MiG Alley - Air War in Korea - Cold War DOCUMENTARY

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video on the so-called Mig Alley - the air war during the Korean War.

#ColdWar #MiGAlley #KoreanWar #SovietUnion #Korea #NorthKorea #DPRK

Sources:
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, “MiG Alley: The US Air Force in Korea 1950-53”, Osprey Publishing, 2019
Kenneth P Werrell, “Sabres over MiG Alley: The F-86 and the Battle for Air Superiority”, Naval Institute Press, 2002.

[ismetyalimalatli]

Another fun fact(arguably); Turkey has one (1) air personel loss to combat in the conflict. 2nd Lt. Pilot Muzaffer Erdönmez, serving with USAF in, coincidentally in B-26 Invader, was the only active flying member of TuAF who was shot down with his crew over Korea. So we have 100% loss rate in the air conflict.🤔 Look him up, he is an interesting character. Olympic medalist and all.

[Chilly_Billy]

Regarding the lack of Sabre lethality, it was directly attributable to the ammunition and nature of much of the air combat in Korea. The .50-caliber machine gun used armor piercing incendiary ammunition. Minimal oxygen content at the high altitudes typically fought didn't allow the incendiary compound to do its job. For the most part, Sabres were poking lots of half-inch holes in the MiG's and nothing more. The MiG proved to be a tough opponent to destroy as a result. Little damage was actually inflicted in many cases.

The MiG-15's armament was much more lethal shot-for-shot due to the explosive rather than incendiary compound used in its 23 and 37mm ammunition. The aircraft was, after all, designed to destroy big, heavily armored bombers as quickly as possible. It was designed to hit hard from the outset. So instead of making small holes like the Sabre's guns, the MiG blasted large chunks out of its targets regardless of altitude. The only disadvantages they had compared to the Sabre's guns were low rate of fire against small, maneuvering targets and accuracy. The latter issue was a result of using a gunsight outmoded for jet vs. jet combat, compared to the F-86's radar gunsight.

[andyreznick]

One of your best ever, sir. Writing the script must have been a bear. Thanks for your hard work.

[ebdhudnav]

Correction.
The F 80, or previously know as the P 80 shooting Star, did enter service during world war 2 but their "combat" experience was used to patrol certain areas in the rear and a few recon sorties where they were immune to every Axis fighter in Northern Italy. It was super rare. Same for the Gloster Meteor. It was used for some recon missions and to shoot down V 1s. Very minimal compared to the Germans

[basstubert]

An excellent video. Just a tiny detail, when talking about B-26 bombers in Korea the Douglas B-26 Invader is the correct type. The picture however shows the WW2 era Martin B-26 Marauder. The Marauder was out of service by the time the Invader, known in WW2 as the A-26, was re-designated B-26. Also, you've hid some MiG-9 footage (23:39-23:42) in the MiG-15 footage ;-)

[tylerz]

I wonder if Atlee ever said, "But the Soviets pinky promised!!!"

[giladpellaeon]

I wonder if you guys will ever do a Collab with TimeGhost. Last month they started a real time week by week series on the Korean War and they're World War Two series has been phenomenal and is just finishing up after nearly 6 years.

[mohammedsaysrashid]

It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about Korean wars from sky avaition operations... thanks for sharing

[chellybub]

Lets talk about the bomber mafia and General Curtis Lemay 😉 Love your work David and team xxx

[ebdhudnav]

@11:00

Another fun fact about the UK selling the engines to the Soviets was that Stalin proclaimed, "what fool would sell us their secrets?" And also, the UK gave it to them when several Soviets beat them in a game of pool. Also, when the Soviets toured the factory in the UK, they wore shoes that allowed them to gather the metal shavings so they can reverse engineer the jets fast than before

[drabisan]

Worth a follow-up episode on air2air combat over Vietnam.
Also a poorly maintained secret.
I actually used to know a person, former military pilot in Romania, claiming after 1990 his leg injury took place while flying a Mig in Vietnam.

[drewstar]

David S. Thank you for doing this video. I so lvu to hear about the Korean War. I get chocked up, when I hear about it. 1) I had a really cool Uncle who fought in the Korean War and was part of the advance to the Chinese Border, and part of the great retreat. He an infantryman and would tell his stories, of what other soldiers would also say. a) the barrels of the machine guns would get so hot, they would start to bend. So, they had to constant replace them to cool them off. b) seeing the waves of thousands of Chinese soldiers coming over a hill. I can't imagine the fear that those soldiers must have felt in seeing such a sight. You are greatly missed, Tio Johnny!

I also, am amazed, when I have looked on various Korean War forums, of how many, are looking for loved ones, that, are either MIA or, they just lost contact with, when they were in the war. For example, one solider makes friends with when he gets there. He is separated from his friends, for whatever reason. He never seen those guys again. So, he is looking to reunite with those guys. I hope all of those, can find their loved ones and friends. Like you said, it's a forgotten war. Thank David S and The Cold War for all you do!

[neiloflongbeck]

Your pronounciation of the Nene is one of the funniest I've heard. Don't worry about it. The pronounciation causes arguments all along the river valley. Nene is pronounced as either Nen (upstream from Thrapston) or Neen (downstream from Thrapston), depending on where the speaker comes from. Earlier spellings of the name included Nenn and Nynand in 1885 the OS chose Nene ; if only they'd selected Nenn we wouldn't be have these arguments about the name of a bloody river.

[EffequalsMA]

Korea was a jet-powered version of WW2 air combat. Vietnam was truly the start of the technical revolution in jet combat. on-board radar, missiles, AWAC support, anti radiation attacks, SAMs, etc.

[uniball]

F-86 is such a beautiful jet, one of my favorites

[alo]

Very good overall video to get the gyst of the air war. One innacuracy, they always had drop tanks. The USAF just started using the 200 Gallon tanks alongside the 120 Gal ones in 1952 which increased their patrol time. However, it was rare.

[drewstar]

David S, I knew a patron, who use to go to a bar I worked at, who, was a Korean War Combat pilot for the USAF. He flew the F-80, and F-86. Don Singleton was his name. He went on, to be a commercial airline pilot, for, nearly 40 years. Sadly, he passed away two years ago. He was such a great guy to chat with. He being an Aviator in the USAF in the 1950s, and I being attached to an Aviation unit in the 1990s US Army. He is greatly missed. RIP Don!

[JAGRAFX]

My neighbor was an F-86 pilot in Korea in the early 1950's. Col. Bob Reed was one of the pilots using the new 4-gun 20mm cannon version with an extra two gunports actually painted on the side of the nose in order to mimmik a normal F-86 with the six gunports in an effort to not let NK and the Chinese and the Russians know what we were up to and why. Everybody would blow their external tanks off if they even spotted enemy aircraft. Bob said he and his wingman would cut their engines and glide back to base in bingo fuel conditions and perform an engine restart just a few miles from touchdown in friendly territory. 🛩

[ronjohnson]

Good stuff as usual. Interesting reality check on the claims.

[VikingTeddy]

My favorite period in military aviation history. Ooh yiss!