The Korean War was different from previous conflicts in many regards. It was the first that was fought under the auspices of the United Nations and unlike anything that followed, UN participation was not vetoed by the Soviet Union. It also degraded to trench warfare, very similar to similar to WWI where the front lines were more or less static for years. It was fought on the ground with mostly WWII era weapons. In the air, it saw the first widespread use of turbine powered aircraft by both sides. Unlike the ground war, the air war was quite fluid with the UN side being quite unable to really maintain air superiority until quite late in the war.

To say that this was a war of major powers with the 'other guys' providing a token participation would not be far from wrong. The major inputs in terms of troops and equipment on the UN side was the United States with China and the Soviet Union providing most of the men and equipment for the other side. Not to denigrate the contribution of other nations in this conflict, but most of the fighting was done between the 'big guns' of the time.

Initially, the US was able to wrest control of the air from the very small North Korean air force which had something like 90 IL-10s and 80 Yak-9U aircraft. Within a week, only 10 IL-10s and 1 Yak-9 were left to escape to China as the UN juggernaught pushed the North Korean army north.  The Chinese were hesitant to assist as they were a fairly new country and did not have the air power needed to protect their troops. So they asked the Soviets for help. The Soviets responded by sending two of their best units and these units started to make such headway against US B-29 and B-26 Invader attacks that these planes had to switch to night missions.

Prior to this, the USAF was operating types such as the F-51D, F-82 and F-80C and doing quite well. However, once the Soviets got involved with their MiG-15s, the tables turned. The only way to counter these jets was with the best the USAF had, which at the time was the F-86A, so these were quickly deployed and so began the battle between two very similar aircraft. The MiG was lighter with a heavier armament so was able to climb faster and to a higher altitude than the F-86A. The F-86 had its advantages in construction and was a stable aircraft at high speeds, so it was as much pilot skill that determined the outcome. In fact, when Soviet and US pilots met in combat, the 'kill ratio' was pretty close to 1:1. It was only when the Sabre was up against older versions of the MiG-15 and the less trained Chinese pilots that the ration increased to something a bit over 5:1.

In this book we get a good look at the development of these aircraft on both sides of the conflict. It then then goes into the tech specs, a look at the strategic situation when they entered combat and the training provided to pilots of both sides. The biggest section of the book is on combat as seen from both sides of the war. This is followed up by an analysis of the two types and how they performed. This is accompanies by some fine period photos and well done art work.

To me, the most fascinating part of the book is the Soviet involvement as much as anything else. Over the years we have come to realize that things were not as American propaganda would have us believe in this respect, and Soviet participation was at a much higher level than I grew up believing. It all makes for a great read and is one of the better volumes in this series. One that I can quite easily recommend to you.

June 2013

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