Evans' accounts and Shebanov's death

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

Joe:

<<For example on 2/10/52 when the American ace George Davis was shot down, 
the formation believed to have made the kill flashed by sporting thin 
red-white-red stripes around the nose, I understand Davis' loss could be 
matched with either Russian or Chinese claims.>>

Both, Russian and Chinese, dispute Davis' shootdown. The Russians credited 
it to the MiG-15 pilot Mikhail A. Averin (148 GIAP, 97 IAD) and the Chinese 
to Chi-Wei-Chang. I bet for the Russian but I could be wrong.

<<1/6/52 Evans barely escaped black nosed MiG's; 11/2/51 the opponents had 
red tails; exceptions he noted to red noses.>>

On January 6 1952 MiG-15 pilots of 196 IAP and 17 IAP claimed several Sabre 
kills (Sutyagin shot down the F-84 of Grey and the F-86 of Stahl). Usually 
the MiGs of 196 IAP had red noses (Pepelyayev's "325" is the classic sample, 
so I guess it could had been one from 17 IAP, but I don't know who else 
claimed a Sabre kill that day. Cookie, Danz, Do you know something about it?

<<One of his victories is also interesting compared to Russian records. 
10/26/51 he and his wingman Claude Mitson were credited the only victories 
of the day in an isolated low altitude combat. Evans' got guncamera film of 
an ejection (that the group cheered at film review next night) and Mitson 
confirmed Evan's sighting of the parachute; Mitson's target dove steeply 
into a low undercast. The Russian record as I understand (Cull "With the 
Yanks", Polak "Stalins' Falcons") is Shebanov (their first jet ace) 
disappeared into clouds after attack by an F-80, wreckage found by the 
Chinese (with him in it, seemed implied). Given the lack of embellishment 
elsewhere in the book I tend to believe Evan's account of the film making it 
hard to square unless Evans and Mitson engaged Chinese MiGs and Shebanov was 
lost elsewhere to an uncredited claimant, or another Russians was also shot 
down, or other Russian accounts point to Shebanov dying despite bailing 
out.>>

"Red Devils" of Seidov/German asserted that Douglas Evans and Claude Mitson 
shot down Fiodor Shebanov and B. Kordanov on October 26 1951, but I guess 
not neccesarily in such respective order. Evans could shot down Kordanov, 
who bailed out and survived, and Mitson could had been who actually shot 
down and killed Shebanov.
Just my 2 cents.
Diego.

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