MiG Alley
Encyclopedia
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, where the Yalu River
Yalu River
The Yalu River or the Amnok River is a river on the border between North Korea and the People's Republic of China....
empties into the Yellow Sea
Yellow Sea
The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It is located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. Its name comes from the sand particles from Gobi Desert sand storms that turn the surface of the water golden...
. During the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, it was the site of numerous dogfight
Dogfight
A dogfight, or dog fight, is a form of aerial combat between fighter aircraft; in particular, combat of maneuver at short range, where each side is aware of the other's presence. Dogfighting first appeared during World War I, shortly after the invention of the airplane...
s between U.S. fighter jets and those of the Communist forces, particularly the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, which was confirmed after the fall of the Soviet Union. The North American F-86 Sabre
F-86 Sabre
The North American F-86 Sabre was a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as America's first swept wing fighter which could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War...
and the Soviet-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was a jet fighter developed for the USSR by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters, and it achieved fame in the skies over Korea, where early in the war, it outclassed all straight-winged enemy fighters in...
were the aircraft used throughout most of the conflict, with the area's nickname derived from the latter. Because it was the site of the first large-scale jet-vs-jet air battles, MIG Alley is considered the birthplace of jet fighter combat.
MIGs enter the scene
The North Koreans began their war against South Korea on June 25, 1950 with a small, obsolescent air force of propeller-driven Soviet aircraft of World War II vintage flown by under-trained and inexperienced pilots. Once the United States committed its air power to the war, this force was rapidly depleted.For several months, U.S. F-80 Shooting Star and F-84 Thunderjet
F-84 Thunderjet
The Republic F-84 Thunderjet was an American turbojet fighter-bomber aircraft. Originating as a 1944 United States Army Air Forces proposal for a "day fighter", the F-84 flew in 1946...
fighters, along with B-29 Superfortress
B-29 Superfortress
The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...
bombers and Navy and Marine aircraft, roamed the skies over North Korea virtually at will while the North Koreans and their Soviet and Communist Chinese backers argued behind the scenes over the best course of counter-action. By October, the Soviet Union had agreed to provide air regiments equipped with high performance MiG-15 fighters, along with the trained crews to fly them. Simultaneously, the Kremlin agreed to supply the Chinese and North Koreans with their own MiG-15s, as well as training for their pilots.
Secrecy
For many years, the participation of Soviet aircrews in the Korean War was widely suspected by the United Nations forces, but consistently denied by the Soviet Union. With the end of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, however, Soviet pilots who participated in the conflict have begun to reveal their role.
Soviet aircraft were adorned with North Korean or Chinese markings and pilots wore either North Korean uniforms or civilian clothes, to disguise their origins. For radio communication, they were given cards with common Korean words for various flying terms spelled out phonetically in Cyrillic characters. These subterfuges did not long survive the fury of air-to-air combat, however, and pilots were soon routinely communicating in Russian.
Soviet MiG-15 regiments were based on Chinese fields in Manchuria, where, according to existing U.S. rules of engagement, they could not be attacked by U.S. forces. Many Soviet regiments underwent preliminary training at Soviet bases in the neighboring Soviet Maritime Military District. Soviet air defense troops also began to arrive along the Yalu, setting up radar installations, ground control centers, searchlights and large numbers of anti-aircraft guns to deter any attacks on the Chinese airfields.
While U.S. pilots chafed at the restrictions imposed on attacking the MiG's Chinese airfields, it wasn't known until many years later that the MiG pilots themselves operated under tight restrictions. To preserve the fiction that Soviet pilots were not fighting in Korea, they were prohibited from flying over non-Communist-controlled territory or within 30 to 50 miles of the Allied front lines. (One Soviet pilot who was shot down in UN-controlled territory shot himself with his pistol rather than be taken captive. Another pilot who bailed out into the Yellow Sea was strafed to prevent him from being captured.) Nor could they pursue U.S. aircraft over the U.S.-controlled Yellow Sea.
In spite of the restrictions, many U.S. pilots took advantage of a "hot pursuit" exception to flying over China to pursue MiGs across the Yalu River. Later, "hot pursuit" became active MiG hunting over Manchuria, with U.S. pilots maintaining a "code of silence" about the patrols. Flight leaders chose wingmen who would keep quiet, and many rolls of incriminating gun camera footage "mysteriously" disappeared.
The U.S. conducted Operation Moolah
Operation Moolah
Operation Moolah was a United States Air Force effort during the Korean War to obtain through defection a fully capable Soviet MiG-15 jet fighter. The MiG-15 was introduced by Communist forces on November 1, 1950 over the skies of Korea...
to entice Communist pilots, especially Russian pilots, to defect to South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
with a MiG-15. The operation was to serve as a psychological factor to show the superiority of democracy over communism, but also to conduct analysis of the MiG-15's flight performance.
Legacy
.jpg)
Flying ace
A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied, but is usually considered to be five or more...
. The top U.S. ace of the war, Capt. Joseph C. McConnell
Joseph C. McConnell
Joseph Christopher McConnell, Jr. was the top American flying ace during the Korean War. A native of Dover, New Hampshire, Captain McConnell was credited with shooting down 16 MiG-15s while flying North American F-86 Sabres with the U.S. Air Force. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross...
, claimed 16 MiGs, including three on one day. Hollywood immortalized him with The McConnell Story
The McConnell Story
The McConnell Story is a dramatization of the life and career of U.S. Air Force pilot Joseph C. McConnell , who served as a navigator in World War II before becoming the top American ace during the Korean War. He was killed while serving as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave...
, starring Alan Ladd
Alan Ladd
-Early life:Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was the only child of Ina Raleigh Ladd and Alan Ladd, Sr. He was of English ancestry. His father died when he was four, and his mother relocated to Oklahoma City where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter...
and June Allyson
June Allyson
June Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss . From 1959–1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology...
.
The second-highest-scoring U.S. ace, Maj. James Jabara
James Jabara
James "Jabby" Jabara was the first American jet ace in history. Born in Oklahoma, he lived in Kansas where he enlisted as an aviation cadet at Fort Riley after graduating high school. Jabara attended four flying schools in Texas before he received his pilot's wings and was commissioned as a ...
, was the first U.S. jet-vs.-jet ace. Another ace, Frederick C. "Boots" Blesse, claimed nine MiG-15s in his F-86 Sabre
F-86 Sabre
The North American F-86 Sabre was a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as America's first swept wing fighter which could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War...
and later wrote No Guts, No Glory, a manual of air fighter combat that is still studied today.
George Andrew Davis, Jr.
George Andrew Davis, Jr.
George Andrew Davis, Jr. was a highly decorated flying ace of the United States Army in World War II, and later of the United States Air Force during the Korean War. Davis rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in "MiG Alley" during...
became one of the first members of the new U.S. Air Force to receive the Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
after being killed while leading his section of two F-86s against 12 MiG-15s when he was trying to shoot them all down.
According to undocumented source(s), however, the top two fighter aces over MiG Alley were actually MiG-15 Soviet pilots: Nikolay Sutyagin
Nikolay Sutyagin
Captain Nikolay Sutyagin was a Russian fighter pilot in the Second World War and the Korean War.Nikolay Vasil'yevich Sutyagin was born in 1923 near Nizhniy Novgord. His parents were actors, and eventually they moved to the city of Gor'kiy when Nikolay was 11...
(claiming 21 aircraft) and Yevgeny Pepelyaev
Yevgeny Pepelyaev
Colonel Yevgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev is a Soviet fighter pilot of the Korean War, tallying 20 kills, second only to his compatriot Nikolay Sutyagin's 21.- Early years and world war II :...
(claiming 19).
It is widely held that the US Air Force maintained air superiorty throughout the war and held a significant kill ratio over communist air forces operating in and around Korea. The US Air Force still claims a kill ratio of 10 to 1 in their favor. The modern Russian sources indicate a kill ration of 3,4 to 1 in the Soviet favor. Some consider the "kill" totals over MiG Alley controversial. The Soviets claimed 1,106 United Nations planes of all types shot down by the VVS, including about 650 Sabres. (The USAF says it lost less than 200 aircraft in air combat). The F-86 pilots, in turn, claimed 792 MiG-15s shot down, while B-29 gunners claimed a further 16. One claim says this number was reduced to to 379 MiGs. The Chinese PLAAF claimed only 85 kills.
Over thirty Sabre pilots were claimed to have been shot down behind enemy lines and their fate has never been definitively established. Surviving pilots, captured and later repatriated after the armistice, reported being interrogated by Koreans, Russians, and Chinese. For years after the Korean War ended in 1953, rumors persist of pilots held captive by the Soviets.
A number of computer video games based on the combat in MiG Alley have been produced, amongst them:
- MiG Alley Ace, released by MicroProseMicroProseMicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
in 1985. http://www.cyberroach.com/analog/an19/mig_alley.htm http://www.page6.org/archive/issue_18/page_44a.htm - Sabre Ace, Conflict Over Korea: 25 June 1950-27 July 1953 London: Eagle Interactive/Virgin Interactive, 1997. Players can use a U.S. F-86 Sabre against the MiG-15 in the Korean War.
- MiG Alley Empire Interactive/Rowan Software, 1999. A combat flight simulator of Korean War.
- "Sabre vs MiG", one add-on packet for Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2 from Flight 1 Just Flight.
- "Korean Combat Pilot", add-on packet for Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 1 and 2 from Just Flight.
- "Red Star" add-on for Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2, a work produced by Fox Four CFS2 Korean War Project.
- Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 released a DLC entitled 'MiG Alley' the pack adds the F-86 Sabre and the MiG-15 as playable aircraft.
A section of Polish Aviation Museum
Polish Aviation Museum
Polish Aviation Museum is a large museum of old aircraft and aircraft engines in Kraków, Poland. It is located at the site of the no-longer functional Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Airport. This airfield, established by Austria-Hungary in 1912, is one of the oldest in the world...
, where the post-Soviet planes are stored, is called "The MiG Alley" (pl. Aleja MiGów).
See also
- List of Korean War air aces
- MiG Alley (game) - flight simulation computer game based on the air combat in MiG Alley
External links
- "Korean War Aces" website.
- "The B-29 in MiG Alley," by Bud Farrell
- "In Korea, We Whipped the Russian Air Force," by Richard K. Kolb, VFW magazine, August 1999.