Page 64 - Aviation News - September 2017

MUSTANGS

vs YAKS

KOREAN DUELS

What was it like to be fi ghting for your life in air

combat during the Korean War? Warren Thompson
details three USAF Mustang pilots’ accounts.

A red-trimmed F-51 assigned to the 67th FBS
he North American Aviation P-51 looking for enemy troops and loaded with and Shooting Stars [Lockheed P-80s] had
Mustang and the Russian Yakovlev napalm. Frank Harvan via Warren Thompson made it hard for pack animals to survive, but
Yak-9 played key roles in defeating the weather was overcast today and their
T Germany in World War Two. Five Captain Robert D Thresher encountered a chances to survive were good.
years later the types were deadly opponents. pair of Yak-9s on November 1, 1950. He “As I watched the elements attack [all
The Soviets built more than 16,000 and wingman Capt Ross Flake were with the Mustangs in this case] the ox carts, these
Yak-9s, and after the Berlin Airlift of 1948/49 67th Fighter-Bomber Squadron (FBS), part big orange balls of re began zipping across
supplied them to ‘satellite’ countries such as of the United Nations force taking on the my left wing. At rst, I called out ‘ ak’ and
North Korea. They were the primary ghters Communist-led North. broke right, but before I could yell it twice an
thrown against US forces in the early part Thresher recalled this toughest of ominous shape hurtled by me, and I then
of the Korean War, which broke out in June missions started when a friendly forces’ tank knew we were weren’t being red on from
1950. column hit a roadblock: “We anticipated some the ground, because a Yak-9 pilot had me in
American pilots discovered their adversaries resistance but the two Mustangs ahead of us his sights.
had two favourite tactics. One was to sneak had no problem. We went in and I showered “I squinted and looked up into the sun to try
up from behind; the other to become involved the roadblock with some of my 0.50 calibre, and nd him. Glancing over to where the other
in a ‘climb and fall’ manoeuvre which gradually and the tanks were able to get through. Mustangs were ying, I saw them chasing a
gave them the advantage. “We hung in that area for a while until single Yak. I shoved the throttle forward and
Both techniques were experienced by we received a call from the FAC [forward air made an effort to get in on the chase in the
two of the pilots in this article: on each control] about some ox carts loaded with hope of getting a share of the kill.”
occasion their Mustangs were victorious. supplies. Our Panthers [Grumman F9Fs] The Yak series, said Thresher, were

64 Aviation News incorporating Jets September 2017

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