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From: brett@tle.enet.dec.com (Bevin Brett)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Early Jet kills
Message-ID: <1991Jun10.023440.12649@amd.com>
Date: 6 Jun 91 12:29:40 GMT
Sender: military@amd.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 43
Approved: military@amd.com


From: brett@tle.enet.dec.com (Bevin Brett)


wb9omc@ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) writes...
>I went home last night and looked at three different references that I
>have on what was the first all jet kill in history.  Here is what I have:
>"MiG Alley - Air to Air Combat Over Korea" by Larry Davis
>"Fighting Jets" of the Time/Life Epic of Flight Series
>"Shooting Star, T-Bird & Starfire - A Famous Lockheed Family" by Rhodes
>Arnold, Lt. Col., USAF, Retired
>Well, it's possible all three references could be wrong - but not likely.

There are several possibilities, but first let us discount the idea
that repetition increases likelyhood of correctness.  If each of these
authors copied either from each other, or from a common original
source, then incorrect information can easily turn up over and over.
Take the "7 colors in a rainbow" idea that Isaac Newton and others
started and was still being repeated in science texts in the 1960,
70's!, or the number of human chromosones, or the large number of books
on UFO's and hauntings.

Possibility One: The MiG was hit, split-S'ed towards the ground, but
pulled out at low altitude and got home, but the US pilot got credited
a kill.  This happened a lot during WW-II, all sides, just look at the
exagerated claims during the Battle of Britain.

Possibility Two:  MiG hit, split-S'ed, crashed - but the North Koreans
didn't get a report on how the plane was lost; so didn't record it as
an air-to-air loss, by just MIA.  The MiG beats F-80C may be documented
by both sides.

Possibility Three: Someone [from either side, official or unofficial]
is fabricating some/all of the story in order to be able to claim the
first air-air victory.  It intrigued me how the claims were within one
day of each other and were one for the F-80C and one for the MiG.

Norman Franks, in "Aircraft versus Aircraft" repeats the F-80C hits MiG
version, but again that doesn't add any weight.

The fog of war is a reality in air-to-air victory scores.

/Bevin