” week, during which would fly familiarization flights. But the Chinese attack changed all that. The supply packaging crews were working non- stop in the Ashiya air- base in Japan, preparing all kinds of material from food, water and medical equipment to ammunition, loading C- 1. Troop Carrier Group, while at the same time Commander of the Greek mission was named Flt Lt Evangelos Tzovlas and his co- pilot was assigned Flt Lt Ioannis Papandreopoulos. The other members of the mission were: Fg Off Vlassis Dedes with co- pilot Plt Off Dimitrios Kouris, Fg Off Haris Paraskakis with co- pilot Plt Off Anastasios Stampouzos, Plt Offs Adam Agapakis, Ermis Vyzantios and Antonis Patrinelis, FS Yannis Papantoniou, Andreas Artsitas, Anastasios Yannakouris, Ioannis Kapotopoulos, Loukas Kypraios and aircraftmen Nikos Geranas, Nikos Lyrintzis, Alkis Panagiotakos and Nikos Roditis. As Group Captain (ret) Haris –“Charlie”- Paraskakis remembers today, “On December 4, 1. American comes in, wakes me up and tells me that next morning at 0. I have to report at the Operations Office. We all gathered there, without knowing the reason, in a “war atmosphere”. The first question of the American officer was: -“Don’t you have anything warmer to wear?”- Warmer, why?- we asked puzzled.- Where are we going?”His exact words were: -“You are going to fight in North Korea! There are trapped U. S Marines there!”“So, we collected all the available warm clothes and in the briefing, we were told that after crossing the 4. We left with a heavy heart, because we were going into the unknown”. There you’ll get your orders for the evacuation of the Hagaru- Ri. Don’t expect any airfield there, the Marines have just cleared a strip on an uphill road. The surface is uneven, frozen and slippery. Three of our aircraft were destroyed, only yesterday.”After two hours of preparations and loading of the aircraft with supplies and ammunition and after they were issued with heavy winter clothing, the Greek crews were flying over the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula, crossing the sea of Japan from south to north. It was noon of Monday, 4th of December 1. Yon Po! Come to see the Greeks!”- The USAF airmen who approached first the Greek aircraft, shouted. They were very soon disappointed because contrary to what they expected. There, we were informed that we will have to sleep in some ruins. There was no roof and no windows. Luckily, it wasn’t snowing, but the temperature was around - 2. C. We were issued with blankets and were ordered to put double sentries, because there was the fear of enemy infiltration during the night. They insisted that there should be one officer in every watch and that we should shoot at the first suspicious movement and without warning. Then, they showed us the food storage huts and told us to help ourselves with whatever we liked”“Later, we went to the makeshift operations room where we were addressed by an U. S colonel: - “Gentlemen,- he started- in Hagaru there are over a thousand wounded U. S men, trapped. They are surrounded by hills full of Chinese. The Marines have made a sort of runway 2. There is no control tower, and no room for many aircraft. They will have to take turns in landing and taking- off. You will fly 1. 0 miles away and when you get the message that the aircraft on the runway is taking- off you’ll start your landing procedure. You will do this, until all the Marines are taken out. You are not going to need navigators, or radio operators, so they will stay behind because we need all the space available in the aircraft.”In each of the three Greek C- 4. US radio operators were attached. They were the captains Stores, Drew and Mino.*H. Paraskakis realized how dangerous the mission was, when the colonel asked who among them was married.- “I am- I replied- . So, he ordered me to compile a will for my wife, in case something happens to me! So, I wrote a few words on a piece of paper for my wife, wishing that it would never end up in her hands”.“Then, the US officer told us to avoid the mountain peaks because they were occupied by the enemy and that we should be specially careful during the approach, since the hills on the left are heavily occupied by the enemy and they can shoot us down from there even with. In any case, you will be covered by U. S. Navy fighters which will be hitting those hills.”At dawn, the Greek pilots and crews were ready in their aircraft. The weather was good and the temperature - 1. C. Smoke and explosions on the ground were the only indications that something was wrong in the “Land of the morning calm”.“Far behind us in the port of Hugnam, ships were waiting for the valuable cargo that was retreating. The hills and the village were covered in thick fog, while 1. I could see them as they were swooping down like hawks on the Chinese positions and remembered our own dives a few years ago. Strapped now on a lumbering “Dakota” having on my right the US liaison officer Thomas Mino and standing between us, my co- pilot Demetrios Kouris, I was flying over the Chinese, trying to avoid the diving “friendlies” and the inhospitable hills”. At some point, the Greek pilot glimpsed the runway through the fog. In the meantime, the landing strip had disappeared in the fog. So, now I had on my left the top of the most treacherous hill. Instinctively I crouched, thinking how good a target I was presenting to the Chinese. Luckily, I had lost quite a lot of height and I was “crawling” to the runway, the start of which I was hoping to see soon through the fog! A pull at the throttles was enough to bring the C- 4. At the same time, a huge explosion on our right- which momentarily made us think we lost the starboard engine- gave us a warning of what it means to be in the “front line “ on the ground. When the doors opened and the loading of the wounded started the earth around the runway was shaking from the exploding Chinese mortars. There was the unforgettable sight of the unshaved, with frozen eye- brows and beards, red eyed from lack of sleep, exhausted and combat- weary Marines, running and firing with any weapon available into the surrounding hills. There was close combat going on, on the nearest of the hills and big artillery pieces were firing from the perimeter on the enemy positions, while machine- guns nearby were adding their fire to the effort of keeping the Chinese from overrunning the US positions. H. Paraskakis remembers how he followed V. Dedes’ aircraft. The Greek crews were helping the casualties to board the plane and with the loading of the dead bodies. A hard task, made even harder by the terrible cold which froze the fingers and made the securing of the stretchers difficult.” We took the wounded - remembers H. Paraskais, today- and placed them on the bare floor. Maybe forty or fifty of them, one on top of the other! We loaded dead also, frozen and covered with blankets and parachutes. Blood was frozen on their uniforms and faces”The “forty or fifty” persons that H. Paraskakis mentions, is a load almost twice as much as a C- 4. According to the log- book of V. Dedes’ co- pilot Demetrios Kouris, on the second day of their mission their aircraft carried 4.
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