Gabreski shot down in Korea

[Leendert]

Pilot,

It appears that F-86E "51-2746" (Michigan Center/Lady Frances) of Col. Gabreski got badly damaged in this 2 October 1951 encounter and had to be written off once back at base.

Regards,

Leendert

[JoeB]

Originally Posted by Leendert

Pilot,

It appears that F-86E "51-2746" (Michigan Center/Lady Frances) of Col. Gabreski got badly damaged in this 2 October 1951 encounter and had to be written off once back at base.

I don't agree. 51-2746 was lost to MiG's November 21 1952 and was not damaged on October 2 1951. The a/c's Individual Record Card and "5th Air Force Daily Lost, Damaged and Aborted Aircraft File" agree on that.

No F-86 was lost or damaged Oct 2 1951, per the "File" and relevant daily summaries. One RF-80 of the 67th TRS was lost to MiG's while under escort by 10 F-84's, at 1635 Time Item. F-84 50-1106 of the 136th FBW was lost to an assumed engine bearing failure over South Korea at 1545 Item, per the a/c's preliminary accident report.

Soviet credits that day were: an F-80 and F-86 to 523rd IAP in the morning; two F-80's (types differ in various sources but F-80 in the individual pilots' official scores) to 17th IAP at 1616-1625 Item (probably their takeoff time); and 2 F-86's to the 18th GIAP 1556-1623 Item, one of them credited to Shchukin.

Again keep in mind that the websites which purport to match US and Soviet claims/losses in Korea are simply not reliable, none that I know of anyway.

Joe