Recent content by bakters

Personally, I don't see boom&zoom, hit and run tactics as anything separate from turnfighting. You always do it against a bomber, for example. If you have an energy advantage, you will do bnz even against less maneuverable fighter. You attack, pull up and follow up with another attack. Only...

Let's put it this way - I really wish you were right. Like I wrote I love Spits, but I doubt this number within this context nonetheless. 70 claimed and 65 actually lost? Unheard of. Spitfire was designed as a defensive fighter. If it failed at this task, that's because it wasn't faultless...

I don't see engaging the enemy fighter screen as a mistake, but maybe I don't understand something. What do you propose they did instead?

Of course, and that's why comparing claimed victories against actual losses is not very accurate. Over Darwin, based on Wildcat's compilation of sources, the overclaim rate was a bit more than 2:1. I know it's not entirely warranted, but let's pretend it is, and let's apply it to late war...

I was sent here from Aviation subforum, because I referred to sim experience there. Apparently it's not allowed to refer to sims, pretty much no matter the context. I consider this policy to be erroneous, and I'll try to support my stance here. 1. Raw numbers have no soul. We can read...

Very few enemy planes were destroyed at quite a cost. Japanese could withstand those losses, while Australians were hard pressed to supply their operations, begging for replacement parts all the time. I would call it defeat all right. (BTW - I love Spits. And I take care to not use this...

I did not take notes nor use a tape recorder during our conversation, and these "quotes" are paraphrased by myself to the best of my memory. Please do not repeat them or attribute them to Sakai-san in any published forum. Edit: It appeared to me, since the interviewer didn't take notes or...

Yes. I always loved the guy.

So there is no mystery to Spits' defeat, after all. Hap was a better plane. Both pilots thought it outclassed the Spit. Neither Hap nor Zeke were unmaneuverable at high speeds, it's just that under those conditions pilot's tolerance for Gs is a limiting factor, not airplane's capabilities...

Claimed victories to real losses? Against rookie pilots sent on one-way missions? While often having overwhelming numerical and tactical superiority? No, it's not obvious which plane was a better dogfighter.

Spec-sheets have been done to death. The numbers are known, even if often misunderstood. The only practical test of how those numbers related to reality is forbidden topic here. What else remains but concentrating on combat reports? When a Corsair pilot writes that he was incredibly...

I can easily agree with that. If the impression I got from reading the whole thread was similar, I'd never register and respond. Even 4 against 2 with energy advantage was not a forgone conclusion. I remember reading a report by one Corsair pilot. 4 Corsairs jumped 2 Zeros, the wingman...

The thing is, it's not easy to avoid Zero's sweet spot. If you want to get a good shot at the enemy, you need to be only slightly faster than him. Many, many, wwII pilots said it outright. The best shot you will have is when you are directly behind your enemy while flying at his speed...

Can you explain it to me where I ignored your earlier suggestion? (Apart from being a bit late on reading the posts, it took me a moment to notice it.) As far as I'm concerned, I stopped referring to sims... I ignored all the replies which referred to this topic. Did I not? So, which...

Thanks. I somehow missed this post up to now. You seem to take it in the direction I expected the discussion to go from the very start. Like in "always"? I disagree, and historical accounts support my stance. The Zero was rated as excellent fighter at those speeds. I believe there is some...