44 AH January 2016
OPERATION
HALYARD
T
he biggest behind-
enemy-lines aerial extrac-
tion ever attempted—
and pulled off—took
place in Yugoslavia between
August and December 1944.
Numbers are difficult to
con firm, since this was a
controversial operation that
remained classified until the
late 1990s, but best esti-
mates are that more than
500 American, British,
Cana dian, French, Italian and
Soviet airmen who had
crash-landed or parachuted
after raids on Romanian oil
facilities, including infamous
Ploesti, were spirited out of
German-held Yugoslavia by
Douglas C-47s, from dirt
strips and pastures that
would have challenged a
single-engine Cessna pilot.
The airmen and their
Serbian protectors cleared
the initial 2,100-foot runway
using nothing but shovels,
hoes, axes and oxcarts.
On August 9, the first fourIn March 1966, 2,000 North Vietnamese regulars
attacked a tiny Special Forces squad and several hundred
South Vietnamese Civilian Irregular Defense Group sol-
diers at a camp in the A Shau Valley, near the Ho Chi Minh
Trail. Under an 800-foot ceiling that obscured the tops of
the surrounding hills, air support for the Green Berets was
limited, but A-1 Skyraiders were still low and slow enough
to harass the attackers. The NVA had surrounded the camp,
however, and their guns controlled its narrow landing strip.
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onto the 2,500-foot runway, its crushed belly tank erupting
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helicopter was inbound from 30 minutes away, but NVA
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the angry Skyraiders’ 20mm cannons.
Fisher knew what he needed to do, though everybody on
the frequency warned him that he’d die trying. He landed
on a runway cluttered with tire-shredding spent shrapnel
IVLLMJZQ[.Q[PMZ_I[ÆaQVOI¹.I\.IKMº\_W[MI\)-
Skyraider, so at least he had room for Myers...if he could
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]VLMZLQZMK\ÅZM
Bernie Fisher’s Spad took 19 hits, but he pulled an
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IZMWVMKZIba[WVWNIJQ\KPº5aMZ[[IQL
In a strange coincidence, a similar rescue had taken
place during WWII, when Captain Richard Willsie’s P-38J
Light ning was shot down during an August 1944 raid on
\PM8TWM[\QWQTZMÅVMZQM[?QTT[QM_I[ZM[K]MLJa.TQOP\7ٻKMZ
Rich ard Andrews, who landed his own P-38 next to Willsie’s
downed airplane and pulled him aboard, somehow making
room for his cohort in the single-seat cockpit.
_WLMKILM[TI\MZ?QTT[QM_I[\PMKWUUIVLMZWN,IٺWZL
5aMZ[¼[Y]ILZWVIVL)VLZM_[ÆM_I;SaZIQLMZ\PI\XZW-
^QLML[]XXWZ\QVOÅZML]ZQVO5aMZ[¼ZM[K]MHitching a Ride
Skytrains landed at night
on a mountain strip they’d
never seen, lit by burning hay
bales, and flew out a dozen
men per airplane. Every
rescue flight for the next 4½
months had to go perfectly,
lest the runway be blocked
by a ground-looped C-47 or,
worse, a fiery crash attracted
German troops from a base
barely 15 miles away.
The decision was quickly
made to abandon suicidal
night runs, so the unarmed
C-47s had to risk daylight
trips through skies patrolled
by the Luftwaffe. This called
for the best fighter escorts
available—the Tuskegee
Airmen of the 332nd Fighter
Group, known for their
propensity to stick with their
charges rather than chase the
Luftwaffe. When Wehr macht
activities made the initial
runway unusable, Opera tion
Halyard moved to first one,
then another moun tain strip.
The rescues ended when the
oil- interdiction cam paign
wound down for lack of targets.BERNIE FISHER’S
SPAD TOOK
19 HITS, BUT
HE PULLED
AN EXHAUSTED
MYERS ABOARD
AND FIREWALLED
THE THROTTLE.
Majors Bernard Fisher
(left) and Dafford Myersride to freedom Some
of the 500 downed airmen
who rode C-47s out of
Yugoslavia in 1944.