MiG Alley

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.

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.

• IntroductionChapter One: A Sunday SurpriseChapter Two: A Fighting RetreatChapter Three: A New EnemyChapter Four: The Other SideChapter Five: Messerschmitt Vs. Focke-Wulf Over The YaluChapter Six: Year Of The HonchoChapter Seven: Black ThursdayChapter Eight: The Hydro-Electric CampaignChapter Nine: InvadersChapter Ten: Fighter-BombersChapter Eleven: The Nuclear ThreatChapter Twelve: Final BattlesConclusions