page_title: Blockade of Wonsan
section_title: Allied air strike against Yo-do island
hierarchical_section_title: Blockade of Wonsan / Blockade / Height of the fighting / Allied air strike against Yo-do island
caption_attribution_description: The heavy cruiser USS Saint Paul (CA-73) near Wonsan, Korea, on 27 July 1953, just before signing of truce at Panmunjon. A 12.7 cm (5 in) shell is fired from ship against North Korean shore batteries. This round is believed to have been the last fired on enemy positions by UN Naval units before the armistice.
context_page_description: The Blockade of Wonsan, or the Siege of Wonsan, from February 16, 1951 to July 27, 1953, during the Korean War, was the longest naval blockade in modern history, lasting 861 days. UN naval forces, primarily from the United States, successfully kept the strategically important city of Wonsan from being used by the North Korean Navy.
  The blockade diverted communist troops from the front line. North Korean artillery fired at the American fleet was mostly ineffective, and the city was heavily damaged by UN naval aircraft and warships.
context_section_description: On May 15, TF-77 aircraft attacked an airfield on Yo-do island while American ships silenced the batteries on the islands. USS Brush was also hit in the mount that day, making it inoperable, and nine men were wounded, four seriously. The battleship New Jersey was fired at on May 27 but her 16-inch guns quickly put an end to it, meanwhile the islands were still receiving their daily barrage which continued in June. heavy gun strikes also continued, the communists resisted every UN attack but very few hits were made. On June 3, Wonsan shore batteries fifteen 105-millimeter shells at USS John A. Bole and USS Lofberg but no damage occurred. The guns were silenced by return fire.
  USS LSMR-409 was hit on June 4, causing moderate damage to the messing compartment and the radio room, and resulting in five men wounded. The enemy fired thirty rounds of 76-millimeter fire before being silenced by over 200 rockets from the LSMR. USS PC-706 destroyed five North Korean fishing boats on the beach at the northern end of Ho-do Pan-do. The weather was very foggy and Typhoon Judy was announced the following morning which hampered TF-77's operations for three days. Lofberg and John A. Bole were attacked on June 8 by batteries, but it was another inconclusive contact. John A. Bole spent the next day bombarding enemy guns. On June 11, USS Wiltsie received an estimated forty-five rounds of 105-millimeter fire.  The vessel was hit once on the starboard side of her main deck but was still completely operational. Shrapnel caused a lot of damage and a four-inch hole in the deck. No casualties were inflicted on American forces.
  Three days after this incident USS Bremerton, USS Lofberg and USS John A. Bole exchanged fire with the batteries, several guns were destroyed and there were no friendly casualties. Lofberg, John A. Bole and USS Current received 110 rounds of fire on the next day without effect. Shore batteries on Ho-do Pan-do were increasingly menacing the allied blockade, concentrated fire was directed against destroyers in Wonsan Harbor on June 17. USS Irwin and USS Rowan re-escaped to seventy-five founds and Henderson avoided another seventy-five, the nearest landing ten yards from Henderson.
  Irwin and Rowan would fight another battle the following day. In it the North Koreans scored their most number of hits in one engagement. USS Irwin was hit by one round from Kalmagak and it tore a 3-foot (0.91 m) hole in the main deck. Five American sailors were wounded. Rowan suffered five hits and ten casualties, none of them fatal, and she received forty-five rounds of different caliber altogether. The destroyer was moderately damaged. Thirty-six shells were fired at Saint Paul but she was not hit.
  A small surface engagement occurred the same day. An armed South Korean Army intelligence boat encountered a North Korean thirty foot patrol boat and for ten minutes the vessels fought until the North Koreans withdrew under cover of a battery. The patrol boat had a speed of twenty knots, carried a radio and was armed with rocket launchers, machine guns and the crew carried various small arms. On June 19 Rowan and Bremerton were fired on but no hits resulted.
  USS Manchester was conducting a heavy bombardment of Wonsan on or about July 3 when fragments from a near miss put a two-inch hole in the after stack and through the door of a powder room, no one was hurt though. On July 7, North Korean gunners on Ho-do Pan-do fired on the blockade. Over 300 rounds of 76-millimeter to 122-millimeter fire landed near USS Lofberg, USS Thomason and USS Hamner. Thomason suffered holes and dents topside due to air burst straddles but there were no casualties. The Americans returned 880 rounds of counter battery fire before the action ended.
  A few days after, North Korean artillery fired forty-eight rounds of 76-millimeter to 105-millimeter shells at USS Saint Paul and scored a hit on a gun mount. Two guns were damaged but nobody was wounded. For the next several days the North Koreans focused on attacking friendly islands until July 23 when Saint Paul drew twelve rounds 
caption: USS Saint Paul firing the last shots of the blockade on July 27, 1953
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