Air battle over Merklín
| Air battle over Merklín | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Cold War | |||||||
| USAF Republic F-84E and Czechoslovak MiG-15UTI | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Czechoslovakia | United States | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Jaroslav Šrámek | Lt. Warren G. Brown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2 MiG-15 | 2 F-84 Thunderjet | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None |
1 F-84 shot down Pilot survived | ||||||
The Air battle over Merklín was an air-to-air engagement between Czechoslovak and USAFE air units over the Czech village of Merklín, in the Bohemian Forest, on 10 March 1953. During the action Czech pilot Jaroslav Šrámek, flying a MiG-15 (from 5th Fighter Regiment, 2nd Squadron, Plzeň-Líně air base), shot down one of a pair of U.S. Republic F-84 Thunderjets (from 53rd Fighter Bomber Squadron, 36th Fighter-Bomber Wing). The American pilot, lieutenant Warren G.Brown ejected from the aircraft, which crash-landed in West German territory, approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the border, and survived.