On their own, Nationalist pilots flying U.S.-built F-86 Sabre jets put on a superb show against the Communists' faster, Russian-built MIG-17s last week.
As the Sabre jets were flying cover for reconnaissance planes one morning, three swarms of MIG-17s buzzed in from the north, south and east, tried to box the Nationalists against the mainland. The Sabre jets were outnumbered, 100 to 32. But in a stop-and-go, five-hour battle that extended along a 400-mile arc along the coast (and 50 miles inland), the Sabres danced a jig around the MIGs. When the Nationalist pilots rolled back to Taipei to be saluted with...
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