Evening star., 1951-11-30
10 Red Planes
Shot Down in
Record Victory
U. S. Jet Pilots Strike
Near YoIu; Ground
Action Is Slow
BY the Associoied Press

greatest air victory OF the Korean
war American jet pilots today re-
ported they shot down 10 Com
munist planes. damaged four and
probably destroyed another.
Nine of the destroyed planes
were bombers, the first to venture
en- masse across the Yalu River
into MIG Alley.
The 5th Air Force said no Allied
planes were lost.
Thirty-one American Sabre Jets
pounced on the flight of 80 Red
bombers and their escort of Is
MIG-15 jets. The Sabres streaked
through the numbering bombers.
sWooped up and cut the escorting
flight of Red jets in half, then
raced down onto the bombers.
Had Just Crossed Border.
The Sabres did it all in one
long deadly curve that sent nine
bombers and one MIG tumbling
down toward the mouth of the
Yalu River.
Three other bombers were re-
ported damaged. All were Rus
Isian-type propeller driven planes,
twin-sized TU-2 bombers and
high-engine LA-9 fighter bomb
ers. The Red formation had Just
crossed the Yalu River boundary
from Manchuria, apparently on q
training flight.
The Commute battle was the
fourth air fight of the day and
the biggest of any type-jet or
propeller planes-fought in the
Korean war. The earlier flights
accounted for the probable and
the fourth damaged Red.
The four-day air battle total
mounted to 18 Red jet planes re-
ported destroyed, one probably de-
stroyed and 13 damaged, against
one American plane shot down
and three damaged.
AsSu NOAFOJS DuSys
Long conveys of Red trucks were
spotted last night racing toward
the quiet forward lines with their
lights blazing.
Flare-dropping Allied planes
counted at least 1900 of them,
Far East Air Forces reported. The
figure is nearly double the previ-
GUS high of $3.50, and 5th Air
Force recount indicated it may
be incomplete.
i No one guessed at how many
more Red trucks might have
passed on the roads without being
!; spotted. Two thousand trucks are
spotted on an average heavy night.
| Infantry Action Quiet.
The Reds phenomenal rush to
lbuild up supplies and presumably
troops came as the ground fronts
went through their third day of
twilight war" and Red truce ne
Igotiators again baked at guaran-
lteeing against an increase in their
forces during an armistice.
Both air and naval forces
stepped up attacks as ground &C
tlon remained quiet.
Infantry action maintained the
same quiet tempo that has marked
the front since truce negotiators
agreed Tuesday on a tentative
cease-f1re line. Artillery fire in
creased after Gen. James A. Van
Fleet. U. N. ground commander,
announced yesterday he was clari-
flying a directive which some
troops may have misinterpreted as
cease-flre order.
Artillery Fires Routinely.
An 9th Army communique re-
ported the only ground action up
to noon involved small attacks by
three enemy platoons on the CEN
trail front. In one of these, two
Chinese platoons probed U. N.
positions southwest of Kumsong.
They were turned back after a
two-hour skirmish in early morn
ing darkness. The other was a
probe by a single platoon east of
the Pukan River. It was driven
off by 6 am.
| The communique reported no
significant action" on either the
western or eastern fronts.
Elsewhere along the bitterly
cold 145-mile front quiet was
broken by routine artillery fire
and defensive patrols instructed
to keep out of trouble.
The artillery shooting, on a re-
duced scale, appeared designed
primarily to make the Reds keep
their heads down and stick to
their own side of the line.
Pressure was maintained by the
artillery. but more heavily by
United Nations air and sea power.