MiG Alley by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

Author:Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Chapter 10

Year of the Honcho

The 324th Division’s 47 MiGs were reinforced in early May by the 303rd IAD, commanded by General Georgi Lobov. The division’s three regiments, the 18th GvIAP and the 177th and 523rd IAPs, had been assigned to the air defense of Moscow before their reassignment to eastern Siberia in July 1950. In October they had been alerted for duty in China, and moved to the Liaodong peninsula in December, where the 177th was replaced by the 17th IAP. The 303rd scored its first victory on December 26, 1950, when 11-victory Great Patriotic War ace Captain Stepan Bakhaev and Senior Lieutenant Kotov intercepted and shot down an RB-29 off the Chinese coast.

The 303rd arrived at Antung on May 3, 1951. Even though the weather began to improve during May, the Soviet pilots recorded the month as their lightest in terms of operations. The 303rd moved to the newly completed airfield at Tatung-kao on May 28.

June 1951 saw the air battles in MiG Alley increase. The pilots of the 4th Fighter Group reported themselves outnumbered on almost all occasions. In truth, the group was actually opposed by about twice as many MiGs as there were Sabres, but MiG formations could be appreciably larger due to their nearness to the battlefield, which allowed reinforcement as engagements happened, while the Sabres maintained their four-flight, 16-plane patrols. Both aircraft were “maintenance intensive,” and both Soviets and Americans were at the end of long supply chains, which could see aircraft grounded for several weeks waiting for the arrival of spare parts. Throughout 1951, even after all three squadrons began to operate from Kimpo in the fall of 1951, the 4th never had more than 50 Sabres available for operations at any given time. Soviet figures were similar.

The 303rd opened its fight with the Sabres on June 1 when aircraft of the 18th GvIAP led by squadron leader Captain P. N. Antonov joined MiGs of the 196th IAP to intercept B-29s south of MiG Alley. Antonov’s element leader, Senior Lieutenant Evgeny Stelmakh, attacked a formation of four B-29s and shot down one to open the 303rd’s Korean score. He was set upon by the Sabre escort and was soon forced to eject. When Stelmakh landed, Chinese troops took him for an American, while he took them for anti-Communist guerillas. In the gunfight that broke out, Stelmakh hit three of the soldiers before shooting himself to avoid capture.

As Stelmakh was shooting it out below, his squadron mates intercepted a flight of F-51s from the 18th Group that were searching for survivors of the bomber he had shot down. Senior Lieutenant Lev Shchukin shot down one F-51 while the others evaded the MiGs. The B-29 gunners claimed two MiGs as did the Sabre escort, but Stelmakh was the only loss.

By mid-June, the 4th Fighter Group was opposed by five MiG regiments of the two air divisions based around Antung, and fights happened nearly every time the Americans entered MiG Alley. On June 17, Captain Sergei Karamenko,

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