Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Nole
1. About the possible victory of the June 4th, 1953. The info about the loss of the 51-2838 come from Korwald:
Here the date is different(Joe Bauguer page):
51-2838 (51st FIG, 25th FIS) MIA Jun 6, 1953
And Acid Org. say:
4-Jun-1953 PLAAF MiG-15 23/37mm F-86E John E. King 25 FIS, USAF.
2. Your note about the commentary of the SA-16 rescued crew , about the loss of 51-2762 of FlLt James A.Ryan,confirme as near sure the victory of Berelidze.
3. The mistery rest for the F-86 shot down by Fedorets the 10th June. As say before, Fedorets land his MiG taking with him at his MiG fuselage a piece of left wing slat of the F-86. If not was Coury's 52-4339, wich F-86 was this one, shot down by Fedorets?
4. Always in theme, June 1953. There also reports and photos of the F-86F-30 52-4425(8th FBW, 35th FBS)as damaged by MiG in this month(I dont know exactly tha date.Other sources speak of AAA).In the photo the plane had a hugue impact of 37mm or 23mm in the tail.
5. About F9F Panthers, I have some informations of a possible second F9F shot down by MiG:
The F9F-3 123030(US Boxer VF-24)In escort mission for a recce F2H-2P over Suiho, crashed and exploded on impact S of Wonsan on Green 3, pilot Lt Jack Griffth KIA, Jul 4, 1952.
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1. June 4 is the correct date, mentioned in both the 5th AF Loss A/c Report for the month and the "Daily Resume" summary of the day, no contact at all with MiG's due to bad weather which also contributed to the loss, per the reports. Again, I know of no Chinese source or account claiming any victories that day. ACIG is not a reliable source when it comes to Korean War claim/loss matching at least, unfortunately.
2. I would like to see the detailed contact reports (I haven't found these yet for 1953, they may not still exist) which would give a better idea if Ryan's flight was actually in contact with MiG's. If so it would be reasonable to give benefit of doubt to a MiG claim (though it's very unlikely it would be possible to credit it to one particular pilot among 4 claims by the Soviets and probably others we don't know by the Chinese and NK's). But OTOH it's possible it occurred without actual contact w/ MiG's and the SA-16 crewman misunderstood or recalled incorrectly, since several other then-secret primary sources (the plane's Record Card, Daily Resume, Monthly Loss Report) flag it 'Not Enemy Action'. I'd stick with 'possible' for now, personally.
3. 51-2729 suffered major damage in air combat June 10 (repaired), however that occurred in a combat at around 1515I. Fedorets and AK Popov each claimed an F-86 in a combat around 1545I, which is a closer match to a combat recorded on US side by other F-86's in 1520-1545 period. One of those F-86's, interestingly, was (slightly, thus tail no. was not recorded) damaged by flying debris from a MiG, but Fedorets' unit didn't record any losses. Debris from a non-Soviet MiG might be the explanation in both cases. These combats occurred according to both sides in far northern NK or even on the Chinese side (according to Soviet accounts) far from where Coury's a/c was downed in southern NK. No other F-86 was lost that day, not much doubt about that.
4. 52-4425 suffered major damage to AA fire May 29, 1953.
5. The claim and loss clearly don't match. The F-84 claimed was said in Soviet records to have crashed at 'Deheguangdong' (ie. Daegweon) around 30km south of the Suiho reservoir along the Yalu and about 60km from Antung, although 'the fate of the pilot was unknown' (as was often recorded, even crashes which ostensibly had occurred in NK held territory). The VF-24 loss OTOH occurred south of Wonsan around 300km from Antung. USN a/c operated on the east coast after November 1950 with few exceptions, and Antung area-based Soviet MiG's never operated on the east coast with only one exception, mission of Nov 27 1951 to the Wonsan area where the MiG's were almost lost to fuel exhaustion, convincing the Soviets the NK east coast was beyond practical MiG-15 range from Antung.
Joe