Best Fighter

[the lancaster kicks ass]

ok, here's one, which would win in a fight between a Roc and Defiant.....................

 

[cheddar cheese]

the defiant it did have some minimal success 8)

 

[Lightning Guy]

I'd like to hear Plan_D's take on which fighter would win between the Spit XIV and the Shiden.

The Defiant would have killed the Roc.

 

[plan_D]

You won't be able to hear it, but you can read it; The Spitfire Mk. XIV was the best dogfighter of the war, this means better than the Shiden.

The Defiant would have destroyed the Roc, no questions asked.

 

[cheddar cheese]

what was the MC.205 like at dogfighting?

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

well the fact it's italain means it's doomed to fail anyway..............

 

[Lightning Guy]

I'm not sure that enough Mc.205s got into service to really form an informed opinion. The 202 was supposed to be pretty good and the 205 added power and firepower so I imagine it could handle itself very well.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but the italians never really got the hang of fighters, i think they were always outdated................

 

[cheddar cheese]

thats true with panes like the Fiat G.50 and Breda 65, but i reckon the 202 and 205 were highly successful 8)

 

[Lightning Guy]

The 202 did relatively well. I don't think more than a handful of 205s got into service but I could easily be wrong about that.

 

[plan_D]

They would have to been in high numbers by 1943 to get a full successful service record, and they never really got into the war until 1941. And I don't think their pre-war projects were exactly on par with others.

 

[Lightning Guy]

The Mc.205 entered service somewhere in mid-43 but only 265 were ever produced. Still, it was supposed to be an even match for the P-51.

 

[plan_D]

I hope you know I meant that Italy didn't really get into the war until 1941, not the MC.205.

 

[Lightning Guy]

Yeah. It took me a second but I realized that was what you meant. I just thought I woudl throw some numbers on the 205 out there. At the time of the Italian Armistace, the RA only had the grand total of 66 in service.

 

[plan_D]

So, it's career could have never been full, and success filled. Still, if it could dogfight with the best of them, that's pretty good, especially for the Italians.

 

[Lightning Guy]

Reportedly the Germans even used about a staffel's worth of them.

 

[Erich]

are you aware of the Afrika Korp units such as the famous JG 27 served alongside Italien air units ?

 

[plan_D]

I am aware of the Afrika Corps air units. But if the feeling was the same as in the air, the German pilots would have been sick of serving alongside the Italians.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i saw a program and it said the italians were more of a hinderance than a help to the axis??

 

[plan_D]

A lot of Germans on the ground thought so, and Erwin Rommel was sick of the lack of command skills possesed by the Italian Commanders. Rommel actually made himself General of Axis forces in Africa.
He never believed that the Italian fighters, or commanders had the capability to fight an effective war against such a 'worthy foe' as the British. He tried his hardest to relegate them to secondary roles but found with lack of his own German troops he had to use the Italians to cover vital flanks which sometimes proved a fatal flaw.

Von Paulus had the same problem with the Romanians, and his feeling was strengthened in Stalingrad when the only place the Russians broke out was through the Romanian held part of the line.