Re: Soviet Claims

["Mark & Paula O'Neill" <poneill@freenet.tlh.fl.us>]

Dear Ed,

    I am new to the list and want to thank you very much for sending out the
Mir aviatsiia article.  I found many of its earlier issues of the magazine
very useful as I worked on my dissertation ("The Other Side of the Yalu: 
Soviet Pilots in the Korean War", Florida State University, August 1996). 
There is also a History Channel documentary entitled "Stalin's Secret Air
War"  (History's Mysteries series show #20 I believe) that covers this
topic.  One of the Soviet pilots (A. A. German) and another author published
an account of the Korean Air War from the Soviet point of view (Krasnie
d'iavoly na 30-i paralleli--"Red Devils on the 38th Parallel", although
Soviet pilots did not as a rule fly that far south!) that was published in
Kiev in 1998.  V.V. Gagin wrote a shorter, less authoritative work,
"Vozdushnaia voina v koree:  1950-1953g.g."--Air War in Korea:  1950-1953),
in 1997.  "A MiG-15 to Freedom", written by the North Korean pilot who
defected in September 1953,  No Kum-Sok, has some great stuff on the North
Korean side of the Korean air war.  From my research in the Soviet General
Staff archives in 1995, I found the same thing to be true regarding the
first jet-to-jet victory (actually the first three).  Navy Panthers shot
down those Soviet MiG-15s.  The cannons on the F9Fs (with roughly the same
performance as the Shooting Star) could down a MiG-15 with a short burst. 
It took a while for US pilots to figure out that the 50 caliber MG could
only score kills from close range and with hits on the pilot or up the
engine tailpipe.  Reading accounts of Hinton's first MiG in December 1950
illustrates this problem as Hinton had to expend nearly all of his
ammunition to down the Soviet pilot.  Along with being an historical
consultant for the aforementioned History Channel show, I have a few
articles that deal with topic and am working to finish a manuscript based on
my dissertation.  There are also some excellent (and translated) documents
on the Department of Defense's POW/MIA Commissions "Task Force Russia"
website. Lt. Col. Ron Manynard and his colleagues are doing excellent work
tracking down Soviet-era archives related to the Korean air war and Cold War
intelligence overflights.    
----------
>From: Ed Evanhoe <ede@oio.net>
>To: korean-war-l@UKANS.EDU
>Subject: Soviet Claims
>Date: Sat, Feb 26, 2000, 9:21 PM
>

>For those of you could not open the attachment on
>"Soviet Claims" because it was it Word Perfect format,
>it is attached in Word Format.
>
>Ed
>Ed Evanhoe, PO Box 916, Antlers, OK, 74523
>Author: DARKMOON: Eighth Army Special Operations in the Korean War
>Member: American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA)
>Life Member:  Special Forces & Special Operations Associations
>Web Site:  http://www.korean-war.com
>Co-list owner: KOREAN-WAR-L (University of Kansas listproc)