First part of this article: [a]articles/sakhal/air_war_over_korea_i.

php[*a]Air war
over Korea I[/a][p]
[b]The MiG Alley[/span][p]
In the summer 1951, the 303rd Fighter Division, commanded by General Georgi Lobov,
an ace from the Second World War with 24 victories in his record, was based in Miao
Kun, while the 324th Fighter

Division was based in Antung. The association of these two divisions supposed a
formidable threat for the Americans, who baptized this zone of north-western Korea
as the "MiG Alley". Aerial

oppostion became so effective that United Nations fighter-bombers only ventured

into enemy airspace with a strong escort. For example, the 9th May, it took place a
large attack against the airfield

at Sinuiju, the most well defended target in North Korea. The enemy had 38 aircraft
deployed there, all of them piston-engined, but special walls had been built around
the perimeter of the airfield

and there were signs that turbojet fighters would be soon housed there. In the
afternoon, the operation started, with the Shooting Star from the 49th and 51st
Fighter Wings, the Mustang from the

18th Fighter Wing and the Corsair from the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing bombing Sinuiju
during 45 minutes, while the Sabre from the 4th Fighter Wing, the Thunderjet from
the 27th Fighter Wing and the

Panther from the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing provided cover. The Shooting Star entered
the first to suppress the anti-aircraft artillery; the following attacks destroyed
a fuel deposit and 26

ammunition and supply storages, 106 buildings and all the enemy aviation in the
ground. 18 aircraft MiG-15 were sighted crossing the Yalu, but most of them avoided
to engage in combat and the

American pilots only managed to damage two of them. All the American aircraft
returned intact to their bases.[p]
In the combats occurred in May 1951 emerged the first ace of the Sabre, Captain
James Jabara from the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. The 7th May, when Jabara
was ascribed to the 335th Fighter

Interceptor Wing based at Suwon, he had already four victories in his record. The
20th May a large number of aircraft MiG-15 crossed the Yalu to engage 12 aircraft
Sabre from the 12th Fighter Wing.

Quickly other two Sabre squadrons joined them, being Jabara in one of them. He
managed to approach the rear of one of the MiG-15 and hit with his projectiles both
its wings and its fuselage. Jabara

continued descending up to 3000 meters and saw the pilot ejecting from the
aircraft. Then he climbed again up to 7600 meters and after a couple of minutes he
was fighting another MiG-15, which he

set ablaze, seeing it falling in a spin. In that moment Jabara noticed a third MiG-
15 positioned behind him, and he broke contact abruptly in a long dive, leaving
behind the enemy fighters and

returning to base. These two victories were more meritory by the fact that Jabara
could not drop one of the fuel tanks hanging under the wings, circumstance that
would convince the average pilot to

abandon the engagement immediately. Other pilots of Sabre claimed the downing of
one MiG-15, with another one probable and five damaged. Jabara would not achieve
more victories during this stage of

the war, but later he would return to the Korean War, increasing his record up to
15 victories.[p]
[aimg96]high_res/aircraft_united_states/
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[br]
[fs]Veteran from the campaigns in the Pacific during the Second World War, the
Vought F4U Corsair was very used in Korea. Lieutenant Neil Armstrong, the very
first man that walked on the Moon, flew

in one of them.[/span][p]
[aimg96]high_res/aircraft_united_states/north_american_f-
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[fs]Another veteran from the Second World War, the North American F-51 Mustang saw
service during the Korean War in both ground attack and offensive reconnaissance
missions, suffering many losses.

[/span][p]
[b]New tactics[/span][p]
A sign of the agressive and confident attitude of the MiG-15 pilots was that,
occassionally, their aircraft fitted with fuel tanks under the wings moved to the
south almost up to the 38th Parallel,

flying alone or in pairs. It seemed that they were, at last, exploiting the
advantages of their aircraft, particularly the capability of the MiG-15B to climb
faster and maneuver better at high

altitude than the Sabre. During this period, some United Nations pilots noticed
that the enemy was testing new tactics, including one that the pilots of the Sabre
called the "yo-yo"; a large

formation of MiG-15 moved in circles in the combat zone at maximum altitude, whith
small groups of them diving to pass at high speed upon the United Nations aircraft
before flying off upwards

again. The MiG-15 was a high-altitude interceptor and its best qualities flourished
at an altitude above 7000 meters, where its climbing rate and maneuverability could
surpass the ones of the F-86.

However, the MiG-15 showed dangerous tendencies; in several occassions, United

Nations pilots were puzzled of seeing how an intact MiG-15 would start to fall in a
spin during a combat maneuver,

forcing the pilot to ejection due to being unable to control the aircraft. Later,
when a MiG-15 arrived to American hands thanks to the defection of a North Korean
pilot, it was seen that the

cockpit had a white line painted beneath the instruments panel; if the aircraft
started a spin, the pilots should push with strenght the control stick against the
line; if after three turns the

aircraft did not recover, the standard procedure was ejection. It happened as well
that the MiG-15 had a dangerous tendency to stall without previous notice, for no
warning indicators were provided

to warn about this situation. Pressurization in the cockpit worked inconsistently

and the emergency fuel pump was prone to explode when activating it, tearing apart
the rear fuselage. Despite these

inconveniences, the MiG-15 was an excellent aircraft, much more robust and easier
to fly than the F-86, and it was dangerously close to achieve air superiority in
north-western Korea in the summer

1951.[p]
[aimg96]high_res/aircraft_united_states/north_american_f-
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[fs]A F-86 Sabre lands in a Korean airfield after a combat mission over the Yalu.
Note the open aerodynamic brake behind the wing.[/span][p]
[b]Surprise attacks[/span][p]
A careful study about the order of battle of the Republic of China Air Force
revealed that existed in Manchuria a large number of experienced Soviet aviators,
and this pointed to the possibility of

the Communists planning surprise attacks against the Allied airbases in Korea and
Japan, in a new attempt to achieve air superiority. The 10th June 1951, General
Otto P. Weyland urgently requested

from the Pentagon the delivery of four wings equipped with turbojet fighters, two
of them as reinforcement for the forces in Japan and another two for deploying in
Korea. When this request was made

there were only 89 aircraft Sabre in the Far East, 44 of them in Korea; Weyland did
not want only more Sabre, but the new models F-86E to replace the F-86A which then
equipped the 4th Fighter

Interceptor Wing. Actually the USAF had started the replacement of the older models
by the procedure of changing one by one, but this process could take many months.
The objection given by the USAF

was that it would be impossible to deliver an entire wing of F-86E without

depriving the Air Defense Command, which was under minimums and efforting for
carrying their commitment. The self-

complacency of the immediate post-war years was having effect; it would pass some
time before the technical level of United States could match the mass-production of
air superiority fighters

achieved by the Soviet Union.[p]

Meanwhile, the best remedy would be to increase the amount of aircraft F-84 in the
theater of operations, something that General Stratemeyer, predecessor of Weyland,
had strongly asked. The 1st

June 1951, the 2nd Fighter Escort Wing started the process to reconvert the pilots
from the 49th and 136th Wings, who had been piloting aircraft F-80, to adapt them
to the new F-84E. As the pilots

were getting familiar with this aircraft, the Thunderjet from the 27th Wing were
delivered to the 136th Wing, squadron by squadron, until the personnel from the
27th Wing was relieved from their
destination in the Far East. Besides, the USAF authorized the deployment of the
aircraft Thunderjet from the 116th Wing in Japan; those 75 aircraft arrived the
24th July and the wing was

distributed between the airbases at Chitose and Misawa.[p]

[aimg96]high_res/aircraft_united_states/
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[br]
[fs]Two Panther, from the VF-721 Fighter Squadron operating in the USS Boxer, fly
to join the attacks on Wonsan, North Korea, the 15th July 1951.[/span][p]
[aimg96]high_res/aircraft_united_states/north_american_f-
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[fs]North American F-86F-30-NA Sabre "Dottie" (number 52-4701) piloted by Captain
D.R. Hall during the Korean War. This aircraft holds the distinctive of the 336th
Squadron from the 4th Fighter

Interceptor Wing, based in the K-14 airbase at Kimpo, about 40 kilometers north-
west of Seoul. The yellow bands were reglamentary identification marks in every
aircraft F-86 operated by the Far

East Air Force. The F-86F were much better than the F-86A that had been fighting in
the "MiG Alley" during the Korean War: the latter model had more powerful engine,
increased range and larger wing

without leading edge slats.[/span][p]

[b]The Meteor enter into action[/span][p]
During the summer 1951, entered combat in Korea another type of turbojet fighter,
the Gloster Meteor F Mk 8, which in that time constituted the first line of defense
in Britain of the Fighter

Command of the Royal Air Force, and replaced the aircraft F-51 Mustang from the
77th Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force in Korea. The Meteor had been
tested against a Sabre in a simulated

combat in a series of tests during two days and, among the conclusions that were
extracted, was that the Sabre surpassed the Meteor in swooping or in a prolongued
flight in straight line and

horizontal; conversely the Meteor was superior in turns, accelerations and

sustained climbings. This seemed to indicate that the Meteor could defend itself
against the MiG-15 in most combat

situations. After some preliminary sorties from Kimbo, the first real test occurred
the 20th August 1951, when eight aircraft Meteor were sent to escort a group of B-
29 bombers and another eight to

effectuate a diversion patrol north of Sinanju. At 11:20 AM this squadron,

commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Wilson, sighted six MiG-15 at 12200 meters over
Chongju, about 1500 meters above

themselves. Without losing sight of the enemy, Wilson ordered to maneuver his
formation to put it against the sun, but then another two MiG-15 appeared about
1200 meters below. Wilson decided to

attack, starting a swooping, followed by his second in command, Pilot Officer

Woodroffe. But, when both aircraft leveled, the one of Woodroffe suddenly entered
into a spin - an unpleasant tendency
of the Meteor Mk 8, due to the effects of compression when the aircraft surpassed
Mach 0.8 - and started to fall. Woodroffe managed to recover control about 1500
meters below, but Wilson had nobody

to cover his rear. When he started his approximation to attack, another MiG-15
emerged in backlighting, which he did not see due to the blind spot produced by the
duralumin structure on the rear

part of the Meteor's canopy. The first warning that Wilson had of the danger were a
bunch of cannon projectiles passing over his wing; immediately he effectuated a
tight turn to escape the haunter.

He was rescued by Pilot Lieutenant Cedric Wilson and by Flying Officer Ken Blight,
who took him off the hook shooing the MiG-15, but not before this one had managed
to tear away the larboard

aileron of Lieutenant Colonel Wilson, open a hole almost one meter in diameter in
the starboard wing and cause damage in a fuel deposit. Despite this, Wilson arrived
to the base, landing at about

50 kilometers/hour above the normal landing speed. Meanwhile, an acerbated combat

was in course over Chongju, when the other aircraft Meteor were furiously attacked
by 30 aircraft MiG-15. One of

the Meteor was downed and his pilot, Non-Commissioned Officer Don Guthrie, had to
spend the rest of the war in a prisoner camp. After some other violent encounters
with the MiG-15, the Meteor were

assigned to ground attack missions, in which they worked very well.[p]

[b]The Black Tuesday[/span][p]
The 23rd October 1951, known as the "Black Tuesday", the expert pilots of the MiG-
15 from the 324th and 303rd Fighter Divisions, were close to give an end to the
American efforts of strategic

bombing over North Korea. At 9 AM, eight bombers B-29 from the 307th Bomber Wing
together with 55 escorting aircraft Thunderjet from the 49th and 136th Wings
departed towards the airfield at Namsi.

Ahead and above, cover was given by 34 interceptors Sabre from the 4th Fighter
Wing. Suddenly, at 9:15, a large formation of MiG-15 - allegedly about a hundred -
attacked the American formation.

The F-86, numerically inferior, were fighting for survival, in a combat in which
two MiG-15 were shot down. But at the same time, about 50 interceptors MiG-15
approached the B-29 and the

Thunderjet, surrounding them in an attempt to lure the F-86. But these refused to
fall into the trap and, after a while, the MiG-15, coming from all directions,
started to attack. Benefiting from

their superior agility, the MiG-15 passed within the escorting F-84, attacking the
B-29 in several passades. Two B-29 fell quickly after launching their bombs; a
third one, set ablaze, performed a

vacillating flight towards the coast, where the crew parachuted, with the exception
of the pilot, Captain Thomas L. Shield, who sacrificed his life to keep the damaged
bomber in flight until the
rest of the crew could be safe. Also one of the Thunderjet was lost in this
mission. It was claimed the downing of four MiG-15, three by the machine guns of
the B-29 and one by a Thunderjet. Of the

surviving bombers, all but one suffered damages, having to perform emergency
landings in Korea and Japan, with dead and wounded aboard. That had been the
darkest day of the Bomber Command since the

beginning of the war. Albeit the report about the mission praised the efforts of
the F-84, it was stated that from then onwards the bombers could not be protected
with less than 150 aircraft F-86.

According to General Georgi Lobov, commander of the 303rd Fighter Division, this
date "signified, neither more nor less, than the total collapse of the strategic
bombing effort of the USAF". He was

not far from the truth. In a sole week, the USAF had lost five B-29 bombers,
another eight were severely damaged and 55 crew members were dead or missing.
Thereafter, the B-29 bomber formations

were limited to nocturnal bombings.[p]

[b]Reinforcements of Sabre[/span][p]
Fortunately for the United Nations campaign, the 324th and 303rd Fighter Divisions
returned to the Soviet Union in January and February 1952, leaving their aircraft
to the 97th Fighter Division

(16th and 148th Guards Fighter Regiments) and the 190th Fighter Division (156th and
821st Fighter Regiments). This latter was inexpert, but no time was dedicated to
combat training or transmission

of tactical experience, and a notable descent in effectiveness took place, to the

point that the 64th Army Air Corps lost the initiative that the 324th and 303rd
Fighter Divisions had stablished,

being forced to go on the defensive. In this period operated in Korea two wings
equipped with aircraft Sabre, one of them the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, which
had started to replace their

aircraft F-80 by the F-86 in the former November. The unit was commanded by Colonel
Francis S. Gabreski, an ace of the aircraft P-47 in the Second World War with 28
victories in his record. The 5th

Air Force had now 165 aircraft Sabre in the theater of operations, of which 127
were in Korea, being the rest dedicated to defense missions in Japan. With the
Sabre F-86E, the Americans had the

means to engage the MiG-15B at high altitude in equality; the number of victories
of the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing started to increase constantly. In the spring
1952, the 4th Fighter

Interceptor Wing started as well to change their F-86A by the new model.[p]
[aimg96]high_res/aircraft_united_states/north_american_f-
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[fs]North American F-86E Sabre, piloted by Colonel Francis S. Gabreski, commander
of the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing of the USAF, in South Korea.[/span][p]
[b]Veteran and noob pilots[/span][p]
The continuous presence of these two units in Korea signified that there was always
a powerful core of experienced Sabre pilots, willing to share their knowledge with
the newcomers. The Russians

would have done well by doing the same, instead of rotating their entire divisions
to and from the Soviet Union. Until January 1953 did not start the Russians to
rotate squadrons instead of entire

divisions, but those remained little time in China, being insufficient to give
their pilots an adequate combat experience. The fact was that the Russians, at
least until mid 1952, had believed that

the Communist forces could win the war; now, with the perspective of an armistice
in the horizon, they were decided to give a combat experience to so many pilots as
possible. The new pilots were

enthusiastic and agressive, but their lack of experience would cost them dearly.
The mission of the Sabre from the 5th Air Force was now to seek and shoot down,
instead of defending themselves, and

according to that they modified their tactics. Between the 8th and the 31st May the
pilots of the Sabre sighted 1507 aircraft MiG-15, attacked 537 of them and downed
56, with the loss of only one

F-86. In seven occassions the MiG-15 entered in a sudden spin in combat maneuvers
above 10700 meters and, in most cases, the pilots ejected. In other cases, the
pilots parachuted as soon as a Sabre

fired against their aircraft. The fighter pilots from the 5th Air Force started the
hunt of the MiG-15 in May 1953 with every aircraft they disposed of and the veteran
aces increased their scores.

Captain Joseph McConnell achieved, with 16 victories, the absolute record of combat
with turbojet fighters in Korea, followed by James Jabara with 15 victories and
Captain Manuel J. Fernandez with

14 victories. McConnell had however the disgrace to die in an accident when testing
a new F-86H Sabre the 24th August 1954.[p]
In June 1953, the Sabre and the MiG-15 engaged in a series of acerbated combats
that gave as result the downing of 77 aircraft MiG-15, with another 11 probable and
41 damaged, with no losses of

Sabre. Later in July the Sabre would claim the downing of another 32 aircraft MiG-
15. The 11th day Commander John F. Bolt, a pilot of the Marines that flew a Sabre
from the 51st Fighter Interceptor

Wing, downed his fifth and sixth MiG-15, becoming the only ace in the Marine Corps
during the Korean War. The 15th day James Jabara would achieve his 15th and last
victory. In the evening of the

22nd, three aircraft Sabre from the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, commanded by
Lieutenant Sam P. Young, entered the "MiG Alley" at an altitude of 10700 meters in
an offensive patrol. Young was

somewhat depressed because in 34 combat missions he had not fired his weapons
against the enemy and he was afraid that his chance would never come. But in that
evening his "losing streak" would

end. Ahead and beneath, four MiG-15 crossed his path in straight angle. Young
descended in a dive, aimed his Sabre and shot down one of the enemies with a long
burst. This was the last MiG-15
downed in the Korean War.[p]
[b]Night fighters into action[/span][p]
In the last months of the Korean War entered action a small number of aircraft F-94
Starfire, a two-seat night fighter whose origins can be traced to the P-80 Shooting
Star. Operating in Korea in

the role of escorting bombers, the F-94C effectuated barrier patrols flying in
squadrons with four or six aircraft about 50 kilometers ahead the bomber
formations, while the F3D Skynight would fly

from 600 to 900 meters above the bombers. These tactics soon gave results,
registering two downings the Skynight under the light of the moon, on the nights of
the 28th and 31st January 1953. In the

night of the 30th January, Captain Ben Fithian and Lieutenant Sam R. Lyons
registered the first downing in Korea with the F-94: a piston-engine fighter La-9.
The Skynight and Starfire shot down 15

enemy aircraft in the first half of 1953. It was a relatively small contribution in
terms of number of enemy aircraft downed, but it helped the B-29 to survive during
the last months of the

conflict.[p]
[aimg96]high_res/aircraft_united_states/lockheed_f-
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[fs]Lockheed F-94B Starfire FA-408 (number 51-5408) operated by the 319th Fighter
Interceptor Squadron in Korea.[/span][p]
[aimg96]high_res/aircraft_united_states/lockheed_f-
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[fs]The F-94 Starfire was initially deployed in Korea to fight against piston-
engine night fighters, which were very hard to hunt. The percentage of F-94
aircraft in flight was very low.[/span][p]
[b]Balance of losses[/span][p]
Controversy about the real losses of aircraft in the Korean War could last
indefinitely. At the end of the war, the Americans claimed the downing of 792
aircraft MiG-15 and the loss of 79 aircraft

Sabre, which gave a ratio of ten against one. Later, they revised these numbers,
reducing to 379 the number of MiG-15 downed while increasing to 106 the number of
Sabre lost. Russian reports

admitted the loss of 335 aircraft MiG-15, which ascended to 550 if including
Chinese and North Korean losses. But the Russians and their allies claimed to have
shot down 181 aircraft Sabre from a

total of 271 aircraft lost by United Nations, in which were included 27 Thunderjet
and 30 Shooting Star. It was said that the sum of the Chinese and North Korean
losses totalized 231 aircraft and

126 pilots. Albeit the reality of these numbers could never be demonstrated, it is
a fact that the pilots with more victories in their records in the Korean War were
the Russians and not the

Americans. For example, Commander N. V. Sutagin, who flew with the 303rd and 324th
Fighter Divisions, claimed 22 aircraft. In a second place figured Captain Yevgeni
G. Pepelyayev, with 19
victories. There was a total of 33 pilots from the Soviet Air Force that downed
five or more aircraft of the United Nations. The North Korean pilot with more
victories was Lieutenant Colonel Kim

Ki-oK, with 17 victories, while Tun Wen, from the Republic of China Air Force -
where there were no ranks - achieved 10 victories. There was no doubt that the
Communist fighter pilots that faced

the pilots of the United Nations in north-western Korea were enemies of more worth
than what many western historians wanted to admit.[p]