Mustangs vs Il-10s, Yaks and MiG-15s

["Diego Zampini" <dzampini@hotmail.com>]

Cookie and Ron:
It is true that the official Korean War credits for aerial kills did not 
mention Il-10s downed by F-51s in June 20 1951 (the day Harrison was 
credited with his Yak kill), but several sources mention such engagement; 
what follows is an excerpt of ´MiG Alley - The Fight for the Air 
Superiority´ written by William Y´Blood:
´The MiG pilots did not spend all their time battling the Sabres. Communist 
forces had been trying for several days to dislodge South Korean troops from 
Sinmi-do, a tiny island about 75 miles southeast of Sinuiju. On June 20, 
they decided to provide their men with Il-10 air support. THE ENEMY PLANES 
WERE MET BY MUSTANGS WHICH DOWNED TWO OF THE ILYUSHINS (WHICH WERE NEVER 
OFFICIALLY CREDITED) and damaged three more. More aircraft from both sides 
rushed to the scene. Mustang pilot 1st Lt. James B. Harrison bagged one of 
six Yak-9s which put in an appearance. Harrison's victory was the last 
official kill for an F-51 pilot during the war. Concerning his kill, 
Harrison stated, "Them Yaks are flown by a bunch of Yuks and there ain't no 
sweat." Another adversary, however, produced a lot of sweat. MiG-15s soon 
arrived on the scene. While most of the jets engaged F-86s at altitude, one 
broke through to shoot the wing off an F-51. Trapped by G-forces, the 
Mustang pilot could not release himself from his plane as it corkscrewed 
into the ground.´
The Mustang pilots who claimed such Il-10 kills were Saltsman (first name 
unknown) and, most likely, John Coleman, who unfortunatelly was also the 
F-51 pilot downed by the MiG. Addittionally, the pilot of the MiG-15 was 
Captain Grigorii Ivanovich Ges (176 GvIAP, 324 IAD), and one curious event 
of this kill was that Ges was forced to fly thru the debris of the Mustang. 
When he came back to Antung, his guncamera images were so bad (something 
usual at that time) that the guncamera analysts refused to credit him with a 
kill. But the ground personnel found pieces of the Browning machineguns of 
the Mustang embedded in the fin of the MiG.
Addittionally, Y´Blood´s book mention that, in the early phases of the war, 
the Mustang pilots who claimed kills in the same engagement never agreed in 
what kind of NK planes they had shot down: when one pilot claimed a Yak the 
remaining ones claimed La-7s or La-9s. So, I guess that the ´Yak´ claimed by 
Harrison was simply a missidentification for a La-9 or La-11.
I hope this info helps you.
Regards,
Diego.

PS: Thank you very much for the info about Manny Fernández

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