Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

This was a little more complicated, the reason Stalin supported Kim's invasion of the South was that he believed American would not involed into this confilict, Stalin surely did not want the WW III in the 1950's, luckily mainly from Chinese own interest, China committed her ground troops into Korean, Stalin's goal in this region became: 1) contained American in the Korea, this would be accompolished by Chinese, for this reason he would provided weapons to Chinese 2) avoid direct confrontation between American and Soviet, for this reason, Soviet troops, except a few flak regiments, were not allowed into Korean, and the VVS would only cover the crossing of the Yalu river, so that the war materials could be send over to Chinese army, but they were not allowed to come to south to support chinese ground troops or launch offensive against US airforce and US navy. At the same time, Americans, who also did not want a new world war, refrained them not attacking any ground target in China and Russia.
So it was hard to see why Russian would approve any actions such as recruited "interational volunteers" .

Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

Have you read, what I written? That particular pilot was a true volunteer, not a forced one. Behind the iron curtain, there was only one sided propaganda, so such requests were not so rare. And showing some keen foreign volunteers in newsreels would have been a ture propaganda victory in every conflicts, especially, if the UN fights in the other side...

Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

Csaba, it is extremely interesting. Was the man in any way communistic supporter or tied to communists in Hungary (family, friends, etc.)?
I think it was a result of general Soviet policy of the time, which turned 'less international', and more Russian oriented. On the other hand, there were plenty of rumours of non-Soviet airmen flying for reds in various conflicts, but were any substantiated, apart of Cuban presence in Angola?

Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

He was not an obsessed communist, he was just blinded by the one-sided propaganda, but that's a long story. I have an interesting Korea project with many interesting aspects, but the progress is slow, because I have no time for this material (yet).

Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

Well, you must admit, that it sounds weird to say the least. I have wondered if he wanted to escape, but it should be easier for him to do that from Hungary, unless in fear of his family.

Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

Gentlemen,

Their were quite a few Luftwaffe pilot veterans that became US citizens in the late 1940's. What kind of expert trade does they do if they joined the US military during the Korean War? Piloting would have been the best. So maybe they flew all kinds of US military planes from the army,air force,marines,and navy. Spotter planes,B-26 bombers,helecopters,perhaps jet fighters,etc. Veterans of the Luftwaffe were a restless bunch sometimes.

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

There was a Luftwaffe fighter pilot (Thyben , I think) who ended up flying for the Colombian AF

Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

Dear Sir,

It was Gerhard Thyben who was the holder of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and had 157 air-to-air kills to his credit. He may had flown combat sorties with the Columbian Air Force during the period of "La Violencia" from 1948 to 1954. He wasn't the only Luftwaffe pilot veteran that served in the Columbian Air Force.

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

P.S.:This is off the topic. I guess we will never know for sure about Luftwaffe pilot veterans that may have joined the US Air Force to fight in other wars. We can't come up with names of them. Perhaps a new thread about Luftwaffe veterans joining the other air forces of other countries and flew combat missions should be started.

Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

It's being over three years since that topic about the possibility of German pilots fighting in the Korean War. There were other foreign air forces that were allied to our air force in the air war over Korea. Perhaps there were German pilots in other air forces over Korea that were allies to our US Air Force.

Edward L. Hsiao

Re: German pilots in Korea War?
 

Hi guys

Most interesting!

Changing tack slightly, I believe the odd ex-Luftwaffe pilot flew for the Syrians in the late 1940s/early 1950s against the new state of Israel.

Also, a few Soviet pilots flew for the Egyptians during the same period.

What do we know about these?

Cheers
Brian