The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Malmedy Massacre (12/17/1944)

Air Power
F-5 "Freedom Fighter"/"Tiger"

The F-5 is a lightweight, easy-to-fly, simple-to-maintain, and (relatively) cheap supersonic fighter. In configuration the F-5 is a low-wing monoplane equipped with an all-moving horizontal tall mounted in the low position; the fuselage is carefully contoured in accordance with the transonic area rule. Small side-mounted inlets supply air for the two General Electric J85 afterburning turbojet engines. The 4.8-percent-thick wing has 24 sweepback at the quarter chord line. The wing trailing edge is nearly straight, giving a trapezoidal shape to the planform. Lateral control is provided by small ailerons located near midsemispan; single-slotted high-lift flaps extend from the inboard end of the ailerons to the sides of the fuselage. Leading-edge flaps are used to improve maneuvering performance. (These flaps are not incorporated in the wings of the T-38.) Speed brakes are mounted on the bottom of the fuselage. Turning performance is enhanced by an aileron-rudder interconnect system, and handling characteristics are improved by artificial damping about the pitch and yaw axes. The F-5 is reported to have good handling characteristics and, in contrast with the F-4, does not have a propensity for entering unintentional spins.

The development of the Northrop F-5 began in 1954 when a Northrop team toured Europe and Asia to examine the defense needs of NATO and SEATO countries. A 1955 company design study for a lightweight supersonic fighter that would be relatively inexpensive, easy to maintain, and capable of operating out of short runways. The Air Force did not initially look favorably upon the proposal, since it did not need for a lightweight fighter. However, it did need a new trainer to replace the Lockheed T-33, and in June of 1956 the Air Force announced that it was going to acquire the trainer version, the T-38 Talon.

First flight of the prototype of the fighter version of the aircraft, designated F-5, occurred in July 1959. On April 25, 1962, the Department of Defense announced that it had chosen the aircraft for its Military Assistance Program (MAP). America's NATO and SEATO allies would now be able to acquire a supersonic warplane of world-class quality at a reasonable cost. On August 9, 1962 the aircraft was given the official designation of F-5A Freedom Fighter. Later known as the Tiger, initial deliveries of the F-5 were made to Iran in January 1965. Attracted by its performance, reliability, and low cost (in 1972, the cost of an F-5 was about one-third that of an F-4), other countries outside MAP soon began buying the F-5.

Optimized for the air-to-ground role, the F-5A had only a very limited air-to-air capability, and was not equipped with a fire-control radar. The F-5B was the two-seat version of the F-5A. It was generally similar to the single-seat F-5A but had two seats in tandem for dual fighter/trainer duties. The F-5 was originally designed as a daytime, air-to-air fighter, but it has also been extensively used as a ground-attack aircraft. Photoreconnaissance versions of the F-5 have also been produced. Armament for the air-to-air combat role consists of two 20-mm cannons and two Sidewinder missiles. Radius of a typical air combat mission with this armament and external fuel tanks is 375 miles, and average mission speed is 541 miles per hour. In the ground-attack mode, about 7000 pounds of external ordnance may be carried.

Although all F-5A production was intended for MAP, in October 1965, the USAF "borrowed" 12 combat-ready F-5As from MAP supplies and sent them to Vietnem with the 4503rd Tactical Fighter Wing for operational service trials. This program was given the code name of *Skoshi Tiger" ("little" Tiger). and it was during this tour of duty that the F-5 picked up its Tiger nickname. Evaluated in Vietnam by the USAF, the F-5 was later used by Vietnamese forces.

On November 20, 1970, the Northrop entry was declared the winner of the IFA (International Fighter Aircraft) to be the F-5A/B's successor. The emphasis was be on the air-superiority role for nations faced with threats from opponents operating late-generation MiG-21s. An order was placed for five development and 325 production aircraft. In January of 1971, it was reclassified as F-5E. The aircraft came to be known as *Tiger II*

The F-5E is a small, light aircraft. Its design gross weight of 15 745 pounds is only about 30 percent of the 53 848-pound design gross weight of the F-4. In performance, the F-5 has a Mach 1.51 capability at about 36000 feet and a sea-level rate of climb of 28 536 feet per minute - a good performance but not comparable with that of the F-4. Certainly, the load-carrying capability of the F-5 is much less than that of the larger aircraft.

Never a part of the USAF tactical forces, it has been used as an aggressor aircraft to represent a hostile fighter in simulated combat with U.S. fighters. Some of the characteristics of the F-5 resemble those of the Soviet-built MIG-21 in certain altitude ranges.

The US Navy Fighter Weapons School (the so-called "Top Gun" school) at NAS Miramar acquired a total of ten F-5Es and three F-5Fs for dissimilar air combat training. Because of the F-5's characteristics, which were similar to the MiG-21, was used as 'agressor' aircraft, equipping the FWS and VF-126 at NAS Miramar, plus VF-43 at NAS Oceana. All three units later disposed of their Tiger IIs in favor of the General Dynamics F-16N. These Tiger IIs were passed on to VF-95 at NAS Key West and VFA-127 at NAS Fallon. During FY 1996, VFC-13 moved from NAS Miramar, CA, to NAS Fallon, NV, and transitioned from 12 F/A-18 to 25 F-5 aircraft. VFC-13's flight hour program increased to offset the scheduled decommissioning of the two remaining Active Component adversary squadrons, VF-45 and VFA-127. This transition to the F-5 adversary aircraft provided Active and Reserve Navy pilots with air-to-air combat training at significant savings to the taxpayer. Recent estimates show that the F-5 can be operated at one third of what it costs to operate an F/A-18.

Specifications:
Primary Function: Fighter
Contractor: Northrop
Crew: One
Unit Cost: $756,000
Powerplant: Two General Electric J85s of 4,080 lbs. thrust each with afterburner

Dimensions:
Length: 47 feet, 2 inches
Wingspan: 25 feet 3 inches
Height: 13 feet 2 inches
Weights: Empty: 8,085 lb / Maximum Takeoff: 20,677 lb

Performance :
Speed: 925 mph (Mach 1.4) at 36,000 feet
Ceiling: 50,500 feet
Range: with maximum fuel -- 1387 miles

Armaments:
two 20-mm cannon in the fuselage nose.
Two AIM-9 Sidewinder at the wingtips
Five pylons carry up to 6200 pounds of ordinance or fuel tanks
loads can include four air-to-air missiles,
Bullpup air-to-surface missiles, bombs, up to 20 unguided rockets, or external fuel tanks.

All photos Copyright of Global Security.Org

Isn't it special that David Irving denied there was a massacre of U.S. POWs at Malmedy?

David Irving denied many things:

~~~

Irving's tag as 'Holocaust denier' upheld

David Pallister
Saturday July 21, 2001
The Guardian

The discredited historian of the Third Reich, David Irving, may face bankruptcy after the court of appeal yesterday rejected his application to appeal against a libel trial ruling branding him a racist Holocaust denier who deliberately distorted historical facts.

He faces a final legal bill of more than £2m. Yesterday the court agreed that he could be asked immediately for an interim payment of £150,000.

Richard Rampton QC, counsel for Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt, whose book, Denying the Holocaust, led to the case, said: "There lurks the real possibility of the need to take bankruptcy proceedings against Mr Irving."

He was not in court when the judgment - a ringing endorsement of the conclusions reached by Mr Justice Gray at the libel trial last year - was handed down by Lord Justice Pill with Lord Justice Mantell and Lord Justice Buxton. Mr Irving was "somewhere in a van on the south coast" trying to sell his latest book, Churchill's War, to bookshops, said his lawyers.

After Mr Justice Gray's devastating judgment that he was an apologist for Hitler, Mr Irving has been unable to find a mainstream distributor for the book, which he has published under his own imprint, Focal Point Press, with finance from American investors.

Mark Bateman, solicitor for Penguin, said: "[Today's ruling] is a very predictable outcome. It is a shame we have been dragged through the court of appeal when there was really no issue in Mr Justice Gray's judgment - his judgment was sound."

Lord Justice Pill said that the trial judge was right to conclude Irving "may be described as a Holocaust denier". He went on: "We acknowledge he has over the years modified, and in some respects, significantly modified, his views upon some of the relevant events.

"However, the respondents were justified in describing him as 'one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial' having regard to the views he has expressed and in some respects persisted in, and the manner and force with which he has expressed them.

"The use of the word 'dangerous' was justified by reason of his historiographical methods considered by the judge and in this judgment."

Last month Irving's counsel, Adrian Davies, had argued before the court that Mr Justice Gray's conclusions were wrong and unjust and that Irving had come to reasonable conclusions in his books based on the available evidence.

Lord Justice Pill said: "Mr Davies has not persuaded us that it is arguable that the judge's general conclusions were unjustified."

On the trial's central question of Auschwitz, said Lord Justice Pill, Mr Irving argued that the evidence for mass gassing at the camp was nowhere near so strong that it was perverse for him to entertain doubts about it. Mr Irving's view was that there were no gassings at Auschwitz 1 and only random gassings at Auschwitz 2, and had submitted there were good grounds for scepticism as to what had happened at Auschwitz.

Lord Justice Pill said that, having considered the evidence, they considered Mr Justice Gray "fully entitled" to reach his conclusion that "no objective, fair-minded historian would have serious cause to doubt that there were gas chambers at Auschwitz, and that they were operated on a substantial scale to kill hundreds of thousands of Jews".

Professor Lipstadt said she was gratified by the ruling: "I hope Mr Irving's six year battle against my attempt to tell the truth about him will end. I do not delude myself that, though my battle with Mr Irving may be over, the fight against those who will pervert the historical record for their own political and ideological goals has ended. That battle will continue for as long as history is written. Those of us writing history and those of us who care about truth and memory will have to be ever ready to stand against them."

~~~

Imagine, you merely try to conquer the world, crush smaller countries, exterminate Jews, gypsies, and other undesirables, and when you fail--they want to hang you for a few dozen Americans shot in the head.

Sorry, I cannot muster the bleeding heart sympathy of the defense attorney, Lt. Col. Everett.

The glorious Geneva Accords were trod under the boots of the mobilized Third Reich. Beginning in 1933, there was no question that Germany's destiny was conquest, legalities to the contrary notwithstanding.

A pity that Peiper died at the hands of french cowards thirty years after the fact--if there's a rub, it's that.

No doubt the forty Americans shot in the head (or the ten butted to death) were depressed in the style of Vince Foster.

To this day, Gerhardt Schroeder cannot speak straight and true. There is more karma to be worked out there.

Dachau

Dachau, not Auschwitz

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