It's Hot Upstairs

The Red air force was showing more fight than it had for a long time. Swarms of the enemy's fast, agile MIG-158 rose to contest the air with U.S. F-86 Sabres. On some days, "props" (propeller-driven planes) from both sides joined in the dogfights. The sharpshooting Americans wound up the seven days of battle with a bag of twelve Red planes destroyed, 29 damaged. But over the same period, ten U.S. planes were lost--six to enemy ground fire.*

Since they joined the air war last year (TIME, Jan. 1), the Sabre squadrons had, up to last week, not lost a single plane. Although the unidentified MIG pilots were said to be poor shots, everyone knew that the charmed immunity of the Sabres could not last forever. Last week, the Air Force lost three Sabres, of which at least one was shot down in sight of U.S. pilots.

Air Force officers guessed that most of the MIG pilots, whoever they may be, are not Chinese or Koreans. They go to great lengths to prevent identification, rarely venture within ten miles of the front lines, keep radio silence in the air. Captain James Jabara, the world's first jet ace, circled a MIG pilot who had bailed out of his burning craft and tried to get a good look at him as he floated down. But the helmeted and goggled enemy pilot kept his head hunched down and Jabara could not see even a wisp of hair.

* The U.S. Air Force announced last week that 308 of its planes had been lost in the war--a jump of 96 planes in one month (the figures do not include carrier-based Navy and Marine planes). Allied airmen have lately been suffering heavily from enemy flak, some of which is radar-controlled and skillfully handled. Americans strafing at low levels have been hit and sometimes forced down by a variety of missiles, including rifle and burp-gun bullets and grenades. In one low-altitude flight last week, an F80 pilot, returning to base, found the explanation for a jar he had felt on his strafing run: a large stone, thrown at him from the ground, had smashed into the leading edge of his left wing and stuck there.

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