These u-boats had much more to lose though. The concept of flak-trap u-boats meant that they had to confront aircarft on the surface instead of avoiding them.
The Krauts had very good cannon but they seem to have this bad habit of mixing up various calibres in an aircraft. Not just in tank killers but in every type of combat aircraft. Take the Do217 nightfighter for example: six 20- and 30-mm. plus four 7.92-mm mg. Why not just six 20-mm. or four...
Rockets vs. AT guns? I'd prefer rockets. They seem to be more simple to use plus they give fighters the ability to destroy tanks without taking out much from their agility.
There's something funny about the Fw-190; when its sitting on the ground the main landing gear looks as if they haven't fully opened up but they're actually made that way. I don't know.. Maybe its just me... I just have this itch of getting to one of those fighters and pushing those wheels a...
I'd go for the Mustang with the Me-262 and Tempest close behind. The deciding factor for me is the fact that the P-51 had the more impact on the War than the other two which means if the Me-262 had not been delayed in its deployment it would have been the greatest.
Besides the P-51D didn't...
There was this encounter early on in Saburo Sakai's career in China were he and his buddies ganged up on an obsolete Chinese plane and he remarked how skillful their prey was in outmaneuvering them considering that they had him boxed up at low altitude with their highly modern zeros. You could...
Contrary to popular beliefs the best bomber killing aircraft were actually the A5M and Ki-27. Take-off, fly it, then squash... I mean smash it on a B-29. :>
I'm just wondering why the RAF stuck to their .303s when they could have acquired the .50 heavy machine-guns much earlier from the Americans. Any of you guys know of a reason for this?
For me I'd rate these bombers in three categories:
Best Heavy Bomber - B-29 Superfortress
Best Light/Med Bomber - Mosquito, B-25 Mitchell
Best Ground Attack - Il-2 Shturmovik, B-25 Mitchell
The Arado jet bomber and A-26 Invader were probably the best in their class but they came a...
It's quite sad to find out that these WW2 generation of aces are quietly passing away. They're quite a contrast to the peacetime heroes that we have today: football, basketball, politicians... But I think people won't completely forget about them.
Do any of you guys know of any websites...
I don't think the russians were "weak assed". They had guys who were as good or even better than German and Allied pilots alike. Hell they had women pilots for aces too. And what about that guy who strangled his German opponent to death after shooting him down and hunting him on foot?
Also...
The bottom line for me is Erich Hartmann took out seven USAAF Mustangs.
Some folks say that the quality of Soviet aircraft and pilots was a main factor for the high scores achieved by the Luftwaffe aces in the East. This might have been true in the early part of the war in Russia but by the...