Posted on 09/01/2018 4:44:46 PM PDT by DFG
In the summer sky over rural Dorset, a swirling air battle rages. Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes vie for control of the air with Messerschmitt Me 109s, while Stuka dive-bombers plunge earthward, sirens screeching, to attack shipping off the coast.
There’s a momentary miscalculation – and a Hurricane collides with a 109, slicing it in half.
The stricken fighters spiral to the ground as above them RAF and Luftwaffe pilots, twisting and turning in a desperate mass dogfight, battle on regardless.
This is the Battle of Britain, fought not in 1940 but in the present day – and at a tenth of the true scale.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Those fokkers were flying Messerschmitts.
Nice story.
I have the little fokker in my sights.
Top picture isn’t a 109. My guess is a 110.
The hooked crosses representing the Nazi party that were painted on the tails of German warplanes are missing.
It was the Hurricanes that did the heavy lifting in the Battle of Britain, not the Spitfires. In many respects they were the less capable fighter but the average (read: low time) pilot lacked the skills to access the Spitfire’s superior capabilities. Hurricanes also were cheaper to build (wood & canvas airframes vs all-metal), so the Brits built more of them. In July 1940, the RAF had a total of 527 Hurricanes and 321 Spitfires. They also were faster to turn around, just nine minutes to refuel and re-arm, versus 26 for the Spitfire. And they were less vulnerable when hit and easier to repair. The beauty queen got all the glory but the Hurricanes accounted for 1,593 of the 2,739 Swastikas the RAF claimed in the BoB.
LOL!
Eight .303 MG’s in the wings helped.
Some models had an even better four Browning 50’s.
It is.
Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of WarVery interesting discussion of the significant people who fled Europe for Britain as the Nazis were taking control of the continent. Of the crowned head of Europe, only Leopold of Belgium elected to stay on the continent, following the example of his father in WWI. The rest left extremely reluctantly, but they left - bringing substantial financial assets with them which Britain welcomed. During WWO the Germans were not able to capture Leopold’s father, but Leopold was not as fortunate and perforce he became a Nazi puppet. The upshot that the Belgian royalty was the only royal family to come out of WWII with reduced prestige.
De Gaule was a well-known colonel in France, who had the misfortune of being right about the Maginot Line and the tank, when everyone else was wrong. By abandoning France for Britain he became a wanted man to the Vichy government.
All this is by way of introducing a relevant “person” to your point about the Hurricane: the Polish pilot. Polish air force doctrine differed from that of the RAF, and Polish pilots were initially scorned and not used in the Battle of Britain. But under the pressure of the Luftwaffe, the British found themselves in serious need of more pilots - and there were the Poles trained (after their fashion) and pleading for a chance to fight. The upshot was that the British put the Polish pilots in Hurricanes, and the British - and the Germans - soon learned to respect their performance.
The Poles were EXTREMELY aggressive fighters, in the air and on the ground. They were out for vengeance when came to the Germans.
The book I referred to above said that German bomber pilots were known, on some occasions at least, to abandon ship preemptively when they saw the Poles closing in for the kill.
I wouldn’t doubt. In the hell that was Monte Cassino it was the Poles who finally took the abbey. I’m sure they gave little quarter to the Germans.
One of my all-time favorite movie scenes....
"Repeat, please! (From 'The Battle of Britain')
LOL! Yeah, Stosh and the boys couldn’t give a hoot for discipline. Tally ho!
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