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Description
Yakovlev Yak-9D fighter '24' (NATO reporting name "Frank") of the 56th IAP (Fighter Aviation Regiment), 55th Air Division, Korean People's Army Air Force, during the summer of 1950. Flown by an unknown pilot.

The Yakovlev Yak-9 was a Soviet-built fighter plane, which was developed from the succesful Yak-7 and Yak-1 fighter designs, and which became one of the standard types of the Soviet Air Force during the Second World War. First flown in 1942, the Yak-9 differed from its predecessors in having a full metal fuselage and wing structure; however it was still a composite aircraft, with its wings and upper fuselage deck clad with Bakelite composite, its rear fuselage and control surfaces clad with fabric; and its engine bay and cockpit covered with aluminium plating. First debuting in October of 1942, the Yak-9 proved to be a highly manoeuverable fighter, its light weight construction making it a superior fighter below an altitude of 13000 ft. Between 1942 and 1948, some 16769 Yak-9s were built in numerous variants; most aircraft used a basic armament of 1 12.7-mm UBS machine gun, and 1 20-mm ShVAK; however some specialised variants carried a heavier armament, with the ShVAK replaced by either a 23-mm VYa or NS-23 cannon, a 37-mm NS-37 cannon, or even a 45-mm NS-45 cannon. While the Yak-9 was generally used as a pure air superiority fighter, a handful of variants were equiped for the fighter-bomber mission, but rarely used in that role due to deteriorating performance when carrying their full supplement of bombs.

Following the end of the Second World War, the Yak-9 became one of the standard types equiping the air forces of Soviet satellite states. Even though it was soon replaced in the frontline role by early jet types, specifically the MiG-15, Yak-9s soldiered on in secondary roles with some Warsaw Pact air forces until 1960.

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The Korean People's Army Air Force was officially established on August 20th 1947 as part of the armed forces of the then-nacent North Korean state, forming itself around a nucleus of Japanese-trained North Korean pilots. While originally not representing much (having only a handful of derelict former Japanese aircraft at their disposal, including a single Nakajima Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter that they never quite managed to get airworthy), Soviet support allowed the KPAAF to grow into a force counting some 219 aircraft by June of 1950; by that time, the Air Force consisted of some 67 training and liaison, divided between the Polikarpov Po-2 biplane trainer, the more modern Yakovlev Yak-18 monoplane trainer, and a handful of Lisunov Li-2 transport aircraft, but also a handful of Japanese types such as the Tachikawa Ki-54 and Ki-55; some 93 ground attack aircraft, mostly Ilyushin IL-10s but also some older IL-2s; and 79 Yak-9 fighter planes. By comparison, its South Korean counterpart at this time consisted of just 20 aircraft - 10 North American T-6 trainers, and 10 Piper L-4 observation planes.

However, despite this, the North Korean Army Air Force was poorly equiped: in all, it counted just 76 qualified pilots, most of which had originally been trained by the Japanese during the Japanese occupation, and only some with combat experience from World War II. Still, faced with a virtually non-existant opponent, the North Koreans expected to encounter little in terms of aerial resistance when planning the invasion of South Korea, even less so as they did not expect the United States to intervene in what, to them, was a 'domestic issue', especially as the United States had forgotten to include South Korea in its strategic Asian Defence Parameter speech to the UN in January of 1950. North Korean war planning counted with a victory within two months of the initial hostilities; some plans even expected the war to last as little as ten days - if the United States did not intervene.

Unfortunately for the North Korean leadership, this gamble proved to be a major miscalculation, and hours after North Korean troops crossed the border on June 25th 1950, the United States Air Force flew its first armed reconnaissance, followed by the first aerial encounter on June 26th, and the first air combat and kills scored against the KPAAF on June 27th. The ensuing aerial campaign, known as the Air Battle of South Korea, saw the better equiped and better trained USAF, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm gradually destroy the KPAAF both in aerial encounters and ground attacks; by the time of the campaign's conclusion on August 10th 1950, the KPAAF had lost 110 of its 132 aircraft as well as numerous aircrew; a Soviet report of August 21st 1950 estimated the KPAAF's remaining strength as 20 IL-2/IL-10 ground attack aircraft and 1 Yak-9 fighter.

By the beginning of September 1950, a number of Yak-9s were hastily supplied by the Soviet Union, and during the months that followed, the North Korean Air Force occasionally still made appearances, with a handful of Yak-9s (sometimes mis-identified as Yak-3s) being claimed shot down in November of 1950. While additional kills over Yak-9s were claimed during the early months of 1951, the type quickly disappeared from the battlefield once the People's Liberation Army Air Force (or rather, the Soviet Air Forces covertly flying under PLAAF markings) joined the fray in November of 1950, flying the MiG-15 jet fighter.

The last recorded coalition kill over a North Korean Yak-9 took place on June 7th 1952, when Technical Sergeant John W. Andre of US Marine Corps squadron VMF(N)-513 shot down a Yak-9 during a night mission flying a Vought F4U-5NL, earning him his 4th Distinguished Flying Cross and making him a night-fighter flying ace, having previously scored 4 kills over Japanese aircraft during World War II.

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Little information is known about the pilots of the Korean People's Army Air Force during the early months of the Korean War; even some 65 years after the end of the conflict, the names of only a handful of North Korean fighter pilots are known. Therefor it is not possible to attach a name to the pilot of the KPAAF 56th IAP Yak-9D that was simply numbered as '24'; however it is generally accepted that no North Korean pilots achieved ace status on the Yak-9. In all, North Korean Yak-9s scored only 13 (more or less) confirmed kills against UN coalition aircraft:

- Douglas A-26B Invader 44-34277 of the 13th Bomber Squadron, 3rd Bomber Group, USAF; damaged by a Yak-9 and lost over the Japanese Sea on June 29th 1950;
- Douglas C-54D Skymaster 42-72648 of the 22nd Troop Carrier Squadron, 374th Troop Carrier Wing, USAF; destroyed on the ground at Seoul K-14 Air Base on June 30th 1950.
- Douglas C-54G Skymaster 45-518 of the USAF; crashed near Pusan during the same June 30th 1950 air raid, possibly after having been damaged by a Yak-9.
- Lockheed F-80C Shooting Star 49-603, flown by 1st Lieutenant Edwin T. Johnson of the 36th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 8th Fighter-Bomber Group, USAF; shot down by a Yak-9 near Suwon on June 30th 1950 with Johnson rescued;
- North American F-51D Mustang A68-757, flown by Squadron Leader Graham Strout of 77 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force; shot down by a Yak-9 near Pukpyong Station on July 7th 1950, with Strout Killed in Action;
- A US Army Stinson L-5, flown by 1st Lieutenant Bill Dusell and observer 2nd Lieutenant Don Bazzurro; shot down by a Yak-9 near Taejon on July 13th 1950 (crew rescued);
- Douglas A-26B Invader 44-34263 of the 3rd Bomber Group, USAF; damaged beyond repair by a Yak-9 on July 14th 1950.
- Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-69866 of the 28th Bomber Squadron, 19th Bomber Wing, USAF; shot down by 3 Yak-9s near Seoul on July 19th 1950, with 11 crew rescued and 2 crew taken prisoner;
- Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-61638 of the 30th Bomber Squadron, 19th Bomber Wing, USAF; hit by Yak-9s near Seoul on July 19th 1950, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Kadena AB, Okinawa; aircraft declared a write-off.
- Lockheed F-80C Shooting Star 49-698, flown by Captain Howard E. Odell of the 36th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 8th Fighter-Bomber Group, USAF; damaged by a Yak-9 and subsequently crashing near Taejon Airfield on July 19th 1950, with Captain Odell listed as Missing in Action;
- A ROKAF Stinson L-5 Sentinel, shot down near Taegu by a Yak-9 on September 2nd 1950;
- Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-62084 of the 325th Bomber Squadron, 92nd Bomber Group, shot down near Wolbong-ni with 8 crew Killed in Action and 2 taken Prisoner of War on September 9th 1950 (loss attributed to North-Korean anti-aircraft fire by the USAF)
- and North American F-51D Mustang 44-73255, flown by 1st Lieutenant Donald L. Pitchford of the 39th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 35th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, shot down near Waegwan on September 28th 1950, with 1st Lt. Pitchford rescued.

Understandably, North Korean claims for the period are somewhat more numerous, but do not correspond with the official list of losses of the UN coalition forces.

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... posting this here while I still have the chance of calling it 'the Korean War' rather than 'the First Korean War'...

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1/72 ICM 72042
Inventory number 1144 - purchased June 15th 2017
Sixteenth model completed in 2017
580 aircraft still on 'to do' list.

Description
Yakovlev Yak-9D fighter '24' (NATO reporting name "Frank") of the 56th IAP (Fighter Aviation Regiment), 55th Air Division, Korean People's Army Air Force, during the summer of 1950. Flown by an unknown pilot.

The Yakovlev Yak-9 was a Soviet-built fighter plane, which was developed from the succesful Yak-7 and Yak-1 fighter designs, and which became one of the standard types of the Soviet Air Force during the Second World War. First flown in 1942, the Yak-9 differed from its predecessors in having a full metal fuselage and wing structure; however it was still a composite aircraft, with its wings and upper fuselage deck clad with Bakelite composite, its rear fuselage and control surfaces clad with fabric; and its engine bay and cockpit covered with aluminium plating. First debuting in October of 1942, the Yak-9 proved to be a highly manoeuverable fighter, its light weight construction making it a superior fighter below an altitude of 13000 ft. Between 1942 and 1948, some 16769 Yak-9s were built in numerous variants; most aircraft used a basic armament of 1 12.7-mm UBS machine gun, and 1 20-mm ShVAK; however some specialised variants carried a heavier armament, with the ShVAK replaced by either a 23-mm VYa or NS-23 cannon, a 37-mm NS-37 cannon, or even a 45-mm NS-45 cannon. While the Yak-9 was generally used as a pure air superiority fighter, a handful of variants were equiped for the fighter-bomber mission, but rarely used in that role due to deteriorating performance when carrying their full supplement of bombs.

Following the end of the Second World War, the Yak-9 became one of the standard types equiping the air forces of Soviet satellite states. Even though it was soon replaced in the frontline role by early jet types, specifically the MiG-15, Yak-9s soldiered on in secondary roles with some Warsaw Pact air forces until 1960.

----------

The Korean People's Army Air Force was officially established on August 20th 1947 as part of the armed forces of the then-nacent North Korean state, forming itself around a nucleus of Japanese-trained North Korean pilots. While originally not representing much (having only a handful of derelict former Japanese aircraft at their disposal, including a single Nakajima Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter that they never quite managed to get airworthy), Soviet support allowed the KPAAF to grow into a force counting some 219 aircraft by June of 1950; by that time, the Air Force consisted of some 67 training and liaison, divided between the Polikarpov Po-2 biplane trainer, the more modern Yakovlev Yak-18 monoplane trainer, and a handful of Lisunov Li-2 transport aircraft, but also a handful of Japanese types such as the Tachikawa Ki-54 and Ki-55; some 93 ground attack aircraft, mostly Ilyushin IL-10s but also some older IL-2s; and 79 Yak-9 fighter planes. By comparison, its South Korean counterpart at this time consisted of just 20 aircraft - 10 North American T-6 trainers, and 10 Piper L-4 observation planes.

However, despite this, the North Korean Army Air Force was poorly equiped: in all, it counted just 76 qualified pilots, most of which had originally been trained by the Japanese during the Japanese occupation, and only some with combat experience from World War II. Still, faced with a virtually non-existant opponent, the North Koreans expected to encounter little in terms of aerial resistance when planning the invasion of South Korea, even less so as they did not expect the United States to intervene in what, to them, was a 'domestic issue', especially as the United States had forgotten to include South Korea in its strategic Asian Defence Parameter speech to the UN in January of 1950. North Korean war planning counted with a victory within two months of the initial hostilities; some plans even expected the war to last as little as ten days - if the United States did not intervene.

Unfortunately for the North Korean leadership, this gamble proved to be a major miscalculation, and hours after North Korean troops crossed the border on June 25th 1950, the United States Air Force flew its first armed reconnaissance, followed by the first aerial encounter on June 26th, and the first air combat and kills scored against the KPAAF on June 27th. The ensuing aerial campaign, known as the Air Battle of South Korea, saw the better equiped and better trained USAF, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm gradually destroy the KPAAF both in aerial encounters and ground attacks; by the time of the campaign's conclusion on August 10th 1950, the KPAAF had lost 110 of its 132 aircraft as well as numerous aircrew; a Soviet report of August 21st 1950 estimated the KPAAF's remaining strength as 20 IL-2/IL-10 ground attack aircraft and 1 Yak-9 fighter.

By the beginning of September 1950, a number of Yak-9s were hastily supplied by the Soviet Union, and during the months that followed, the North Korean Air Force occasionally still made appearances, with a handful of Yak-9s (sometimes mis-identified as Yak-3s) being claimed shot down in November of 1950. While additional kills over Yak-9s were claimed during the early months of 1951, the type quickly disappeared from the battlefield once the People's Liberation Army Air Force (or rather, the Soviet Air Forces covertly flying under PLAAF markings) joined the fray in November of 1950, flying the MiG-15 jet fighter.

The last recorded coalition kill over a North Korean Yak-9 took place on June 7th 1952, when Technical Sergeant John W. Andre of US Marine Corps squadron VMF(N)-513 shot down a Yak-9 during a night mission flying a Vought F4U-5NL, earning him his 4th Distinguished Flying Cross and making him a night-fighter flying ace, having previously scored 4 kills over Japanese aircraft during World War II.

----------

Little information is known about the pilots of the Korean People's Army Air Force during the early months of the Korean War; even some 65 years after the end of the conflict, the names of only a handful of North Korean fighter pilots are known. Therefor it is not possible to attach a name to the pilot of the KPAAF 56th IAP Yak-9D that was simply numbered as '24'; however it is generally accepted that no North Korean pilots achieved ace status on the Yak-9. In all, North Korean Yak-9s scored only 13 (more or less) confirmed kills against UN coalition aircraft:

- Douglas A-26B Invader 44-34277 of the 13th Bomber Squadron, 3rd Bomber Group, USAF; damaged by a Yak-9 and lost over the Japanese Sea on June 29th 1950;
- Douglas C-54D Skymaster 42-72648 of the 22nd Troop Carrier Squadron, 374th Troop Carrier Wing, USAF; destroyed on the ground at Seoul K-14 Air Base on June 30th 1950.
- Douglas C-54G Skymaster 45-518 of the USAF; crashed near Pusan during the same June 30th 1950 air raid, possibly after having been damaged by a Yak-9.
- Lockheed F-80C Shooting Star 49-603, flown by 1st Lieutenant Edwin T. Johnson of the 36th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 8th Fighter-Bomber Group, USAF; shot down by a Yak-9 near Suwon on June 30th 1950 with Johnson rescued;
- North American F-51D Mustang A68-757, flown by Squadron Leader Graham Strout of 77 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force; shot down by a Yak-9 near Pukpyong Station on July 7th 1950, with Strout Killed in Action;
- A US Army Stinson L-5, flown by 1st Lieutenant Bill Dusell and observer 2nd Lieutenant Don Bazzurro; shot down by a Yak-9 near Taejon on July 13th 1950 (crew rescued);
- Douglas A-26B Invader 44-34263 of the 3rd Bomber Group, USAF; damaged beyond repair by a Yak-9 on July 14th 1950.
- Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-69866 of the 28th Bomber Squadron, 19th Bomber Wing, USAF; shot down by 3 Yak-9s near Seoul on July 19th 1950, with 11 crew rescued and 2 crew taken prisoner;
- Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-61638 of the 30th Bomber Squadron, 19th Bomber Wing, USAF; hit by Yak-9s near Seoul on July 19th 1950, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Kadena AB, Okinawa; aircraft declared a write-off.
- Lockheed F-80C Shooting Star 49-698, flown by Captain Howard E. Odell of the 36th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 8th Fighter-Bomber Group, USAF; damaged by a Yak-9 and subsequently crashing near Taejon Airfield on July 19th 1950, with Captain Odell listed as Missing in Action;
- A ROKAF Stinson L-5 Sentinel, shot down near Taegu by a Yak-9 on September 2nd 1950;
- Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-62084 of the 325th Bomber Squadron, 92nd Bomber Group, shot down near Wolbong-ni with 8 crew Killed in Action and 2 taken Prisoner of War on September 9th 1950 (loss attributed to North-Korean anti-aircraft fire by the USAF)
- and North American F-51D Mustang 44-73255, flown by 1st Lieutenant Donald L. Pitchford of the 39th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 35th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, shot down near Waegwan on September 28th 1950, with 1st Lt. Pitchford rescued.

Understandably, North Korean claims for the period are somewhat more numerous, but do not correspond with the official list of losses of the UN coalition forces.

----------

... posting this here while I still have the chance of calling it 'the Korean War' rather than 'the First Korean War'...

----------

1/72 ICM 72042
Inventory number 1144 - purchased June 15th 2017
Sixteenth model completed in 2017
580 aircraft still on 'to do' list.