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Arthur Haarmeyer
Into the Land of Darkness: A Bombardier-Navigator's Story
Into the Land of Darkness: A Bombardier-Navigator's Story
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On a cold December morning in 1952, young Lt. Arthur L. Haarmeyer reported for duty in
Korea as a B-26 bombardier-navigator to Colonel Delwin D. Bentley, Commander, 95th Bomb
Squadron, 17th Bomb Group, K-9 Air Force Base, Pusan. Haarmeyer was immediately
challenged by the colonel: “You’ve got an MBA … from a high-priced university. You could be
riding a desk at the Pentagon right now. So why the hell are you here?” His reply—“I always
wanted to be here, sir. I can be an accountant later”—was apparently convincing. But over the
next seven months, flying fifty missions, mostly low-level nighttime bombing and strafing raids
over mountainous North Korea, there were many times when he had reason to question the sanity
of both his response and his decision.
Most of Haarmeyer’s combat missions were single-ship sorties flown during hours of darkness
with his crew, with the others being daylight formation bombing missions with his crew or as
lead bombardier for Colonel Bentley. In this book Haarmeyer recalls with clarity and economy
of style just what it was like to fly these missions. He puts the reader in the B-26, flying into
deep valleys to find and attack communist freight trains and truck convoys carrying men and
materiel to the front lines, and then unexpectedly caught in the sudden and blinding glare of
enemy searchlights that triggered multiple streams of deadly and upward-arcing green or white
tracers. And he recalls instances of agony, guilt, and terror, such as the times when the flak was
so heavy on all sides that he was unable to advise his pilot to “break right” or “break left”—so
their B-26 just simply plowed straight through it, or the times they flew low enough for
Haarmeyer to see through the Plexiglas of the nose compartment the terrified faces of the young
North Korean soldiers they were targeting. He also recalls moment of breathtaking beauty and
poignancy, and it is this artful juxtaposition that makes Haarmeyer's work more than just another
wartime memoir.
Although Haarmeyer left the Air Force upon completion of his four years of military
service, the recurring and troubling memories of Korea never left him. Hence, the start of this
manuscript fifty years after the restoration of freedom to the people of the Republic of Korea.
Just as telling these stories was therapeutic for the author, so reading them will be healing for any
reader who is a veteran of that or any war, as well as their family members and friends. The book
also provides a valuable perspective on the United Nations Command’s tactical approach to
Korea, namely, the aerial interdiction of North Korean troops and materiel, and so it will be of
interest to students of the war, as well as military personnel and historians.
Korea as a B-26 bombardier-navigator to Colonel Delwin D. Bentley, Commander, 95th Bomb
Squadron, 17th Bomb Group, K-9 Air Force Base, Pusan. Haarmeyer was immediately
challenged by the colonel: “You’ve got an MBA … from a high-priced university. You could be
riding a desk at the Pentagon right now. So why the hell are you here?” His reply—“I always
wanted to be here, sir. I can be an accountant later”—was apparently convincing. But over the
next seven months, flying fifty missions, mostly low-level nighttime bombing and strafing raids
over mountainous North Korea, there were many times when he had reason to question the sanity
of both his response and his decision.
Most of Haarmeyer’s combat missions were single-ship sorties flown during hours of darkness
with his crew, with the others being daylight formation bombing missions with his crew or as
lead bombardier for Colonel Bentley. In this book Haarmeyer recalls with clarity and economy
of style just what it was like to fly these missions. He puts the reader in the B-26, flying into
deep valleys to find and attack communist freight trains and truck convoys carrying men and
materiel to the front lines, and then unexpectedly caught in the sudden and blinding glare of
enemy searchlights that triggered multiple streams of deadly and upward-arcing green or white
tracers. And he recalls instances of agony, guilt, and terror, such as the times when the flak was
so heavy on all sides that he was unable to advise his pilot to “break right” or “break left”—so
their B-26 just simply plowed straight through it, or the times they flew low enough for
Haarmeyer to see through the Plexiglas of the nose compartment the terrified faces of the young
North Korean soldiers they were targeting. He also recalls moment of breathtaking beauty and
poignancy, and it is this artful juxtaposition that makes Haarmeyer's work more than just another
wartime memoir.
Although Haarmeyer left the Air Force upon completion of his four years of military
service, the recurring and troubling memories of Korea never left him. Hence, the start of this
manuscript fifty years after the restoration of freedom to the people of the Republic of Korea.
Just as telling these stories was therapeutic for the author, so reading them will be healing for any
reader who is a veteran of that or any war, as well as their family members and friends. The book
also provides a valuable perspective on the United Nations Command’s tactical approach to
Korea, namely, the aerial interdiction of North Korean troops and materiel, and so it will be of
interest to students of the war, as well as military personnel and historians.
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