Dog fights on the History channel

[lesofprimus]

Heres a link to the episode that had my Uncle Swedes excellent story of 3 vs 1 while flying in his SBD....

Part 1 :
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEnDjwXnj3Y

Part 2:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1NTUzj7cGw

 

[Njaco]

Les, I watched that and was amazed! He was your uncle!! My hats off to him. Kinda like taking a butterknife to a gunfight and still makin out on top. They had alittle about his gunner but did your uncle ever say he flew with him again? I'd probably stick to him like glue on any further missions.

 

[lesofprimus]

He wasnt my actual Uncle, but an "Uncle" who was great family pals with my Grandfather.... I have since given my Liberty Head Silver Dollar collection that Uncle Swede gave me over the years of my childhood to my son...

As for his gunner, yes he flew with him on numerous occasions...

As a side note, Swedes entire body was one huge bruise after this combat.... Throwing those G's around gets tough on the body..

 

[renrich]

Great stuff about Swede V. One thing that makes me crazy about TV is the mistakes. For instance, the Marine Top Gun instructor states that the Zero cannons outrange the SBDs guns. If I am not mistaken the SBD had 2 cowl mounted 50 cals. The low velocity Oerlikon cannons in the Zero were very short ranged and the twin 50s could reach out with their much flatter trajectories and touch the Zero before those cannon were effective. That was the reason why the Thach Weave was effective. The Zero did not like to go head to head with a Wildcat because the Wildcat could hit him before the Zero could hit back and of course the Zero was much more fragile. Anyway, nit picking but Swede was a hell of a pilot. Wonder what his gunner was thinking during the dogfight?

 

[lesofprimus]

The gunner was trying to stay conscious throughout the battle...

 

[Njaco]

Wonder what his gunner was thinking during the dogfight?

"wow, this is better than Six Flags!" Really, he must've been scared as hell! I give Swede a big for that action. To evade a far superior machine than yours is one thing, to shoot several down, AMAZING!

 

[Stupid]

Wow I saw the episode yesterday and personally I thought it was awesome. Saw the SBD one on TV also and it was amazing as well. They've come a long way in effects since their first 2 hour episode.

 

[AAA_leadsled]

At first I was a little disappointed at the title of the first episode when I looked into it, since kamikaze didn't seem like a "dogfight"!.

After watching it tho, I think they took the show to the next level in terms of explaining and they seemed to have alot of veterans who were there.

I am thankful that this show exists, I can't get enough of warbirds!

I imagine alot of their choices for shows has to do with finding veterans to help explain it all, after all the human element is what it is about!

I would like to see more european, eastern front action, or even the med.

I think its a good show and helps to get more people interested in this part of history which after all can't be a bad thing!

 

[syscom3]

I wonder why the German "sondekommando" -109 was only fitted with a single MG?

 

[davparlr]

The article on the U.S.S. Laffey was especially meaningful to me. My childhood neighbor was in the 5 inch gun turret that was hit by the kamakazi. He was one of the survivors. I wish I was old enough to talk to him about it. It was an incredible story about an incredible ship.

 

[Njaco]

According to "Last Flight of the Luftwaffe" by Adrian Weir, the Bf 109s were stripped to gain speed. Pg. 67 "The total weight saving which could be gained by fully stripping a Bf 109 could have been as much as 440lb (200kg), endowing the converted fighters with a maximum 24 mph (39kph) additional airspeed at their operational altitude."

 

[AAA_leadsled]

Holy Crap! I just realized that the Laffey is sitting right here in Charleston, SC harbour, right next to the Yorktown!

I hadn't visited it in about 15 years, I didn't realize until davparlr's post that it was the same Laffy! (the ole brain don't work like it used to!)

Wow, guess I need to take a ride down there and visit the ole girl!

 

[Njaco]

Get some pics and post'em. Love to see some.

 

[AAA_leadsled]

It maybe a few weeks till I have time to get down there, but I'll have to do that!

 

[ccheese]

The episode about the Rammkommando Elbe was on last night, (20th) on the
History Channel. It's the 2nd time it's been on that I know of.

Charles

 

[comiso90]

The gunner was trying to stay conscious throughout the battle...

I just took these with my phone aboard the USS Midway in beautiful San Diego....


Here's to u Swede!

 

[Erich]

sys it depened on whether the kommando was made up of the lightened 109's or not. Jg 300 brought in their own equipment as well as two other units. sometimes there were 2 13mm left on not just one over the cowling.

interesting thoughts on the mission from friend F. Marktscheffel. I want to get his opinion further later on the episode once he has had chance to view it from Germany. he will probably be disappointed like he was when German TV tried to portray him and his fellow pilots

 

[timshatz]

I would love to fly the SBD. It looks like an easy and good flyer. No bad habits kind of plane. Has the right details to it to. The early war aircraft (Zero, SBD, Spitfire, ect) had reputations as being easy flyers whereas the late war birds were brutes.

The SBD looks like a fun ride.

 

[ccheese]

Tim:
Never flew in the SBD, but did fly in the TBF in the radioman's hole under the
rear gunner. I've heard pilots say you had to fly the TBF all the time or
it tended to corkscrew to the left. Ditto with the TBM, but that didn't have
the radioman's hole.

Charles

 

[timshatz]

Tim:
Never flew in the SBD, but did fly in the TBF in the radioman's hole under the
rear gunner. I've heard pilots say you had to fly the TBF all the time or
it tended to corkscrew to the left. Ditto with the TBM, but that didn't have
the radioman's hole.

Charles

Pulls to the left? You would figure it would torque right. Did they have rudder trim on those things? I imagine if you trimmed it out for level flight, it would be ok. I've flow aircraft without trim on all the surfaces and it can be a pain in the ass. Especially when you change the power settings.

How was the flight? I've seen pics of that position and it looks somewhat roomy (for a single engined bomber). Is the view constricted?