Korean Air War - Ground Attack Losses

[Pips]

77 Squadron RAAF served throughout the Korean War, primarily utilised in the ground attack role. First with P-51 Mustangs, and then Gloster Meteors.

By war's end it had amassed a stellar record. The squadron flew 18,872 sorties, including 3,872 in Mustangs and 15,000 in Meteors. It was credited with shooting down five MiG-15's and destroying 3,700 buildings, 1,408 vehicles, ninety-eight railway engines and carriages, and sixteen bridges.

In return, the Squadron suffered heavy losses. The squadron's casualty rate in Korea was twenty-five percent killed or captured. Forty-one pilots died, thirty-five from the RAAF and six on exchange from the Royal Air Force. A further seven pilots became prisoners of war. Aircraft losses totalled almost sixty, including over forty Meteors, mostly to ground fire.

Would be interested to know what equivalent USAF Squadron losses were, for those units also involved primarily in the ground attack role. Assuming a similar progression of aircraft equipment ie first with P-51's and then progressing to either F-80 Shooting Stars or F-84 Thunderjet.

[daveshoup2MD]

77 Squadron RAAF served throughout the Korean War, primarily utilised in the ground attack role. First with P-51 Mustangs, and then Gloster Meteors.

By war's end it had amassed a stellar record. The squadron flew 18,872 sorties, including 3,872 in Mustangs and 15,000 in Meteors. It was credited with shooting down five MiG-15's and destroying 3,700 buildings, 1,408 vehicles, ninety-eight railway engines and carriages, and sixteen bridges.

In return, the Squadron suffered heavy losses. The squadron's casualty rate in Korea was twenty-five percent killed or captured. Forty-one pilots died, thirty-five from the RAAF and six on exchange from the Royal Air Force. A further seven pilots became prisoners of war. Aircraft losses totalled almost sixty, including over forty Meteors, mostly to ground fire.

Would be interested to know what equivalent USAF Squadron losses were, for those units also involved primarily in the ground attack role. Assuming a similar progression of aircraft equipment ie first with P-51's and then progressing to either F-80 Shooting Stars or F-84 Thunderjet.

Don't have a direct comparison, but you may find the link below interesting; CAS was a fraught subject during and after Korea, and there's a lot of good background here on the "discussions" between the US Army, USAF, US Navy, and USMC (and the Allies) about how CAS was provided to the UN forces in Korea.

https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/24/2 ... 24-016.pdf

[Pips]

Thanks for the recommendation dave, I have a copy of that publication.

it does indeed have excellent discussions on CAS, but sadly no hard and fast loss figures.

[reedwh52]

You may find some information on USAF losses in the Korean War/FEAF Sections of the US Air Force Statistical Digest FY 1953 which contains a section on the Korean War (Pages 1 to 115)
https://www.koreanwar2.org/kwp2/usaf/US ... -BATES.pdf

The RAAF activities are on Page 17. 52 RAAF aircraft were lost. Of these, 30 were combat losses, 22 were non-combat.
The losses can be extrapolated to:
5 air to air; (Meteor-5)
21 to ground fire; (Meteor-14; Mustang-7)
4 unknown (Meteor-2; Mustang-2)
22 Non-combat (Meteor-16; Mustang-6)

[Pips]

Thanks reed. I'll check that out.

[daveshoup2MD]

Thanks for the recommendation dave, I have a copy of that publication.

it does indeed have excellent discussions on CAS, but sadly no hard and fast loss figures.

Great minds.

It's an interesting question; of the top of my head, the USAF, USN, USMC, RAF, RAAF, and SAAF all had fighter squadrons in service over Korea; other countries (Canada, for example) provided exchange pilots, but looking at the three US services and three Allied ones - and, just to be complete, the ROKAF - could make for an interesting comparison.

Good luck.

[Mark in Cleveland, Tn.]

Dont forget the bomber losses were bad as well, B-29's had alot of losses

[Mark in Cleveland, Tn.]

https://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Stat ... _Korea.htm I think this link will answer quite alot of question.

Next time you need info, skip the posting and Pm Mark, Mr.Kind of Know it all, bahahaha first

[Pips]