Korean War




Korean War Rare Blood Chit

[Korean War.] Blood chit for American aviator, ca. 1953. White canvas decorated with American, United Nations, and Korean flags, and text in an older Korean spelling, 10.5” x 8.25”. Expected soiling and traces of apparent human blood, else very good.

American flight crews often carried survival kits in their missions over enemy territory, beginning in World War II. Kits might include maps, sewing needles, and gifts like gold coins. During the Korean War, flight crews sometimes sewed the “blood chit” into their uniform. The “chit” is a British English term for a small document, note, or pass, deriving from an Anglo-Indian word.

Translation

"This is an American soldier who has crash landed here. Please guide him to contact the nearest UN army, and we will reward you."

First used by Jean-Pierre Blanchard, the French balloonist, the blood chit provides a message in a language that a downed pilot does not speak. In Blanchard's case, he could not speak English, so when he ascended from Philadelphia in 1793, he carried a letter from President George Washington addressed to “all citizens of the United States” identifying Blanchard and asking them to help him return to Philadelphia.

During World War I, British Royal Flying Corps pilots used a similar idea in India and Mesopotamia. They carried notes written in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, and Pashto, promising a reward to anyone who brought a downed pilot or observer to a British outpost unharmed. The Flying Tigers, who battled the Japanese in China in 1937, also carried blood chits with American and Chinese flags and a message in Chinese identifying the pilot as a person who was helping China.

During World War II, the United States armed forces issued blood chits in nearly fifty different languages, also offering a reward for downed fliers. The practice continued in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and persists today in operations throughout the world.

In July 1950, just weeks after the start of the Korean War, North Korean Yu Ho Chun found the blood chit in the pocket of one member of a B-29 crew that had been shot down. He gave the eleven American crew members medical aid, put them on a junk, and sailed them one hundred miles down the coast to safety. Two weeks later, the North Korean Army captured, tortured, and killed Chun. In 1993, the United States paid a reward of $100,000 to his son, Yu Song Dan.

See R. E. Baldwin and Thomas William McGarry, Last Hope: The Blood Chit Story (Schiffer, 1997) for a history of the blood chit.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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