MiG Alley: The US Air Force in Korea, 1950-53

by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, Col (Ret.) Walter J. Boyne (Foreword by)

Overview

Titled after the wartime nickname for the part of North Korea that was the epicenter of a bitter struggle for air superiority over the Korean Peninsula, MiG Alley offers an in-depth analysis of the US Air Force's war in Korea, packed with interesting and exciting personal stories based on first-person testimony from both American and Soviet sources.

Of the many myths that emerged following the end of the Korean War, the prevailing one in the West was that of the absolute supremacy of US Air Force pilots and aircraft over their Soviet-supplied opponents. The claims of the 10:1 victory-loss ratio achieved by the US Air Force fighter pilots flying the North American F-86 Sabre against their communist adversaries, amongst other such fabrications, went unchallenged until the end of the Cold War, when Soviet records of the conflict were finally opened.

From that point onwards, a very different story began to emerge. Far from decisive American victories over an unsophisticated opponent, the aerial battles of the Korean War were, at least in the early years, evenly matched affairs, fought to an approximate 1:1 victory-loss ratio. Though the Soviet victories declined over the following years, this had more to do with home politics than American tactics.

Regardless of the accuracy of claims and wartime propaganda, one fact stands clear: in the battle for air supremacy over Korea, the US Air Force denied to its opponents the opportunity to intervene over the battlefield. In the face of overwhelming enemy manpower superiority, this allowed the United Nations forces to hold the line in Korea until an armistice that protected South Korea could be put into effect.

In addition to the aerial combat over MiG Alley, this title covers the full range of US Air Force activities over Korea, including the failed strategic bombing campaign and the escalating nuclear threat. Incorporating first-hand accounts from those involved, both US and Soviet, this new history of the US Air Force in Korea reveals the full story of this bitter struggle in the Eastern skies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472836083
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	11/26/2019
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	190,575
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver has been a published writer for the past 40 years, with a lifelong interest in the Korean War, and this work is the product of 25 years of research. He is the author of Aces of the 78th Fighter Group and F4F and F6F Aces of VF-2, as well as Fabled Fifteen: The Pacific War Saga of Carrier Air Group 15 and The Bridgebusters: The True Story of the Catch-22 Bomb Group. He is also a regular contributor to Flight Journal magazine. During his 30 years as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he wrote the cult classic The Terror Within and worked as a supervising producer on a number of TV and cable series. He served in the US Navy in Vietnam and currently lives in Encino, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter One: A Sunday Surprise
Chapter Two: A Fighting Retreat
Chapter Three: A New Enemy
Chapter Four: The Other Side
Chapter Five: Messerschmitt Vs. Focke-Wulf Over The Yalu
Chapter Six: Year Of The Honcho
Chapter Seven: Black Thursday
Chapter Eight: The Hydro-Electric Campaign
Chapter Nine: Invaders
Chapter Ten: Fighter-Bombers
Chapter Eleven: The Nuclear Threat
Chapter Twelve: Final Battles
Conclusions

Editorial Reviews

09/02/2019

In this technical military history, historian Cleaver (The Frozen Chosen) aims to bring readers past the myths to the truth of the Korean War. Following WWII, as sole possessors of the atomic bomb, the U.S. believed traditional warfare was over, so it began severely reducing defense spending. While the Army and Navy dealt with large cuts, a new branch of the armed forces rose to the top: the U.S. Air Force. When North Korean forces invaded South Korea, the U.S., UN, and South Korea fought North Korea and China on the ground; American and Soviet pilots (the latter wearing North Korean uniforms) fought another war in the air in so-called MiG Alley, an area of northwestern North Korea between the Chongchon and Yulu rivers, where U.S. pilots escorted bombers to their targets. Exaggerated stories abounded; the U.S. claimed a kill ratio of 10 to one. Cleaver’s research, which draws on declassified Soviet military records, U.S. Air Force records, and firsthand pilot accounts from both sides, indicates it was closer to three to one. In a work often heavy with technical and aeronautical detail, Cleaver nonetheless effectively conveys the sheer destruction wrought by the U.S. bombing missions on North Korea and its citizens. Still, this account is probably mainly of interest to students of military history. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

More than sixty-five years after the Korean War, Tom Cleaver provides an objective assessment of the classic jet clashes along the Yalu River. For decades both the U.S. Air Force F-86s and the Communist MiG-15s claimed a 10-1 victory-loss ratio, an impossibility well known to aviation historians. But with rare resources, MiG Alley demonstrates that the Sabres and MiGs were much closer to parity than previously recognized, while paying tribute to the often outnumbered U.S. pilots who kept enemy airpower off the backs of allied ground forces in the south.” —Barrett Tillman, author of 'On Wave and Wing'

“Seen as a whole, MiG Alley is a most interesting read, complementing well the author's history of the US Navy's role in Korea, and genuinely offers perspectives that many might not have considered.” —Aeroplane Monthly

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