Me262 over Korea

[JoeB]

Originally Posted by CJE

Spotting a Me 262F or G or whatever over Korea is just a teenager silly joke.
On which side, incidentally?

I doubt there were any Me 262's actually used over Korea, by the Communist side, there's no doubt on the other side. However, a number of US pilots reported seeing twin engine jets, generally at night, that they sometimes identified as Me262's. In one case the sighting was after dawn, and the B-26 (Invader, formerly A-26) pilot, who had flown medium bombers in late WWII ETO and seen real Me-262's, said it was an Me 262. The source is primary documents.

These indentifications were likely errors, however what the pilots actually saw in these multiple cases hasn't been otherwise explained. Il-28's are a possiblity. One well known Russian authority on Soviet participation has written that an Il-28 unit flew recon missions over Korea at night late in the war, but that the details are still classified in Russian archives. And for example the Lavochkin design competing with the MiG-15 is reported in some sources to have been evaluated over Korea; it wouldn't be mistaken for an Me-262 of course, but what about other prototype evaluations?Much has been revealed about Soviet ops in Korea but we can't assume everthing has. I doubt those sightings were literally Me-262's, but there could be an interesting story behind them nonetheless.

Joe