Cold War Jet Combat: Air-to-Air Jet Fighter Operations 1950 - 1972

462 Pages·2016·43.08 MB·English

by  Bowman

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Pen and Sword Aviation
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © Martin Bowman, 2016
ISBN: 9781473837737
PDF ISBN: 9781473874633
EPUB ISBN: 9781473874626
PRC ISBN: 9781473874619
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 First Jet War; Task Force 77: Korea
Chapter 2 The MiG Killers: Sabres in the Korean War
1950-1953
Chapter 3 The Indo-Pak Wars
Chapter 4 QRA
Photo Gallery
Chapter 5 The Six Day War
Chapter 6 A Hostile Peace
Chapter 7 Yom Kippur (Ramadan) War
Chapter 8 Carrier-borne Combat Viêtnam 1964-1973

F-105 Thunderchiefs passing Mount Fuji.
Acknowledgements
My thanks also go to the late Roland H. Baker for images aboard the USS
Philippine Sea during the Korean War; Larry Davis for Sabre images during the
Korean War; the late Group Captain R. J. F. ‘Dickie’ Dickinson ; Mohammed
AFC
Shaukat-ul-Islam; Reg Adams.
Thanks also go to my fellow author, friend and colleague, Graham Simons,
for getting the book to press ready standard and for his detailed work on the
photographs; to Pen & Sword and in particular, Laura Hirst; and Jon Wilkinson,
for his unique jacket design once again.
AD-4B Skyraider of VA-115 taking off from the deck of the USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) crowded with
F9F-2 Panther Jets during the Korean War. Before sailing from San Diego, California on 5 July 150, the
carrier embarked Air Group 11 (CVG-1); two F9F-2B squadrons (VF-111 and VF-112); two F4U-4 fighter-
bomber squadrons and the AD-4 Skyraider squadron. The F9F-2 remained the US Navy’s first-line jet
fighter throughout the first year of the Korean War. Demobilization following the Second World War had
severely reduced the fighting capability of the US forces and no fewer than twenty-eight Navy and Marine
Reserve squadrons were called to active duty from July to September 1950. In all eighteen Reserve
squadrons made twenty-nine deployments on board carriers during the Korean War. (Roland H. Baker).
Chapter One
The First Jet War; Task Force 77: Korea
The hand of the aggressor is stayed by strength - and strength alone.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, a speech at an English Speaking Union Dinner (3
July 1951). When North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June
1950 the USAF was actually at the lowest point in its strength since 1941.
‘Ike’ became the 34th president of the US in 1953.
Six small silver jet fighters bearing red stars on their stubby fuselages and swept-
back wings took off from the safety of their air base at Antung in Manchuria,
climbed rapidly to 30,000 feet and crossed the Yalu River into North Korea. It
was 1 November 1950. Five years earlier, on 2 September - VJ Day1 - the
official surrender ceremony took place aboard the Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
World War Two was finally at an end. The Japanese surrender to the Allies on 2
September 1945 created a vacuum in South East Asia and in China the
Communist and Nationalist forces took up opposing stances. The US tried to
mediate between the two sides and USMC squadrons were used in sporadic
operations in northern China as tensions boiled over; a number of US personnel
were killed. In January 1949 the Nationalist Chinese set up a government in
exile on the island of Formosa (Taiwan) and in May the last of the US units left
China. Tension in the area remained and it was to spread to other parts of South-
East Asia. In 1945 the Soviet Union took the surrender of Japanese forces in
Korea north of the 38th parallel, while the United States handled the enemy
surrender south of the dividing line. Early on Sunday morning, 25 June 1950, in
an attack reminiscent of Sunday 7 December 1941, peace in the land of the
morning calm was shattered.
The formation of F-51 Mustangs and F-80 Shooting Stars flying on the North
Korean side of the river was surprised at the devastating closing speed of the
Communist jets, whose pilots only failed to destroy the American aircraft
through their own inexperience. It was one of a series of setbacks UN forces had
suffered since 25 June 1950 when the North Korean Army, using the false
pretext that the South had invaded the North, crossed the 38th parallel,
completely wrong-footing the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army and its American
advisers. From the outset the North Koreans enjoyed total air superiority,
although on paper the NKAF had no chance against the UN forces but the USAF
aircraft available for war in Korea were ill-suited to operate in a close air support
and interdiction campaign. They needed paved runways 6,000 feet long and
these only existed in Japan, which meant that air operations over Korea were
restricted to no more than a few minutes. Up until that fateful November day US
commanders had no reason to fear the Communist air threat because only piston-
engined aircraft had confronted them but intervention by China and the
appearance of the Soviet-built jets in North Korean airspace dramatically
changed the balance of air power at a stroke.
Fortunately, the North Koreans lacked the capability to strike back at the UN
fleet off its coasts.2 The USN was in a state of transition, with the first jet
fighters joining the more numerous piston-engined aircraft aboard its carriers.
While Navy jets were about 100mph faster than the Corsair fighter-bomber or
Skyraider attack aircraft, the early jets could not haul as great a war load over a
long distance. And they were also slow to respond from the point when the
throttle was advanced, to when the engine ‘spooled up’ sufficiently to accelerate
the aircraft. This delay could prove fatal if a jet had to he waved off a landing at
the last moment. American air superiority during 1950 meant that Korea was an
ideal hunting ground for both the slower Corsair and the Skyraider in which to
operate in the ground attack and interdiction roles. Flying from flat-tops, Navy
and Marine units could operate in the Sea of Japan and be sent off at a point
about seventy miles from the coast of Korea (the shallow sea bed off the east
coast of Korea prevented them from getting any nearer).
But of the fifteen US Navy carriers3 in service around the world on the day of
the invasion, only Valley Forge (CV-45), which had sailed from Subic Bay in
the Philippines with CVG-5 (Air Group Five)4 embarked, was deployed to the
Far East. Valley Forge and the Royal Navy’s light fleet carrier HMS Triumph,
which with other vessels constituted Task Force (TF) 77 arrived on station in the
Yellow Sea off Korea on 3 July. At 0545 hours the first strike by TF 77 went
ahead when sixteen of VF-53 and VF-54’s F4U-4s and twelve AD Skyraiders of
VA-55 took off to hit North Korean lines of communications, railway bridges,
rail yards, airfields and roads near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. Thirty
F9F-3 Panthers of VF-51 ‘Screaming Eagles’ provided top cover for the Corsairs
and Skyraiders and thus became the first jet fighters in the US Navy to go into
action.