“Fallen Sabre” is issue #5761 of the long-running British war story comic series COMMANDO, published by D.C. Thomson.
Inspired by true events…
During the air war in Korea, Soviet-built MiG-15s duelled with American F-86 Sabres in the skies known as “MiG Alley” — and they would stop at nothing to capture an enemy aircraft intact!
AUTHOR’S NOTES
Once again, Neil Roberts has created another amazing cover for “Fallen Sabre“, with sterling work on the interior art by Paolo Ongaro. In 2023, during a visit to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Ohio, I was able to visit the Korean War Gallery and see a real Sabre and MiG-15 up close, and it’s been great to tell a story featuring these classic jets. You can see more about them at the museum’s website here.
As noted, this storyline is based on a real incident that took place in October 1951 during the Korean War, when an F-86 was shot down by a North Korean MiG and crash-landed inside enemy territory; the NK military and their allies in the Soviet Union were desperate to learn the secrets of the Sabre, which at the time was the only aircraft that could match their frontline MiG-15 – and so a high-stakes recovery operation went into action, with both sides fighting over this lost jet.
For dramatic license, I took a few liberties, but as with several of my other Commando comic stories, “Fallen Sabre” features elements of my favourite bits of Cold War Jet Age military history, and writing it allowed me to indulge my love for ‘fast iron’!
I must give a big thank-you to my good friend Michael Clarke, who brought the story to my attention (one of the characters in the comic is named after him), Ralph Wetterhahn for his article in Air & Space Magazine and Mark Felton, who produced this excellent short video which details the events that inspired my fictionalized version.
GALLERY
