Tag Archives: marunduchi

Cold War, Korea: South African Red Nosed Mustangs stampede!

Photo via United States Air Force, no date indicated.

To the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) the bubble-top North American P-51D was known as the Mustang, in the newly created U.S. Air Force (USAF) it was known as the F-51 Mustang.  For British empire (Commonwealth of Nations) members still using the World War Two combat aircraft, it was known as the Mustang Mark-4.

South African Air Force Mustang Mark-4. Photo via U.S. Air Force, date and location (likely near Suwon-si) not indicated.

Cold War: Approximately 1947 (due to U.S. President Harry Truman’s Truman Doctrine) to 1991 (Operation Desert Storm, collapse of Soviet Union).

Silent U.S. Air Force film, edited by me to show SAAF Mustang Mk-4s joining USAF F-51 Mustangs for a ground attack operation. One of the SAAF Mk-4s crash landed upon returning. Date and location not indicated:

Wrecked SAAF Mustang Mk-4s, probably on an airbase near Suwon-si. Photo via USAF, date not indicated.

The red nosed Mustangs are the SAAF Mark-4s. Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

The South African Air Force (SAAF) Mustang 4s were there at the very beginning of the Korean conflict.

Squadron shacks belonging to USAF 39th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) and the 12th Fighter Bomber Squadron (FBS), then what appears to be a chapel. The shack with the flag is the headquarters of the 2nd Squadron ‘Flying Cheetahs’ of the SAAF. Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Silent U.S. Army film (by somebody with the last name of Fox) showing SAAF Second Squadron (Flying Cheetahs) ‘bombing-up’, and warming up (film info says temps were below zero Fahrenheit) their Mustang Mark-4s, near Suwon, Korea, 17DEC1950:

High octane aviation gasoline. Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Loading the Browning .50 caliber machine guns. Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

The SAAF Mark-4s used two styles of propellers. Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

I suspect the ‘drop tanks’ (external fuel tanks) have been modified to be napalm bombs. Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

Photo via USAF, no date indicated.

More Mustangs:

NACA’S RAMJET F-82 TWIN MUSTANG, 1949 CRASH & BURN? REBORN MORE THAN 60 YEARS LATER!

Crash Landings: