Special: Conflict in Korea

Pilots,

Although World of Warplanes largely focuses on planes of WWII, we also have a couple of machines of the early Cold War-era in the game. Both the U.S. and Soviet air fleet hold aircraft in their tech tree that have participated in the Korean War - a conflict that we haven't highlighted so far in our weekly features. However, with this war being of historic significance and also the site of the first large scale jet-vs-jet battles, we decided to dedicate it some time, by giving it its own special. Check out the bonuses of the event, and learn about its interesting background in our History Flashback below!

Promotion

Triple XP for the first victory with each plane

The most valuable commodity in the air is experience. Get plenty of it this weekend!

30% discount on the following planes:

				Grumman F7F Tigercat
				Ilyushin IL-10
				Lavochkin La-7
				North American P51-D Mustang
				Chance-Vought F4U-4 Corsair
				Yakovlev Yak-9U

This selection of U.S. and Soviet aircraft should get you in the mood for some Cold War dogfighting!

Special Missions

Be a prolific scorer this weekend and you shall be rewarded with extra bonuses from our dedicated special missions!

History Flashback

The end of WWII, and most notably the conclusion of the conflict in the Pacific, left the Korean peninsula divided into two parts along the 38th parallel. While the northern part was controlled by Soviet forces, the southern part went to the U.S. When the country failed to hold unified elections in 1948, the divide between the two parts deepened, leading to the establishment of a Soviet-oriented communist regime in the north and a right-wing western government in the south. Political tensions between the two halves continued until their escalation on 25 June 1950 when North Korea, supplied by the Soviets and supported by China, invaded the south.

21 countries of the newly established United Nations, including the likes of the U.S., the U.K., Turkey, Canada, Australia, France, New Zealand and others, sprang into action to defend South Korea. Their help couldn't have come soon enough, as the North Koreans had surprised the South Korean government and managed to conquer almost the entire peninsula. What ensued was a series of heavy back-and-forth battles during which territories often changed hands in engagements between infantry, tank divisions, naval units and aircraft.

The North-Korean Airforce initially only consisted of left-over Soviet WWII-fighters such as the Yak-9 or La-9. These propeller-driven planes had a tough time competing against the superior P-51D Mustangs, F-80 Shooting Star and F9F Panthers that the UN forces were using. However, everything changed in October 1950 with Stalin's decision to supply North Korea with the newest Soviet invention: the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15. Squads of this legendary jet fighter reigned supreme in the skies over Korea, taking out aircraft after aircraft of their outdated competition. The U.N. forces were forced to largely retire their piston-driven aircraft and replace them with evenly matched F-86 Sabres.

These two historic jet-fighters would go on to clash many times throughout the war, most notably in the northwestern portion of North-Korea which got nicknamed "MiG Alley" by UN pilots. The area gained notoriety for being the first zone in which large-scale jet-vs-jet air battles would take place. Both sides claim to have held air superiority in the region with loss and victory numbers varying heavily depending on the source. There are an estimated 100 pilots between the four involved parties that are said to have become Aces during the conflict which ended on 27 July 1953.

Why don't you swing into a jet fighter to recreate some of these battles in-game, pilots?