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Re: Korea: The wreck of the first MiG recovered
Daniel:
The name of the regimental commander is Zhao, Da-Hai (赵大海). He joined Nationalist's Air Academy (15th Class) during WW2 and was trained in the US between 1942-1944. He joined CCP secretly in 1947 and went over to CCP's side openly in 1948. He was a captain before defecting. Interestingly, his father was also a local CCP leader in Shandong. Zhao was soon assigned to CCP's North Eastern (Manchurian) Air Academy as an instructor. He was transferred to the fighter unit defending Beijing in mid 1949. With his CCP background and experiences, he was soon promoted to command a regiment when the 4th FAD was formed in late 1950.
July 5th, 1951, 12th Regiment moved to Andong and prepared for combat sorties. They saw the action on July 9th when the 2nd Squadron took off to intercept 6 B-29s in the morning. Somehow 2nd Squadron failed to acquire the targets. Zhao then lead the 3rd Squadron to make another try. During the approach, one MiG of the 2nd Flight of the 3rd Squadron developed a serious frosting problem on canopy and the 2nd Flight dropped off from the formation. The 1st Flight, lead by Zhao, finally caught up with the B-29 formation. Zhao's flight started to attack. He was shot down by the combined fire power of the 6 B-29s because he did not keep enough distance when he tried to circle around for another firing pass.
And, yes, his aircraft was the one salvaged by the UN.
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