Quote:
Originally Posted by Six Nifty .50s
Cause of loss data for combat missions has been revised by the USAF several times. More than 100 of the total Sabre losses have now been attributed to MiGs. .
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The USAF itself has never officially revised F-86 losses due to MiG's AFAIK. The 58 which appeared in early editions of Futrell's "USAF in Korea" was a mistake. 78 was always the number in the Fiscal Year 1953 Statistics Digest. Likewise the number 103 was not a USAF restatement, it's another author's mistake that's now been repeated hundreds of times. The USAF study he referred to "Sabre Measures (Charlie)" listed 'blue fighter' losses monthly for most of the war. Comparing the relevant tables in that paper and the Stats Digest, it's clear 'blue fighter' losses were all USAF fighter types even including F-51's. And "Sabre Measures" was a random code word, that study wasn't particularly about Korea (it was about sortie rates and losses with WWII and Korea as examples), and others in the "Sabre Measures" series are about stuff like ballistic missiles, etc.
Several *unofficial* researchers have reviewed USAF records and come up with different loss totals. I have for example, though unfortunately I can't point you to a published version yet. I've reviewed almost every case, in view of specific Soviet claims, and found that around 85-90 F-86's could reasonably be attributed to MiG's, including those which returned safely but were damaged beyond repair (which is relatively few though). For a published source Ken Werrell in his recent "Sabres over MiG Alley" quotes, in a footnote, perhaps around 100, but AFAIK from correspondance with that highly distinguished and reliable researcher and author, he didn't focus on that issue.
The Korwald database mentioned by Frank above is an excellent starting point but itself omits several a/c which were damaged beyond repair, and has ambiguous entries for others. OTOH most 'MiG damage' entries in Korwald were planes documented to have been repaired, so some casual researchers just adding them in as losses get too high a number. Also, though not directly relevant to total losses, Korwald has a small % of the F-86's damaged by MiG cannon fire, more seem to have been hit and survived to fight again than were downed. I get around 78 F-86 MiG losses strictly counting in Korwald, but 78 was a sloppy total that clearly doesn't exactly correspond to anything you get building bottom up from individual incidents, the totals some months are just wrong.
On MiG losses, "Red Devils on the 38th Parallel" by German and Seidov gives 319 Soviet MiG air combat losses, about 300 of which are mentioned one by one in the text by my count. Other Russian sources give slightly varying numbers. The Chinese official air combat loss total was 224 MiG's, quoted in "Red Wings" (as mentioned above) among other places. The NK defector No Gum-suk said in 1953 that the NK's had lost 100 MiG's to all causes during the war; his estimates of Soviet and Chinese losses corresponded pretty well with what they released decades later. Assuming the NK's lost 50 in combat, the total would be around 600, the great bulk by F-86's which claimed around 800, so pretty good claim accuracy ratio, and would make the 'real' ratio 6+:1.
And, Naboka's "NATO's Hawk in the Sights of Stalin's Falcons" gives day to day ops and losses for the Soviets through summer 1951, when there were few non Soviet MiG's. The UN fighter (not just F-86) claim accuracy ratio in that sub-period is also around 3/4, though the B-29's claims were very overstated (mirroring WWII experience).
On Soviet claims they are pretty specific and apparently complete. In almost all cases I've found that the times and places given correspond to actions recorded by the US with the same basic type of planes the Soviets claimed: sweptwing (ie F-86), B-29, straigtwing jet, prop fighter. There are many mis'id's within the last two categories, but no mistaking of F-86's for any of the other three categories, not that I've found anyway. So Soviet (plus Chinese and NK insofar as known) claims of F-86's can be separately compared against actual F-86 losses only, not to ignore any bigger picture of the air war, just saying there is the data to do that.
Joe