Jet Age

  

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

 

OVER   EASY

 

 

coldValentine

Up The Ante

  

  1949 was a banner year for the Communists.

Stalin exploded an atomic bomb, ending America's

monopoly on nuclear weapons.  Then Chiang's 

pro-American government in China was overthrown

by the Marxist forces of Mao Zedong. 

U.S. global dominance was brought into question.

What next?

  

Truman brought in the new year, 1950, with an order 

to develop a bomb many times more powerful than 

the bomb dropped on Hiroshima to end the Second

World War.  The world's first hydrogen bomb was

detonated four years later on the Bikini Atoll in the

South Pacific.  It had a full 1,000 times the power of

the Hiroshima bomb.  Here was a weapon that truly

could vaporize a large city like Moscow or New York.

Soon the Russians fired off their own H-Bomb, launching

the emerging superpower arms race into an 

all systems go frenzy.

Mao came to Moscow in February, 1950, to secure

Stalin's support for his regime.  Two months later he 

returned to Beijing with the alliance he wanted from

the Soviets.  From here on Chairman Mao would

follow Stalin's lead, in return for the Kremlin's 

assurance of aid and military support for China.

Mao understood he was Junior in this relationship.

 Stalin finally gave Kim the GO! to invade south

and unify Korea under Marxist rule.  In the weeks 

leading up to the invasion date, a steady supply

of military equipment sped across Mao's China

and into neighboring North Korea;  

tanks, artillery, machine guns and planes -

here was everything the North would need to

overwhelm Rhee's forces south of the 38th Parallel.

 Sunday, June 25th.  

An artillery barrage at dawn reined confusion down

upon South Korea's defenders.  A line of fast moving

tanks swept over the disorganized defense once 

the shelling lifted.  Seven fully equipped combat

divisions followed behind the tanks, mopping up

the survivors of this surprise attack.

 

Stalin was certain Uncle Sam wouldn't stick his nose

into this Korean scrape, being it so far from home 

and just next door to Mao.

 South Korea's troops were at a fatal disadvantage

without tanks of their own.  This was because

Washington did not trust Rhee to use them responsibly.

That doesn't explain why Rhee's troops had no effective

anti-tank weapons for their own defense.  The soldiers 

might as well have been throwing rocks.

They were mowed down for their effort.

The defenders of the West were once again routed.

They abandoned their posts and their equipment,

 before joining up with refugees that were already

streaming south.

Stalin miscalculated.

 

This will not stand...

to quote Harry Truman.

Call up the troops and do what it takes to win,

but don't bother Congress with a Declaration

of War.  This is a United Nations police action,

not a war.  We don't have wars, what with

nuclear bombs being so readily available.  

Maybe small wars.

Nothing big.  Nothing that really counts.

*  *  *  *  * 

©  Tom Taylor

 

OVER   EASY

 

 

coldValentine

Korea

    

 

 

  

  

 Japan invaded the Korean peninsula at the turn

of the 20th century, ending Korea's independence.

Forty years of occupation ended with Japan's surrender

to the Allies at the end of World War 2.

The peninsula would now be divided between the globe's

two opposing superpowers, the US and Russia.

They established a capitalist proxy south of the 38th parallel

and a communist one in the north. 

What could possibly go wrong?

 Roosevelt had big plans for China once the war

ended.  They would have a seat on the UN Security 

Council along with the world's other leading big shots -

France, Britain, Russia and the U.S.

They would influence the course of history.

Then the unthinkable occurred.

Mao's peasant army was beating up Chiang's military,

the one fortified with $2 billion in American weaponry.

China may go communist but there would be no 

Security Council invitation sent to Mao.

If Chiang had only a rowboat to paddle,

he would be awarded China's place at the UN

over Mao and his misguided followers.

 Korea's importance to Washington grew as Chiang's

fortunes in China slid towards desperation.

Syngman Rhee was America's choice to lead 

South Korea.  He was Harvard educated,

conservative and a fervid anticommunist.

He had spent the past thirty-five years living

in the U.S. and could not be accused of

collaboration with the Japanese occupiers,

unlike many of his rivals.

Rhee also had ambitions for wealth and power.

He became both corrupt and intolerant of opposition.

Washington refused him tanks because they feared

Rhee would quickly use them to invade the north.

 Kim IL Sung was charismatic, a resistance fighter, 

a dedicated communist and the Kremlin's man

to lead Korea, once he unified it.   

Stalin repeatedly refused Kim the authority to 

attack the South, though.  The time was never right.

Like Rhee, Kim was held on a short leash.

 Chiang's Nationalist government steadily shrank,

until it ruled over only a few isolated cities strung

along the Chinese coast.  The war for control of the

mainland has been decided.  Chiang's forces were

 dispersed and vulnerable.  The Nationalist

government's only hope for survival was a retreat

to the nearby island of Taiwan.

The People's Republic of China was declared from 

some government steps in Beijing by Mao Zedong,

October 1, 1949.  Now began the process of Asia's

rapid change.

In 1950 Stalin finally agreed to back Kim's plan

to invade South Korea and unify the peninsula.

The time was right.  China was now ruled by

a communist government, willing and eager to aid

Kim in his goal of ridding Korea of American influence.

A real game changer though, was Stalin now had

the Bomb.  Both superpowers were now armed

with the atom.  The playing field was level.

Stalin didn't believe America would go to war 

over Kim's attack.  Most Americans had never

heard of South Korea and couldn't care less

about some scrap going on in this distant outpost.

Was Truman really going to pull Dad from his

wife and kids, put him back in uniform and ship

him off to Asia to fight over an unknown land

where the winters were subzero?

Not on your life.

 

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

 OVER   EASY

coldValentine