Re: Chinese Air Force

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

Ron:

>Maybe I can add something here for what it's worth.
>I spent a lot of time listening to these guys and
>we used to laugh like crazy at them. I can't see
>them having  any success in those days except by accident.
>Bayonette warfare was "hightech" for them.

It is probably true. But take into account that the PLA of Mao was until 
1949 esentially a guerrilla army (and a very successful one, endeed) and was 
familiar with this kind of warfare which is esentially low-tech warfare. 2-3 
years is very short time to learn the art of the armoured and mechanized 
warfare, and the Chinese did not have the benefit of the WW2 experience.
Addittionally, the PLAAF did not exist until 1948-49, and until 1950 had 
primarily prop-driven La-7/9/11 and Tu-2 (the state-of-the-art prop driven 
Soviet WW2 combat planes) so the MiG-15s were extremely new for them. Of 
course, it does not justify the Chinese tendency to inflate victories and 
reduce losses.
However, it does not mean that the Chinese were not smart and ables to learn 
from their mistakes: I remind you that the Chinese could mantain the US 
intelligence almost unaware of their inttentions in October-November 1950 
until it was too late. Using sofisticated camouflage technics and night 
movements they could movilize 200,000 men inside North Korea without being 
practically detected by US recce planes, what is not peace of cake, and in 
some cases the winter clothes of the Chinese were better than the UN ones, 
who were not prepare for the CCF winter offensive.
Just my 2 cents,
Diego.

_________________________________________________________________
Hable con sus amigos en línea, pruebe MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.es