Re: Book review: Red Wings Over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union and the Ai...

[<AMPSOne@aol.com>]

After reading the review, I have to agree with Joe. Mr. Goulden should have 
been more careful in his wording. 

As Joe, Joe Bermudez, and a number of other serious students of history can 
attest, there was not a peep out of the Soviets until the USSR began to 
collapse in 1990. The first one out of the gate (right before he died) was Georgiy 
Lobov, who commanded the 64th IAD from 1951-1952. 

After that, a number of other books came out, some objective in their 
reporting (the Naboka book simply lists the after-action reports from the pilots) and 
some decidedly partisan (the Seidov/German one and a couple of others). As 
Zhaoming found out, it's not a simple thing to sort out the "who shot John?" of 
the war. 

Case in point: Soviet aces. Depending upon which source one chooses, one can 
find 51 aces listed in official Soviet era documents. But only 32  can be 
listed based on their claims when matched against the "1059" document they 
provided DPMO (and the same liot which I supplied to Zhaoming). However, only 4 
remain when the unsubstantiated claims are eliminated. The top ranking one is still 
Nikolay Sutyagin, but only 7 claims can be matched to confirmed US losses by 
day/date/type vice the 21 he is "officially" credited with by the Soviets. 

Some people want to believe the US LIED (capital letters intended) and that 
nothing we claimed was correct. Some simply believe the Soviets -- I still have 
a lot of exchanges with former group member Diego Zampini about losses and 
claims. 

Some problems arise as the writers can't find good sources. For example, 
there is a history out now on the ROKAF and lists all of their pilot losses and 
most of their aircraft losses at least by month. They didn't get the F-51s until 
August 1950 and then most of them were flown by USAF instructors led by Major 
Dean Hess (as in "Battle Hymn"). 

Others are pure speculation. Dan, no offense, but you seem to have some of 
the worst or most extreme sources for some of the claims you post here, such as 
the item on the P-47s in Korea. Also the PLAAF and the KPAFAC (its formal name 
as transliterated -- Korean Peoples Armed Forces Air Corps) had basically 
bupkus until the Soviets gave them aircraft; a handful of leftover Japanese 
biplane trainers does not make an air force. The PLAAF has pretty good basic 
histories available, and Zhaoming used them in his book. The KPAFAC has very little, 
most of which is totally unreliable unless you believe the Tooth Fairy is 
really the Easter Bunny in disguise. 

The Truth is Out There -- the "X-Files" had that part right at least. Problem 
is finding it, and I give Zhaoming credit for trying to get his arms around 
it. 

Cookie Sewell
AMPS