[JoeB]

I would add the following known air to air successes of the North Koreans:

-July 13, 1950: US L-5 (Stinson Sentinel liaison a/c) downed; the NK's claimed 3 victories per Seidov's book

-July 14: B-26B 44-34263 13th BS(L) damaged by Yaks (enging ko'd) landed at Taejon, later destroyed there to prevent capture. This encounter is widely written about (in exaggerated form) in NK propaganda, their leading ace Kim Gi Ok is credited.

-July 20: another B-29 was slightly damaged by Yak-9's, not seriously enough for the serial number to be recorded in USAF records.

-Sep 2 1950: an ROKAF L-5 downed according to the ROKAF official history; the only ROKAF air-air loss of the Korean War

-all three F4U air combat losses in Korea (USMC Sep 10 1952, USN Oct 4 and 7 of that year) were due to NK MiG-15's, according to the defector No Gum Suk, and NK presentation at their "Victorious Fatherland War Museum", and no Soviet or Chinese claims are known for these losses.

I would comment on Daniel's list as follows:

Jul 12 1950 B-29 44-69866: Both US and NK sources differ on the number of attacking fighters. Some NK accounts say it was Kim Gi Ok alone, others say he and Lee Don Gyu (another early NK pilot often mentioned in their accounts)

Jul 20 1953 Bettinger, was flying 51-2824, the other serial number is a mistake in the 'KORWALD' database which I assume is the source for it. The Soviets credited their pilots with 6 F-86's that day, and the Chinese probably others. This is an interesting case where we know a specific NK MiG-15 claim, but there is no assurance IMO that Kim scored this victory. One other F-86 was downed by a MiG that day, two known F-86 AA losses were suffered by fighter bomber units which by then operated F-86's, losing them frequently to AA in southern NK as they had their F-80's before that, and one unknown (from US perspective) loss, 51-2756, is documented in Soviet records as downed by their AA troops in northern NK.

It's possible NK MiG's downed other UN a/c, but there are only a small handful of known UN air combat losses in Korea not already accounted for by specific Soviet and/or Chinese claims, and some are probably accounted for by as yet unknown Chinese claims, Soviet claim info being pretty complete already, I believe. Even when and if we get full NK MiG-15 operational records, the claims will probably heavily overlap those of Soviets and Chinese, and while some may be valid victories, it will be hard to tell for sure, as in the Bettinger case.


On NK MiG-15 losses, No Kum Sok estimated 100 to all causes during the war.

Joe