Helicopters played a minor role in World War II. However, World War II demonstrated that the helicopter could perform useful missions, and they did see service to a limited extent as supply craft and for rescue operations in the China-Burma-India theatre, and were operated by the 1st Air Commando unit. But the helicopters of the day were still limited in their power, size, and hence their capabilities.
By Korea, helicopters were more numerous but were still limited largely to support roles, primarily search and rescue and medical evacuation, not to combat. …
