Udet said:
RG_Lunatic:
With all due respect for some of the veterans you mentioned (Chuck Yeager, Bud Anderson, etc.) I would certainly take some of their arguments with all due reserves. Why?
These USAAF veterans will of course speak about the Luftwaffe in terms very very similar, if not identical, to those Kozhedub and other soviet aces would use. A very normal and unsurprising thing; a standard procedure for any victor of any war.
Chuck Yeager, for instance, appears to speak gladly and fluently on the war sometimes apparently losing the ground.
That their answer to your question "was the Dora better than the P-51" was no, tells very little about the issue.
Yeager should really slow down sometimes for he himself got shot down in combat with German interceptors. In fact, mr. Yeager is as lucky to be alive as many of the top German aces who saw service virtually throughout the entire war.
This means mr Yeager was effectively surpassed in combat and went down. Very lucky to be alive.
Even a soviet lady shot down more planes than he did. Furthermore, Yeager´s total bag was in many cases, a half an hour job for a big number of German experten.
My point is, those famous veterans of the USAAF over Europe are experts at pointing the weak spots of the enemy craft they faced, but curiously tell nothing regarding the weak spots of the aircraft they flew.
I agree, combat stories are often full of apparent inaccuracies, and must always be taken with a grain of salt. But this does not change the point that I have never heard even one USAAF pilot speak of "dreading the late model FW" or any other German prop plane. It's not just one or two pilots I'm talking about, it's dozens.
As for Yeager, yes I agree he is of particular note for inaccuracies in his WWII flying stories, nor was he the greatest Ace of the war. I just included him because he was among the Aces I've heard speak. But to say he was "lucky to be alive" because he survived being shot down one time is absolute hogwash!
I suppose we might say the same of Adolf Galland? He was shot down FOUR TIMES! Or what about Marseille, who was shot down several times before his luck finally ran out in September 1942. I guess Gunther Rall was a really crappy fighter pilot, since he got shot down EIGHT TIMES!
As far as the high kill totals of many of the "Experten", in most cases they flew in very advantageous conditions. The great majority of them chalked up most of their kills on the E. front during the first 3 years of the war on that front. They had the advantage of superior aircraft and superior training at that point. As an example, consider Wilhelm "Willi" Batz, who fought starting in March of 1943. At this time the German's enjoyed numerical advantage. His first 15 kills over the first 4 months of combat consisted of six Lagg-3 "wooden coffins" (one unconfirmed), four Yak-1's, three IL-2's, one P-39 and one Boston. All pretty easy meat for his Bf-109G fighter. His next ten kills consisted of one Spitifire (model unknown, but probably a Spit Ia or maybe a Spit V) and 9 Yak-1's. Again - easy meat. By the time he faced his first worthy opponent, in a Lagg-5 he'd already had the luxury of plenty of combat experience against much weaker enemy aircraft. Of his first 123 kills, 60 were the much inferior Yak-1, and 17 were IL-2's.
Of Galland's 104 victories, 96 of them were scored in 1940 and 1941 when Germany held the initiative.
My point is German "Experten" had a huge advantage early in the war. With very few exceptions, the first 20 or more kills scored were against inferior aircraft, relatively poorly trained pilots with little combat experience, with numerical advantage, or all three. This allowed them to develop combat skills that can only be gained in actual combat in relative safety. And German pilots were rarely deep behind the enemy lines.
Allied pilots on the other-hand, started off facing technically superior German aircraft, flown my more experienced pilots, and were often outnumbered. When technical parity had been achieved, USAAF pilots in particular were flying missions deep into Axis territory - there was no getting shot down EIGHT TIMES and continuing to fly, in fact Yeager is a rarity in that he did manage to get back to friendly lines and fight again. Then when the Allies finally gained the upper hand, the Luftwaffe' was hard to find and aerial kills were hard to come by. To say that having been shot down ONE time means Yeager was a poor pilot is just STUPID!
ANY PILOT COULD BE SHOT DOWN! OVER 90% OF THE FIGHTER PILOTS SHOT DOWN IN WWII WHO SURVIVED IT SAID THEY EITHER NEVER SAW THE PLANE THAT SHOT THEM DOWN OR NEVER SAW IT UNTIL AFTER THEY'D TAKEN CRITICAL DAMAGE.
This is true of some of the greatest Aces of the war.
I suggest you buy and watch
Hunter's in the Sky and listen to the many interviews in that documentary.
=S=
Lunatic