Golden Gate Wing Guest Speaker Archive

Presentation Date: February 23, 2006

Commander Harold G. Swede Carlson

Speaker Photo

- Served two year sea duty aboard USS Nashville a light cruiser which escorted the USS Hornet when it was used to launch Doolittle's Raiders against Tokyo in 1942.
- Earned Wings of Gold in April 1943
- Joined VC-11, a TBF/TBM squadron aboard the Nehenta Bay, a jeep carrier or baby flattop.
- Aboard the USS Mt. McKinley, the Naval Air Staff Command ship for the Leyte invasion.
- Commanded VU-1, the largest Naval Squadron at Ford Island and Barber's Point, Hawaii.
- Commanded VA-195, the "Tigers", which on March 2, 1951 and subsequent dates attacked in AD-4 Skyraiders the Kilchu Bridge. James Michener's book, "Bridges at Toko-Ri", and the movie by the same title, is based, in large part, on the saga of "Carlson's Canyon."
- His turret gunner Mr. Ghilotti, and radioman/belly gunner Mr. Larson, who made up the crew of his TBM aircraft will also be present. Come witness the reunion of this crew after 61 years! - Graduated Class of 1940 from Annapolis
- Served two year sea duty aboard USS Nashville a light cruiser which escorted the USS Hornet when it was used to launch Doolittle's Raiders against Tokyo in 1942.
- August 1942 commenced flight school
- Earned Wings of Gold in April 1943
- Joined VC-11, a TBF/TBM squadron aboard the Nehenta Bay, a jeep carrier or baby flattop.
- Aboard the USS Mt. McKinley, the Naval Air Staff Command ship for the Leyte invasion.
- Commanded VU-1, the largest Naval Squadron at Ford Island and Barber's Point, Hawaii.
- Professor of Military Science at Villanova University.
- Married wife, Isabel, five children.
- Commanded VA-195, the "Tigers", which on March 2, 1951 and subsequent dates attacked in AD-4 Skyraiders the Kilchu Bridge. James Michener's book, "Bridges at Toko-Ri", and the movie by the same title, is based, in large part, on the saga of "Carlson's Canyon."
- Subsequently attacked the 250 foot high Hwachon Dam with torpedoes after 2000 lb bombs simply 'bounced off.' After maneuvering his squadon's aircraft through its narrow canyon approach, six of eight torpedoes initially damaged and destoyed two floodgates, thereby denying the North Koreans the ability to control the flooding of the plain below. "Swede" Carlson was awarded the DFC and three Air Medals for his combat flying in Korea.
- Member of Naval Section in Spain of JUSMAG.
- Served at Central HQ for Production Inspection as Engineer in New York City.
- Executive Officer of VAW-11, EArly WArning Squadron flying TBM-TBF's, Stuf's and Stuf's with a Roof.
- Retired in 1961

Bridge and Dam-Busting with Swede Carlson

Harold "Swede" Carlson - - USN, TBM & AD-4 Pilot

Harold Carlson had become interested in attending Naval Academy while he was in grade school. When he came of age, he pursued his dream and ultimately found himself on missions, which are today part of the lore of United States Naval Aviation.

After a year and a half of studies at two different colleges, Harold joined the National Guard to compete for an appointment to West Point. He was accepted by both academies, and decided in favor of the U.S. Navy. Carlson and his best friend studied together for the Navy exams and both passed them, but Harold's friend decided to become a banker instead.

"I spent four years at the Naval Academy. We were the last class before the war to get four years. The subsequent classes had three-and-a-half, and then three.

"I checked in at the math department and discovered that the math text was written by a prof I had at Reed College, so I had a little help there."

An incident that failed to help Carlson came while playing soccer in his first year at Naval Academy. He broke his leg, and after being diagnosed with having "cat fever", he had to hobble around a few days before x-rays could be taken and the leg was set.

In 1938, Carlson and his classmates steamed on the WWI battleship USS Wyoming to Europe, touching ports in Madera, Portugal; Turkey; England and Kiel, Germany. After Kiel, Carlson took his first airplane ride, a Lufthansa flight from Hamburg to Copenhagen and then up to Sweden.

His next year was split between Naval Academy and that summer’s cruise up and down the eastern seaboard on a WWI-era four-pipe destroyer, USS Badger. On this trip, Harold also got to see his brother, who was in the Coast Guard Academy, and he sneaked him into a dinner at the Naval Academy in the uniform of one of Carlson’s classmates.

"It was a good thing I wasn’t caught," says Harold.

His broken leg mended, Carlson returned to the soccer squad and took part in defeating the Army team. Then, it was off to another cruise, this time on the battleship USS Texas, as a gun captain on a 5-inch battery.

Soon came graduation for 456 of the 775 men in the class who had all entered the Academy together.

"We ended up having the highest rates of losses in World War II, because we had to spend the first two years aboard a ship before we could have flight training, or go to a submarine school, or get married. So, many of my classmates were aboard ship at Pearl Harbor on December 7th."

In June of 1940, Carlson went aboard the Brooklyn class cruiser USS Nashville at Mare Island in San Francisco Bay. Swede says his first duty was as Captain of the Head, "in charge of toilet paper."

The Nashville was stationed at Pearl Harbor until 1941, when it was ordered, without warning, back to the East coast.

"While going through the Panama Canal, escorting battleships, we had our ship’s names covered, so they couldn’t tell who we were. But they still welcomed us ‘ Hello Nashville ’."

From Iceland, the Nashville took part in cruises from Bermuda to Africa, back to Iceland and then down again to Bermuda. By early 1942, the Nashville was joining the carrier Hornet on the Doolittle raid to Tokyo. About 150 miles short of the planned B-25 launch point, the convoy ran into Japanese picket boats.

"My ship, the Nashville shot up one of the picket boats ot there, and a survvor coming aboard on a rope ladder broke out his knife. A boatswain’s mate pointed a gun at him and he (the Japanese) changed his mind."

Returning to Pearl harbor after the Doolittle raid escort role, the Nashville headed to Midway on a plan to shoot up Japan’s fishing fleet. Carlson says the cruiser ran into a reef and returned to Pearl Harbor for repairs. Then, shortly after leaving there, the Nashville was diverted to the Aleutians, helping thwart a feeble Japanese invasion thrust coinciding with the Battle of Midway.

Flight training came next for Carlson, starting with his primary training in New Orleans and continuing at Pensacola, Florida. By early 1943, Harold had begin operational raining in TBM Avenger torpedo planes at Ft. Lauderdale. Carrier qualifications on the USS Sable and Wolverine in Lake Michigan came next.

After Carlson got his wings, he served a short time in VC-20 and then he was transferred to VC-11, a TBF/TBM squadron flying from the escort carrier CVE-74 Nehenta Bay . The carrier was used to transport damaged aircraft and wounded sailors form the Pacific theater back to the West coast, as well as providing antisubmarine patrols to protect supply convoys following the carrier fleets. In both squadrons, Carlson served as Executive Officer.

Harold finally saw combat in 22 combat missions over the Marianas Islands, and while covering the landings at Leyte, the Philippines, Harold says he saw, from afar, General Douglas MacArthur’s return to those islands.

As the War in the Pacific ended, Carlson recalls rough seas while steaming back in his carrier to the United States, and the sounds of crashing waves damaging the ship.

"Swede" continued his Navy career after the war, at the same time, "having the good fortune of marrying another Swede, Isabel Johanssen." The newlyweds lived at a number of Navy bases through Harold’s varied assignments.

One of those assignments was VA-195, originally nicknamed the "Tigers", and Carlson’s next command. In November of 1950 the squadron of AD-4 Skyraiders was aboard the USS Princeton , steaming off the coast of Korea. The first action the unit saw was providing coverage for Marines withdrawing from the Chosin Reservoir.

"One of the first things we did was to fly over the rescue efforts for the black pilot, Ens. Jesse Brown, who flew his aircraft into the ground. He survived, but couldn’t get out of the aircraft. His shipmate, Lt.jg Thomas Hudner, Jr. took his airplane in, landed alongside and tried, unsuccessfully, to get him out. For his effort, Hudner received the Medal of Honor." (Ens. Brown was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.)

Carlson himself had at least one close call while flying Skyraiders over Korea - -

"I had almost a dead-stick landing in a shot-up airplane. The engine wasn’t working very well so I climber as high as I could, and I couldn’t get back to my carrier, the Princeton . The carrier Boxer turned into the wind for me, and I went down and landed on it. My captain thought that was wonderful and ordered us both aviation brandy."

One of the unique shipboard operations Swede says he recalls was named "Operation Pinwheel." It was an attempt by the carrier’s skipper to use the 2000 hp engines of Skyraiders on the deck of the Princeton to help turn the ship. Harold has a photo of ADs on either side of the carrier’s deck, all facing the ship‘s centerline.

"We tied down the airplanes, turned up the engines and moved the ship. It was a terrible way of doing business. The CAG and the various skippers complained, but in vain."

The remainder of Carlson’s tour with VA-195 was flown on missions involving the guidance of Air Force controllers flying "mosquitos", T-6 trainers.

"We bombed and napalmed targets all over Korea, but we operated basically out of the east side, the Sea of Japan."

In March of 1951, a rail bridge was singled out as North Korea’s key link for supplies. VF-195 bombed the bridge by day, and the North Koreans would repair it by night. The squadron ended up making so many missions to take out the span that UN forces named the gorge below "Carlson Canyon." James Michener’s book, "The Bridges of Toko-Ri" and the movie by that title, are largely based on the saga of Carlson’s Canyon.

Swede also spoke of his Skyraider night missions. While some of these were flown against railroad bridges and tunnels, the most memorable was against the Hwachon Dam.

The North Koreans would open the dam’s floodgates and raise the waters of the Han and Pukhan rivers, preventing UN forces from moving north. Closing the gates allowed the North Koreans to lower the rivers so their troops could launch attacks across them.

When bomb attacks on the dams by the Skyraiders and even by B-29s failed to shut down the floodgate operations, Carlson’s squadron was given the opportunity to take them out with Mark 13 torpedoes left over from WWII.

"When the Princeton was decommissioned they took all the ordnance off of the ship. When she was recommissioned, they put it all back on and included the torpedoes, fortunately."

Unlike the Avenger, which carried a torpedo internally, the AD could only carry a torpedo externally. in this instance, in a makeshift arrangement.

"We had to modify the airplane slightly. There were three dive brakes on the plane, two on one wing and one in the middle of the fuselage. We had to be careful so that the center one would not hit the torpedo."

The next morning after making the modifications, CAG-19 Commander Dick Merrick led the first strike division and Carlson led the second division.

High mountain ridges channeled the river leading up to the dam, and the aviators’ planned for a specific speed and altitude to release the torpedoes so they would run effectively, just below the water’s surface, and strike the floodgates.

"The plan was to drop the torpedoes at about a thousand yards out, roughly a half a mile. It was a little tricky because there was a bend in the reservoir and we had to come down at fairly high speed, level out and get down to about 160-165 knots and fly about fifty feet high. We had to ensure the torpedo would not go in flat, which would break it up - - or too steep, which would make it porpoise up and down and never settle down. It had to go in at roughly a 20-degree angle."

Carlson says the ADs went in two-by-two, spaced to allow the torpedo warheads to detonate before the next flight of two planes came over the dam. Swede says that of the eight torpedoes dropped by his division, six ran true and took out several floodgates. Overhead, he says, eight or ten Corsairs dropped bombs and distracted North Korean antiaircraft gunners.

As a result of this mission, VA-195 later changed its name from "Tigers" to "Dambusters".

Today, there is an Avenger aboard the USS Yorktown in Charleston, South Carolina, that is painted and marked as Carlson’s TBM was in World War II. And there is an AD Skyraider at the Flight Factory in Suffolk, Virginia similarly commemorating the aircraft Swede flew in the Korean War.