<P> After the war, and to the present day, the USAF reports an F - 86 Sabre kill ratio in excess of 10: 1, with 792 MiG - 15s and 108 other aircraft shot down by Sabres, and 78 Sabres lost to enemy fire . The Soviet Air Force reported some 1,100 air - to - air victories and 335 MiG combat losses, while China's People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) reported 231 combat losses, mostly MiG - 15s, and 168 other aircraft lost . The KPAF reported no data, but the UN Command estimates some 200 KPAF aircraft lost in the war's first stage, and 70 additional aircraft after the Chinese intervention . The USAF disputes Soviet and Chinese claims of 650 and 211 downed F - 86s, respectively . However, one source claims that the U.S. Air Force has more recently cited 224 losses (c. 100 to air combat) out of 674 F - 86s deployed to Korea . </P> <P> The Korean War marked a major milestone not only for fixed - wing aircraft, but also for rotorcraft, featuring the first large - scale deployment of helicopters for medical evacuation (medevac). In 1944--1945, during the Second World War, the YR - 4 helicopter saw limited ambulance duty, but in Korea, where rough terrain trumped the jeep as a speedy medevac vehicle, helicopters like the Sikorsky H - 19 helped reduce fatal casualties to a dramatic degree when combined with complementary medical innovations such as Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals . The limitations of jet aircraft for close air support highlighted the helicopter's potential in the role, leading to development of the AH - 1 Cobra and other helicopter gunships used in the Vietnam War (1965--75). </P> <P> The first major U.S. strategic bombing campaign against North Korea, begun in late July 1950, was conceived as similar to the major offensives of World War II . On 12 August 1950, the U.S. Air Force dropped 625 tons of bombs on North Korea; two weeks later, the daily tonnage increased to some 800 tons . Following the intervention of the Chinese in November, General MacArthur ordered increased bombing campaign on North Korea which included incendiary attacks against their arsenals and communications centers and especially against the "Korean end" of all the bridges across the Yalu River . As with the aerial bombing campaigns over Germany and Japan in World War II, the nominal objective of the U.S. Air Force was to destroy North Korea's war infrastructure and shatter their morale . After MacArthur was removed as Supreme Commander in Korea in April 1951, his successors continued this policy and ultimately extended it to all of North Korea . The U.S. dropped a total of 635,000 tons of bombs, including 32,557 tons of napalm, on Korea, more than during the whole Pacific campaign of World War II . </P> <P> Almost every substantial building in North Korea was destroyed as a result . The war's highest - ranking U.S. POW, U.S. Major General William F. Dean, reported that the majority of North Korean cities and villages he saw were either rubble or snow - covered wasteland . North Korean factories, schools, hospitals, and government offices were forced to move underground, and air defenses were "non-existent ." In November 1950, the North Korean leadership instructed their population to build dugouts and mud huts and to dig underground tunnels, in order to solve the acute housing problem . U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay commented, "we went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too ." Pyongyang, which saw 75 percent of its area destroyed, was so devastated that bombing was halted as there were no longer any worthy targets . On 28 November, Bomber Command reported on the campaign's progress: 95 percent of Manpojin was destroyed, along with 90 percent of Hoeryong, Namsi and Koindong, 85 percent of Chosan, 75 percent of both Sakchu and Huichon, and 20 percent of Uiju . According to USAF damage assessments, "eighteen of twenty - two major cities in North Korea had been at least half obliterated ." By the end of the campaign, US bombers had difficulty in finding targets and were reduced to bombing footbridges or jettisoning their bombs into the sea . </P>

What happened in the beginning of the korean war