How an F4U Corsair Pilot Did the Impossible

in World War II the F4U Corsair was one of the most advanced and deadly fighters of the conflict but just a few years later in the struggle for Korea technology had improved by Leaps and Bounds the Soviets now had the edge with their futuristic mig-15 making the famous Corsair all but obsolete in a dogfight but in this video featuring in-depth looks at these aircraft and expert commentary we will look at an incredible story of one American pilot who would go face to face with an entire flight of mig-15s and would actually go on to become the only Corsair pilot in history to shoot down a Soviet Mig fighter foreign you probably know that this is an F4U Corsair and what if I told you that using this video's sponsor you could actually get one of these beautiful warbirds not this one though this one that's right the incredible commentary that you're about to see was made possible by this video's sponsor FMS hobby FMS makes beautiful RC products and especially scale military war birds for this specific video they were kind enough to send me my own 1400 millimeter F4U Corsair to show to you and I've flown a few RC planes in my day but I can tell you that this aircraft is by far the nicest and most detailed that I have ever seen it was beautiful fairly simple to assemble and best of all it was easy enough for a mediocre pilot like myself to fly it even looked more incredible in the air than it did on the ground and I had a blast flying it my Landing wasn't the smoothest but I felt like my pilot could walk away from it so it was good enough for me so if this looks like something you'd enjoy which you absolutely will use the links below at the end of this video to check out fmshobby and support tj3 history by grabbing one of their RC warbirds thanks again to FMS and without further Ado enjoy it is September 10th of 1952 the Korean War rages on and American forces try to take on the Soviets in the battle for this small Asian nation in this conflict one of the most important Battlegrounds is in the air with jet fighters now taken to the sky for both sides the landscape of dogfights has changed forever but that doesn't mean that the piston engine aircraft have been left behind in fact the F4U Corsair might actually be the most important aircraft that the United States used in this war but its primary role would not be one of an air-to-air fighter but of ground support now you have to understand the role of the Corsair in the Korean War wasn't to go out dogfight the role of Corsair Korean war was ground attack the same is the role of the skyraiders the advantages that the Corsair had for its role was that it could hang around longer it could stay on you know it could stay on station so a lot of times the corsairs if a jet was fighting a shot down or one of their other people shot down they were able to hang around to protect them from the from the ground troops until the helicopter could come in and pick them up the migs and all the Jets couldn't stay on station for any period of time because their fuel consumption was so high in the terrain of Korea both sides quickly learned that this was not the traditional open Battlefield that were common in the European theater instead the Earth here was covered in thick forests and mountains across vast areas of the battlefield this led not only to hard fighting for the Infantry but it also meant that low-level ground support would be crucial in eliminating smaller objectives on the ground thus U.S forces would need a versatile fighter likely carrier-based that could come in for close air support the F4U was the obvious choice for the job you had an aircraft that could carry two one thousand pound bombs and eight five inch Rockets and before I think about it a destroyer at the time had eight five inch guns so every Corsair carry two thousand pound bombs and the equivalent of one broadside of a destroyer so was that ability to put that Firepower onto Target which made the Corsair some were useful in Korean war after its success in a similar role in the Pacific Campaign the Corsair would be utilized once again and would exceed expectations whenever troops in the thick forest below needed air support or whenever Frontline targets appeared the Corsair was there to rain fire down upon them but unlike the Pacific in World War II the F4U had to try and fight exclusively in this role avoiding air-to-air engagements this was because for this role it often meant that the corsairs were at the lower altitudes scanning for Targets in the ground and thick Treetops below this left them both at a lower altitude and a lower speed a Sitting Duck if they were engaged by enemy Fighters in addition with the mig-15 entering The Fray the Corsair was hopelessly outclassed in a dogfight even if they were to meet at a level altitude well I think the Mig definitely has a speed Speed and Agility at the same time whereas a Corsair was an excellent aircraft but if you were going to compare them speed to speed turn to turn it's not the same I think that the the mig-15 has got more agility at speed than the Corsair does the the Mig is so fast that if it's if it's coming up on it on the six on a Corsair make a pass could fly by the Corsair would have almost no time to shoot and certainly is not going to be able to keep up with the big but even with this awareness F4U Pilots did still find themselves engaged by Soviet Fighters where they would be forced to do everything they could to try and survive and this is exactly what would happen in this iconic battle at approximately 1600 hours on this day Captain Jesse Fulmer took off to lead one of the divisions of VMA 312 the famous checkerboards in an assignment to attack North Korean troop concentrations near the city of chinampo the group of American corsairs took off from their carriers and formed up then shortly thereafter found themselves over the terrain of North Korea as was normal procedure fulmar and his wingman peeled off once they neared the target area and began to search for enemy troops while they were patrolling and looking for Targets near the coast however they were banking when fulmar would catch a glimpse of two small dots in the sky above them mig-15s it was a heart-wrenching sight the advanced Fighters appeared to already be in an attacking dive and would be opening up in just seconds fulmar immediately radioed to his wingman and steepened his turn banking into the approaching migs they immediately jettisoned all of their ordinance and prepared for a dog fight in that moment he spotted yet another two migs barreling right towards them he continued turning as sharp as his F4U would allow trying to get his nose at the attacking Soviets but because of their high speed falmar was unable to do so by turning into them however he was able to cause the migs to overshoot and their tracers flew above him as they made their pass so if you had a MIG diving down on you once you receive once you understood that you were getting shot at you saw the tracers go back you would break into the tracers and he's going to overshoot because he's going so much faster so the Corsair has the possibility to reverse real quick and get a snapshot you know quick shot on the on the mig-15 after the migs just missed his Corsair it was in that moment that falmar executed a Flawless move instead of continuing his turn to the right and attempting to run from the engagement he pushed his stick and rolled to the left instead turning inside of the Mig you know this gets into the whole thing if you turn but he's only pulling one or two G's you're never going to catch up to him he's just going to go away from you but if he decides to come in really hard to you and you kind of can stay in his six now when he gets slow it's going to take him a little bit to get his speed back and you know there's some airplane during that time if I could get him turned and slow I might have a chance as long as I'm behind him if I'm in front of him I got a problem now with the mig-15s higher speed had the Soviet pilot continued his momentum and simply climbed there is a good chance that fulmar would have never been able to get a shot but instead one of the young Soviets makes a crucial mistake he attempts a climbing turn trying to come back for a second pass on the corsairs with the lower speed the F4U can easily outturn the Mig however and because of this Captain Jesse fulmar is given an opportunity he lines up his sight in front of the Mig making sure to lead him he then pulls the trigger unleashing a five second burst on the attacking Soviet aircraft for just a brief moment his tracers find home lighting up the side of the mig-15 although it is a quick burst it is more than enough the fighter quickly begins to Trail smoke and roll over as Fulmer watched what happened next the pilot could be seen ejecting out of the doomed aircraft but he would actually burn up in his shoot as he fell to the ground the diving mig-15 was shortly thereafter plummet into the waters below this is a mig-15 the same aircraft that Jesse fulmar would have shot down in his famous dog fight and it is more advanced than the Corsair but the Corsair is still a very aggressive and deadly dogfighter in the right hands and we saw that on this day because the Mig pilot chose to act in a way that exposed some of the weaknesses in comparison to the Corsair strength that the mig-15 just because it was more advanced would not always necessarily come out on top it was an incredible Underdog Victory and a miracle but there is no time for celebration as miraculous as it was the sky was still filled with Soviet pilots and now that they had just watched one of their wingmen go down they would surely be out for blood a few moments later folmar and his wingman resumed a defensive flying pattern but they then spotted four more mig-15s to the dogfight with seven bogeys now all around them the engagement was now very lopsided and things were not looking good for the pair of American corsairs once realizing the situation that they were in Jesse fulmar radioed that they should try and head for home as they attempted to do this and returned to Friendly lines however fulmar saw tracers begin to fly around his fighter at that instant he felt a severe jolt and heard an explosion in his aircraft his fighter had taken a direct hit and was quickly losing control recognizing that there was very little chance that he could make it back to the carrier he then decided to bail out he made sure to transmit the search and rescue distress signal and repeated his position over the radio then Captain Jesse fulmar left out of his F4U and pulled his shoe as he fell he looked up and saw one of the mig-15s still firing at his Corsair tearing it apart he would end up floating down to the sea below watching from his parachute as his destroyed F4U would crash into the waters below at which point the mig-15s finally turned for home it was an unbelievable engagement but somehow he had avoided perishing with his fighter despite the incredible odds of this scenario because of his actions Captain Jesse fulmar was able to allow his wingman to return safely back to base and he would be awarded the Silver Star after landing in the water below he would float for approximately eight minutes before he was rescued by an American seaplane this would go on to be the only time in history that an F4U Corsair would take down a mig-15 jet fighter a big thank you to Commemorative Air Force Air Base Arizona and Air Base Georgia that provided in-depth interviews and support for this video check them out at the links below comment what story I should cover next and please consider subscribing

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 1,210,768

Keywords: Corsair, F4U Corsair, Mig-15, Mig-15 War Thunder, Corsair Korean War, Mig 15 vs Corsair, Corsair Shot Down Mig-15, F4U War Thunder, Corsair War Thunder, F4U vs Mig-15, IL-2 Sturmovik, IL2, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, IL-2 Great Battles, IL2 Game, Korean War Dogfight, IL-2 Highlights, IL-2 Flight Sim, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Realistic, Jesse Folmar, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, Mark Felton, Yarnhub, TJ3 Gaming, Dark Skies, wW2 Air Combat

Id: w10K5UqWW-w

Length: 13min 6sec (786 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 14 2022