F-80 Shooting Star Units of the Korean War by Warren Thompson

Author:Warren Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472829061
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

MORE MiGs … AND Po-2s

Although ground fire continued to pose the greatest threat to the F-80s during the spring of 1951 (13 F-80s fell to flak in April alone), the increasing number of MiG-15s appearing over North Korea also kept the Shooting Star pilots on their toes. 9th FBS CO Maj George Loving (who had claimed five aerial victories with the 31st FG during World War 2) had a close encounter with enemy jet fighters while leading four F-80s on an armed reconnaissance patrol near the Yalu River during April;

‘This mission would take us into what could often be a hornet’s nest – an area bristling with AAA in the heart of “MiG Alley”. Aside from our six nose-mounted machine guns, each F-80 was armed with four five-inch rockets. We took off from Taegu and climbed up through overcast skies, eventually breaking out into the clear at 21,000 ft and then cruising northward at 22,000 ft. I planned to start our reconnaissance at Sinuiju, close to the Chinese border (370 miles from Taegu), and then work south in the direction of our base. The cloud cover disappeared near Pyongyang, and visibility was just about unlimited when I began our descent some 60 miles short of the target area.

‘I dropped down to tree-top level, and the other three trailed me at about 3000 ft. In short order I spotted a large group of trucks partially hidden beneath some trees alongside the road. I called them out as I passed overhead, and “Bully Able 3” and his wingman swooped in for a strafing attack. Normally, we made a single pass at targets in heavily defended areas, but this was the largest group of trucks I had seen. I wanted to finish them off, so I turned back with my wingman and we each made a strafing run, raking the line of trucks with hundreds of rounds of 0.50-calibre ammunition. We observed only spasmodic defensive fire, probably from rifles and machines guns. We left behind a dozen burning vehicles, all fully loaded with supplies for the Chinese troops.

‘Further down the road, on the adjacent railway line, I spotted three railcars on a siding. These were tougher targets than trucks, and they would require rockets to destroy them. I instructed “Bully Able 3” to climb up to 8000 ft with his wingman to provide us with top cover. I assumed that the F-86s would be in the area to keep the MiGs occupied, but we needed cover just in case they weren’t. At this point we moved down the road to Anju, which was only 70 miles from the MiG base at Antung. I couldn’t, therefore, assume that MiGs in the air would be tied up with our F-86s.

‘I had just let loose a fusillade of rockets and was dodging the resulting fireball from an exploding freight car when “Bully Able 3” radioed, “Four bogies approaching fast at 10,000 ft from the northeast”. I questioned him as to whether these were F-86s and his response came seconds later – “They are MiG-15s”.

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