This was all new material. The engineers were inventing
solutions as they went along. Jets. Dogfighting with a MiG
at five hundred miles an hour. The thrill of a fighter pilot
having the right stuff. Think quick. Stay cool.
The F-84 provided fighter protection for B-29s
in the earliest days of the Korean War. Then
Russia's new MiG 15 crossed the Yalu River
for the first time, shredding the formation of
American bombers as well as their fighter escort.
It was clear the F-84 was outclassed by the MiG.
The U.S. countered by deploying to Korea their
own best-in-class jet, the F-86 Sabre. Meanwhile,
the F-84 was given a ground support role, attacking
enemy forces moving about the battlefield.
In World War 2 the navy aviator revved his piston engine
before racing into the wind in order to lift off the
carrier deck. No longer. Jets were a heavier bird than
their propeller propelled predecessor. Early jet engines
lacked the thrust to get them quickly airborne.
While the prop plane could lift off within 600 feet,
a comparable jet fighter would need more than a mile
of runway. The problem handed naval engineers
was to be able to launch a sluggish jet with no more
than 200 feet available.
The Essex class carriers off Korea were not designed
to meet the needs of jets. The constraints of operating
jets within a four acre airfield, that was the carrier deck,
required design tradeoffs that compromised carrier
aircraft performance. Consequently, the fighter jets
of early naval aviation were not competitive with their
air force counterparts.
The Air Force wasted no time in putting their best
into play along the Yalu River. In performance
characteristics the F-86 and the MiG 15 appeared
to be an even match. That made pilot performance
the deciding factor in outcome. You either flew by
the smoking wreckage of your opponent or found
yourself consumed in flames while barreling to earth.
Russian flyers were assumed to pilot many of the
MiGs that tangled with the Sabres over the Yalu.
The MiGs fought with the benefit of experience
at the controls. Pyongyang would have you believe
American aces from WW2 were matched up against
novice Koreans fresh out of training.
The Russians shuttled their pilots through short,
secretive tours in Korea. Uncle Sam was not
to know of Moscow's clandestine involvement
with the war. Soviet pilots who fought in Korea
had classified identities - making their past invisible,
even to one another. Because of this, experienced
Russian flyers could not pass along the lessons
they learned in combat to the pilots newly arrived.
American pilots benefitted from being trained by
flyers with Korean dogfighting experience.
Knowing your enemy better than he knows you
can make the difference in an otherwise even
contest.
The bridges crossing the Yalu were critical
to the plans of both China and U.N. forces.
Mao needed these bridges to supply his troops
fighting the Yanks in Korea. General MacArthur
wanted to strangle the Chinese army by
destroying the Yalu bridges.
B-29s were assigned the mission to obliterate these
busy river crossings with a soft "bombs away."
Starved of food and ammo the Chinese fell back
across the Yalu and retreated into the sanctuary
that was Manchuria. MacArthur was awarded a
sixth star and was elected President of America.
None of this ever happened because Mao and his
MiGs had a say in the matter. The MiG 15 shot
everything out of the sky except for the F-86.
They dueled over China's border in an area known
as MiG Alley. Here was the one-on-one drama
of two gunslingers facing off at high noon,
dressed in an attire suitable for the Cold War.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
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