Air War, Korea

[<DasHaas@aol.com>]

Ed!

    Many interesting stories yesterday from USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) & F-86 
fighter pilot/ace "Bones" Marshall of air combat in Korea.  One day they 
broke up a huge bomber/fighter mission headed for Cho-do.  He said the 
bombers were their equivalent of our B-25, some twin-engine, propeller-driven 
thing.  They had about a dozen of these and a huge swarm of Migs; none of 
which actually hit the island.

    I'm really not sure what to make of his descriptions of the number of 
Migs he said they frequently encountered.  He's talking a couple of hundred 
in the air at the same time.  Not everytime of course, but often.  That was 
the primary reason the Migs shredded the B-29 formations, even those escorted 
with F-86s.  They just hit in such huge numbers that no matter how many were 
engaged by the grossly-outnumbered Sabers, their were plenty more to break 
through the defending fighter screen.  Said they were really verbally abused 
by the bomber crews for not protecting them.

    "Bones" also said that their numerical inferiority was usually so bad 
that they might have 6-8 Sabers against 50-60 Migs.  That all they could do 
is dive into the Migs and try to break up the formation before the Migs 
pounced on the bombers or F-84s far below.  Said the WWII big name fighter 
aces came over to Korea, thinking their tactics protecting the B-17s over 
Germany would work in Korea.  But that there were simply too many Migs 
hitting all at once.  Said the true ratio of kills-to-losses, when you factor 
in the B-29s, F-51s, F-84, with the F-86s, was much closer to 1:1 than the 
vaunted 15:1 they were publishing at the time; the latter I presume a very 
limited look at Saber-to-Mig combat.  Sounds typical of the military, pick 
out the one little piece of the poor showing that looks good, and trumpet 
that.
    
    The USAF version of Red Flag (Top Gun) during the war was called the 
"Tiger Program," out of Nellis AFB, Las Vegas.  But they were teaching guys 
how to attack a solo Russian bomber headed for the U.S. with a nuke.  These 
guys were totally unprepared for the confusion, isolation, & fear of diving 
into a shitpot of Migs.  Said it was not unusual to come back to base and 
walk over the Saber with the new-guy wingman in it, after his first mission 
(if he survived), and find the guy crying his heart out.  Totally shocked.  
In contrast, many of the old Air Guard guys would show up in Korea--"big 
handle-bar mustaches, beer bellies"--and got right into the struggle without 
too much problem.

    This sure ain't the air war I read about.

Mike