In 1951 in the skies over North Korea
a clash of political ideologies
has turned into a clash of cutting edge weapons.
A battle of MiG-15s vs F-86 Sabres.
In particular, in the skies over the communist held territory
lay the main aerial battleground.
Here the 2 sides battled not only for air superiority,
but also for the chance to pit Communist forces
against the American and UN forces.
This famed battleground would become known by another name.
A name of one of the main weapons in the duels of life and death
that regularly played out here.
This place would become known as MiG Alley!
Pilots from the Soviet Union had secretly been performing
active roles since the middle of 1951.
They had to wear Chinese uniforms while flying
and were banned from speaking Russian on the radio.
Instead they had phonetically spelled out Korean words on their knee boards…
The use of these did not last long though when they found themselves in combat,
the Soviet Union pilots quickly switched to Russian.
The Americans quickly came to realize
that some pilots in the Chinese and Korean Air Forces
were at a much greater skill level.
They started to call these legendary MiG pilots, “Honchos”.
The head Honcho they gave a special name to.
He was “Casey Jones”.
Flying a MiG-15bis this exceptionally talented pilot had a striking plane
with a red nose and fuselage stripes.
‘Ol Casey would sit up high,
often as it seemed to the Americans on his own without a wingman.
He would keep an eye out for a lone Sabre and swoop down on it, guns blazing.
In actual fact the pilot was Sergei Kramarenko,
a veteran pilot from WW2.
On June the 17th, 1951
Kramarenko noticed that 3 Sabres were flying below him.
He said, “Without not even losing a second, I jumped them…
but somehow they spotted me and immediately they split –
the wingmen performed a diving turn to the left,
and the leader – a climbing right turn.
This tactic was a trap,
for whichever one I attacked, I would be forced to turn my tail to the others
and then they would get me under fire.
I had to decide fast. Who shall I attack?
Should I attack the pair which was diving,
or the Sabre which was climbing?
If I jumped the first ones, the latter would dive after me and he would shoot me down.
That’s why I chose the latter.
So, I dived and soon I put myself behind him.
I aimed, and at a distance of about 500m I opened up."
In one of the Sabres Lt Col Hinton had spotted the Sabre of Lt Col Glenn Eagleston,
a WW2 ace,
and he wasn’t alone!
On Eagleston’s tail was the legendary Casey Jones,
and he was pounding the Sabre with cannon fire.
"I could see the MiG fire, and see its shells hitting the Sabre, he said
with flame and sparks marking the strikes on the fuselage."
Smoke started to pour from Eagleston’s Sabre and it looked bad.
Quickly 2 American Sabres managed to get behind ‘Ol Casey
realizing that he had 2 Sabres on his tail,
he suddenly broke off his attack and dove towards the Yalu River,
taking advantage of the MiG's speed
he easily pulled away from the Sabres.
Ground fire from the Korean Dam shook the lagging Sabres off his tail.
Incredibly, escorted by Hinton,
Eagleston managed to get his shot up Sabre down safely.
Although it had to be scratched shortly afterwards.
A few months later Kramarenko was flying on a defensive operation over Anju
when he and other flyers in his regiment were jumped
by 2 groups of F-86 Sabres.
He later said,
“We repulsed the first attack of the Sabres
and maneuvered to an altitude of about 9,000 meters.
At this point, another group of Sabres came up
and attacked the regimental commander's group from above.
Although I was almost without speed,
I had to increase the climbing angle
and open fire at the leader of the Sabres from a distance of 600 meters.
His plane passed through my track
and I saw several shells explode on it.
After my rounds hit, the leading Sabre increased its dive angle
and went down.
But when I turned around, I saw that my group was also being attacked from above –
it was a new group of Sabres.
I gave the command, "U-turn everyone!"
“I felt a sharp impact, and my MiG suddenly started spinning rapidly.
I was pinned against the port side, and the rudders were inoperative.
It felt as if a wing had come off!
I decided to leave the unguided plane,
which was spinning and falling down vertically.
Pressed against my port side,
I reached the ejection handle with great difficulty and pressed it.
My eyes darkened from the sharp impact,
and I did not feel at all how I flew out of the plane.”
In total, in and around MiG Alley,
224 Sabres were lost for 566 MiG-15s
although against Soviet pilots the kill rate is estimated to be 1.4 MiGs lost for every 1 Sabre.
Kramarenko was rescued.
Receiving the Hero of the Soviet Union for his action in Korea
he lived a long life and died in just May 2020.
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