When the military tensions had ratcheted up in Quemoy in 1958, the 6th Recon Group was again assumed full responsibility for aerial photography along the mainland coast. By mid-Sep the violent barrage on Quemoy had already been under way for four weeks. It was all too likely that exchanging shells was probing attacks - guarantee the Communist's territorial integrity extended to Taiwan. On Sep 24, the entire strength of the 12th RS/6th RG’s RF-84Fs, escorted by the Sabres, launched an intensive campaign for accurate assessments of the enemy's battle ability for an all-out amphibian assault.
From 0900 on that day, 18 Thunderflashes broke up into 6 elements (6 back up) scrambled from Taoyuan AFB. At the northern part of the base, their Sabre escorts from the 5th FG took off simultaneously. Working their way across the Taiwan Straight at 30,000 ft, element by element, the Sabres followed the Thunderflashes onto specific targets scattered from Wenzhou Bay in Zhejian, to Shantou Bay in Guangdong.
As one formation approached Shantou, where the Communist South Sea Fleet stationed, antiaircraft fire began to blossom, and a large group of MiGs appeared overhead at 40,000 ft. When the RF-84Fs turned to the assigned targets, the F-86Fs started engaging the MiG-17s from the PLAAF 2nd Air Division. As a result, the CAF beat back the Reds with a hard-won kill-loss ratio of 10:0 in the 9/24 air combat. If the CAF and PLAAF pilots switched their fighters, the result might have been the same, since the latter sent against a far more experienced and better trained enemy.
My following recon tour represents several stages of the 6th RG, their RF-86F, RF-84F, RF-100A, RF-101A provide some classic looking eye candy by way of recon jets.
No comments:
Post a Comment