F-51 Mustang Units of the Korean War

A detailed combat history of the F-51 Mustang, the only combat aircraft to be used by four different countries – the USA, Australia, South Africa and South Korea – in the Korean War.

By the time the Korean War erupted, the F-51 Mustang was seen as obsolete, but that view quickly changed when the USAF rushed 145 of them to the theatre in late 1950.

They had the endurance to attack targets in Korea from bases in Japan, where the modern F-86 fighters and other jets did not. Rather than the interceptor and escort fighter roles the Mustang had performed during World War 2, in the Korean War they were assigned to ground attack missions – striking at communist troop columns advancing south. This is the chronicle of the Mustang units that fought in the Korean War, detailing the type’s involvement in a series of intense actions, its successes and its considerable losses.

Drawing on meticulous research and gripping first-hand accounts from aircrew, this book explains how the faithful Mustang was able to roll back the years, fight, and prove itself in a new era of aerial warfare.