a-26-invader-5Korea

The Korean Conflict saw the world’s first jet-on-jet dogfights over a country that, prior to June 1950, the United States never anticipated having to defend.  Korea also saw the first widespread use of the helicopter for transport, rescue and medical evacuation; Sikorsky H-5’s and Bell Model 47’s saved the lives of scores of downed pilots and wounded soldiers and airmen who otherwise would not have survived.

Under the terms of a settlement at the end of World War II, Korea was divided along the 38th Parallel, with North Korea under a communist regime friendly to the Soviet Union, and South Korea controlled by a government friendly to the West.  As the Cold War came into existence, American policymakers, preoccupied with containing the Soviet threat in Western Europe, inadvertently excluded the Korean peninsula from their Far Eastern strategy.  When a speech by then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles omitted Korea from a listing of American vital interests in the Far East, the North Korean regime of Kim Il Sung took it as a signal that South Korea would not be defended in the event of attack.  Miscalculation on both sides led to tragedy.

On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops and tanks invaded South Korea with the goal of unifying the country under communist rule.  President Truman reacted swiftly, intervening with U.S. forces in the first overt test of the American policy of containment.  Initially many of the aircraft available to defend against the attack were World War II-era P-51 Mustangs, F4U-4 Corsairs, British Seafires and Sea Furies.  Initially they cleared the skies of North Korea’s Russian-built Yak fighters, but with the North’s introduction of the MiG, Western jets were needed.  Propeller-driven fighters were soon augmented by the first American jets on the scene, Lockheed’s land-based F-80 Shooting Star, and the Navy’s Grumman F9F Panther and McDonnell F2H Banshee.

Most of the sorties were close air support missions, over 600 a day in the final months of 1950, to buy time for beleaguered U.S. ground forces as they retreated to an area in the southwest called the Pusan Perimeter.  It was not until November 1950 and General MacArthur’s risky amphibious operation at Inchon on Korea’s west coast, that American and United Nations ground forces were able to get off the defensive and push the North Koreans back across the 38th Parallel.  Stability remained elusive, however, when MacArthur’s offensive, now seeking to liberate North Korea, pushed too close to the Yalu River, the border separating North Korea from Communist China.  The Korean War took on an entirely different character once the Chinese invaded Korea in force, ensuring a bloody stalemate that lasted another two years, when peace negotiations finally concluded.

During this time the air war consisted mostly of air support for the ground fighting, with strategic bombing playing less of a role than it had in World War II.  The F-80 was a capable fighter-bomber but was outclassed by the new Soviet MiG-15, which was faster, could climb higher, and had heavier firepower.  Into the fray went North American’s F-86 Sabre, to contend with the Russian fighter in the skies near the Chinese border known as “MiG Alley.”  Flown by Chinese and a few Russian pilots, the MiG was a significant threat that Sabre pilots learned to beat with the proper tactics.  Korea was the last major conventional war fought by the United States, one in which jets and helicopters played an unprecedented role.

Aircraft

A-26C Invader

A-26C Invader

MPC’s 1970’s re-box of the Airfix kit bears raised rivet detail and a full cockpit and bomb bay — nose weights definitely needed for this WWII era warbird that was still flying in Vietnam.

Grumman F9F-5 Panther

Grumman F9F-5 Panther

Grumman’s F9F Panther was the first U.S. Navy jet fighter to see combat, and was involved in the earliest jet-on-jet engagements of the Korean War. First flown on November 24, 1947 and entering fleet service in May 1949, Panthers quickly became the primary ground attack aircraft of the Navy and Marine Corps in Korea.

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15

The MiG-15 was a single-seat, single-engine second generation Soviet jet fighter, built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau and first flown on December 30, 1947. Its design was heavily influenced by German aerospace research conducted during World War II, particularly that associated with the Focke Wulf Ta 183 Huckebein. This Russian jet shocked the West when it appeared in the skies of North Korea in late 1950, causing the U.S. to rush the North American F-86 Sabre into the theatre.

Polikarpov Po-2

Polikarpov Po-2

The Po-2 was a Soviet military trainer that saw service as everything from a crop duster to air ambulance to night intruder, and was used as a light bomber during the Korean War over 20 years after its introduction. The KP kit is generally accurate and features simple construction.

P-80 Shooting Star

P-80 Shooting Star

Monogram’s Korean War-era Lockheed P-80 features detailed cockpit and landing gear, and a detachable rear fuselage that reveals an Allison jet engine.

Yakovlev Yak-9DD

Yakovlev Yak-9DD

The Yak-9 was a lightweight version of the Yak-7 with the same armament (initially a 20mm cannon and two 12.7mm machine guns), and arrived at the front in late 1942, seeing its first combat in the skies over Stalingrad. Technologically simple and easy to produce, it would become the most numerous Soviet fighter of World War II, and post-war would go on to equip the air arms of many Soviet satellite countries, taking part in many early air combat engagements of the Korean War.

Yakolev Yak-18

Yakolev Yak-18

Amodel’s Soviet trainer features a basic cockpit, engraved panel lines, and white metal bombs. Designed at the end of WWII, it went on to fame as a night intruder in the Korean War.