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

[Love Shack <Home@DanSources.com>]

 wonder if the Russians employed that level of Trap for the US Pilots in Korea?

No, there is no evidence whatsoever of that. They usually note they didn't know who was who until they were shot down. At least one ace was not announced until after his return, as the USAF was afraid if the Chinese knew he was an ace his treatment would be much worse.

Cookie Sewell
AMPS

To me, this indicates Russian, Chinese and Korean the spying/espionage was limited in Korea.
In WW2 this was a big thing with the Russians do humiliate the Germans and their ally airforces
Rumanian, Italian, Croation and other supporting allies any way they could.  The Finns did not seem to see the better Russian pilots.

The Russians got very sophisticated cornering the good German pilots and
did their homework and wrote a lot about it who was shooting down whom.
Otherwise their historical data s u c k ed. This was also true at Nomohan where they
boasted the victories and deluded the losses. The Japanese did the same indicating
there was not a clear winner in the air war.

The Russians developed special teams focused on getting the German Trainers and Aces.
Hans Rudle Rudel and other famous Aces were not shot down up to 30+ times by accident.
Though admittely not always at all times trying to nail their enemy.

The Germansalso focused on the Americans and Brits. Their G2 was very good. Godfrey plane was shot down 2 or 3 times from my memory.  Though Godfrey was not in those aircraft. Godfrey made reference to this in several books. Same thing from some references from P47 pilots that flew painted up Aces planes and they seem to have been lost in combat as if they were specifically targeted.

This focus may have led the American in Korea to pull out their best from combat operationst to retain the combat experience. Instead of using them up to their demise. Using the combat data for generating technical data on the Mig and other combat detail.

In Bob Hoovers book he indicated he was specifically restricted from going after Migs. His focus was to train F86 Fighter Bombers loaded with bombs how to hit ground targets with bombs. He did this rather well in Korea.  I guess this is where the F86 started replacing all the Mustangs.

Based on what I have read the Russians kept their better pilots engaged fighting the Americans, much like they did in WW2. Again the Gengis Khan technique of vetting out the better warriors in the field of combat. The Chinese and Koreans did not have much choice but the history shows a few survived Ace status, as most of their collegues died trying to learn.

Dan Fahey