Re: MiG pilots got worse

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

Hi, Cookie, Dan and Ron:
Regarding the actual Communist MiG losses in air combat in June 1953, a 
Cuban friend of mine told me that the were 33; 22 Soviet MiGs and 11 Chinese 
ones. In that same period the Russians claimed 40 Sabres destroyed and the 
Chinese 15 more.
My guess is: at least 10-12 Sabres credited to "flame out/engine 
falure/AAA/battle damage" were actually shot down by Soviet MiG-15 pilots. 
And the Russians are Chinese are reliable in their figures of losses (the 
claims is a different matter) so evidently USAF overclaimed in a high 60% 
rate in June 1953, because only 33 out of 77 claims actually happened. I 
think that the Sabre pilots overclaimed in good faith, but the guncamera 
analysts became much more trigger-happy in credit kills which were not 
properly confirmed. The need for showing to the US public oppinion that the 
Red MiG were not a menace for US planes was too high at that time.
Many would say that in many cases of F-86Fs credited to AAA or flame outs in 
that month, their buddies did not see any MiG in the area. But I guess that 
it had an explanation: the "uppercut" tactic. I read n one of my books that 
the MiG-15bis waited for the fighter-bombers F-86Fs at low altitude using 
their camouflages (you can see drawings of the MiGs at that time, like the 
MiG-15bis "325" used by N.M.Sokurenko, the "16" used by Semen A. Fedorets or 
the "502" used by Nikolai I. Ivanov, and you will nottice its 3-colors paint 
schemes of green, sand and brown) to mix with the terrain, and when the 
Sabres began its bomb runs, the un-noticed MiG-15s climbed suddenly (the 
strong point of the MiG) and blasted the F-86Fs out of the sky without being 
notticed by their victims or their buddies.
Taking all that into account, it is clear to me that the actual US 
kill-to-losses ratio was not the crushing and propagandistic 77:0, but a 
much more reliable 33:12, or in simple words, a meek 3:1 kill ratio.
I hope this figure helps you, Cookie and Dan.
And Ron... evem admitting a 3:1 kill ratio, June 1953 was not a "Marianas 
Turkey-Shoot" as you asserted. So, stop understimating the Russians!!! The 
Nazis did it in 1941, but the destroyed capital was not Moskow in 1942 but 
Berlin in 1945. Remember that.
Diego.

PS: Dan, muy interesantes los datos de los aviones COIN usados por Francia 
en Indochina. Gracias.

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