Cookie,
F-86E 50-645 wasn't lost this day (lost June 24,
1953 in an accident) but hit with a single, probably 23mm, shell in the right
horizontal stabilizer, requiring replacement of the stabilizer and elevator
assembly. One thing I've found "looking under the hood" of Korwald is for
F86's when it says "damaged" and doesn't specifically say lost, it was
almost always repaired (for B-29's there are a higher % of damaged planes
not returned to service but still most were). Also not all damage
incidents are in K (virtually all outright losses are) and the day of
the month is not always reliable for damage (though this
one
seems correct). Thompson/McLaren "MiG
Alley" apendices are a better source for F-86 fates than Korwald IMO,
though a few mysteries remain in their entries too, and they don't
cover non-loss damage.
However the existence of another damaged a/c
tends to contradict Evan's (usually reliable I've found) statement that only
his pair and Davis met any MiG's at all on Feb 10, since he
doesn't mention damage.
The reason I lean to the Chinese claim is more at
the detail level of each of the 3 accounts, the Russian one (Red Devils
account as related by Zhang) doesn't seem to describe the Davis combat, while
the American and Chinese ones seem to come closer to describing the same
combat, albeit still with signficant discrepancies. For the Russian one to
work one has to assume they came upon Davis and Littlefield (his wingman)
attacking Chinese MiG's and the times and Littlefield's account seem to weigh
against this; he says Davis was downed by MiG's they both saw that were
already in the formation they attacked before they attacked it.
Joe
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 8:17
PM
Subject: Re: Book review: Red Wings
Over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union and the Ai...
Joe,
I have problems with this as well. The basic facts are
these:
Two Chinese MiGs from the 12th Aviation Regiment, 4th Aviation
Division, were shot down with one pilot KIA and one who bailed
out.
Officially the USAF credited Davis with two kills.
The
Soviets claimed two F-86s shot down on that date.
KORWALD lists
F-86E aircraft # 50-645 and #51-2752 (Davis) as shot down on that date.
One can argue the case that it works out better towards the Soviet
claim than the Chinese one, based strictly on the "Who shot John" claims.
((Side question: who was flying 50-645? He was rescued and nobody so
far seems to have a name, but that could help sort things out a
lot.))
Cookie Sewell
AMPS