But with the P51 vs. the Zero, inexperienced pilots were beating experienced Japanese pilots.
I wasn't aware of females having a history of success in air combat that justified the inclusion of them as a sex.
I was watching the Military Channel and one of the great historical “what ifs” that never took place. That of jet to jet fighter combat in World War II.
The British Gloster Meteor was never in a dog fight with a German ME-262. The British viewed them as too strategic an asset to lose over occupied territory and they were used exclusively to intercept V weapons.
Thanks for the posting
Sukhoi’s thesis is correct, it’s the pilot that makes the difference (this same principle applies to tank and armored vehicle crews). The best example of this is the two highest scoring squadrons of the Battle of Britain. Those squadrons were 301 and 303 (the Kosciusko Squadron). The Polish pilots made up 10% of the force for the RAF and were flying the older Hurricane Hawkers vice the Spitfire during this period. They scored 40% of the kills against the Luftwaffe. If you want a really good read, check out the book “A Question of Honor” by Lynn Olsen and Stanley Cloud.
Another simple comparison of aircraft would have had the Japanese Zeros making mincemeat of the Flying Tiger P-40s.
Didn’t turn out that way in real life.
CC
There was still Adolph Galland’s reply to Göring during the Battle of Britain when der Dicke asked if there was anything he could do to help the Luftwaffe fighter arm. Gallandly famous replied, “Ja, get me a squadron of Spitfires!”
During the Battle of Britain the Messerschmidts were disadvantaged because of limited flying range. They only had about five minuted of fuel to fight over London, and many experienced Luftwaffe pilots were lost in the Channel. By the end of the War many raw Luftwaffe pilots entered combat with fewer hours air time than a U.S. pilot would be required to have to solo. Hitler anticipated a short war and the Luftwaffe did not establish a pipeline to train more new pilots to sustain it through the War. The Japanese had the same problem.
The U.S. Eighth Air Force specifically had the task of defeating the fighter arm of the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe had stopped sending up fighters to defend against bombing raids against cities or other targets except Berlin and oil fields, in order to preserve their limited strength to repel the coming invasion of Europe. The Eighth Air Force attacked Berlin, using B-17’s as live bait to force the Luftwaffe to respond. Almost 60,000 Americans were killed in the air war over Europe, but in the end, the Luftwaffe was defeated.
The Italians had a bomber, the Piaggio P-108, which was roughly the equivalent of the B-17, but only a few were built. Perhaps the Germans should have ordered a few hundred of them.
Everything I read about the Battle of Britain showed me that the BF109 was superior to the Spitfires, but the Luftwaffe pilots were too focused on their fuel levels to fight effectively just so they had a chance to make it all the way back to base on the continent.
I remember speaking to an old pilot who described an air engagement to me.
He was very animated and described the engagement using grand sweeping movements with his hands as aircraft to describe the engagement, with matching narration:
“I came out of the cloud bank and the Fokker was right there, as soon as he saw me, the Fokker dived right back into the clouds.....and I lost him. Then out of nowhere, the Fokker came at me, guns blazing from the direction of the sun.”
I asked him how did he finally defeat the Fokker. He replied: “Fokker? No, that Fokker was a Messerschmitt”
Lost interesting in reading right there.
Reading this article, a couple of things came to mind:
-There was a pre-war (late 1930’s) fighter called the Brewster Buffalo. From what I’ve read, it became obsolete rather quickly in U.S. forces, and wasn’t much loved by the Brits and Dutch, who got surplus ones. The Finns, however, chewed up entire squadrons of Soviet fighters with the little bugger.
-Regarding the Flanker...there was a Cold War-era unit in the USAF called “Constant Peg” where U.S. pilots would fly captured/acquired Soviet fighters in training missions. They never had a Flanker, of course. They did get to fly MiG-15’s, 21’s and 27’s. It was really interesting to read about the quirks each design had. Apparently, the ‘23 was the toughest to fly and most pilots hated to take the thing up in the air at all.
good articel and photo spitfire, bf-109 and others