Dog fights on the History channel

Desert Aces was really cool.

Yeah I thought so too, watched it Thursday night....

Top stuff putting up the full list Dan, thanks....

ok guys I must be blind which one did J. Crandall speak on about on the Sturmgruppen .... ?

thanks

Found this Eric....doesn't directly answer your question though? but Jerry obviously was involved in a couple of episodes...

"Hi guys;
Just wanted to let you know that Jerry Crandall will appear in another upcoming episode of Dogfights. "Death of the Luftwaffe" which airs on March 7th. This is the episode that focuses on one battle amidst Operation Bodenplatte…the famous "Legend of Y-29." According to the producer, he thinks this one's shaping up to be one of their finest episodes (if not the finest). The animators put in a lot of extra effort, and it's a unique format as it focuses on just one aerial battle for the whole episode—weaving together the experiences of multiple pilots.

The producer went on to tell us that he thinks this is a "can't miss" episode for all Dogfights fans…especially since he thinks this will be one of the final episodes.

Thought you guys would want to know. Cheers, Judy Crandall"


and this from July'07 also on Hyperscale by Judy..
"The producer contacted Jerry some time ago to go on the show to talk about late war Luftaffe, tactics, aircraft, pilots and so on. When they told Jerry the main thrust of this show is on the Elbe mission, Jerry wasn't too thrilled about talking about that and suggested they interview some Luftwaffe pilots who were involved in this mission. So Jerry called Dr. Fritz Marktscheffel to see if he would be interested in having a German-based camera crew from the History channel interview him. He had reservations about what questions they would ask him, so Jerry spoke with the producer about these reservations and the producer assured him it would not be political. They were only interested in the mission itself. So, after many emails back and forth he agreed to the interview, whew!

They interviewed Jerry for 4 hours on camera on the details leading up to this mission, including Wilde Sau, Sturmstaffel, Sturmgruppen, pilot personalities, aircraft and tactics. The producer is telling us that the bulk of Jerry's talk will be concentrated on later dogfight shows featuring some of Jerry's Luftwaffe pilot friends. "

So it would seem some has been used and some for the future? maybe , I have n't seen the Luftwaffe shows yet.

well I missed the episode when Jerry talked of the Sturm pilots, I know Fritz M and he was not too thrilled with the History Chanel guys, though he has been ripped in Germany when he tried to get the news media right on what really happened in April of 45. Wayne I remember reading Judy's blurb on the vent, in fact I received it via email......

Ah, no worries Erich, I havent seen any of the Jerry Crandall interview stuff yet, so looking forward to it..

Ep.5 Gun kills of Vietnam on now!!

saw gun kills of vietnam last night, great episode

Just watched 'Death of the Luftwaffe', taped it from Thursday night.

Eric, FYI...Jerry speaks for about 20 - 30 seconds about 10 minutes into the episode and thats it!

There are a couple LW vets that speak though, not just the one.

kool kitty, I was referring to Jerry Crandall, rather than the LW vets...

I just saw the episode with bombers dogfighting last night...

I can only say that I would like to offer my thanks, gratitude and a big salute to all you military aviators and support people out there. Whatever you men and women have been paid, it ain't near enough!

yeappreatty good show i likethe one abot the flying tigers and nigth fithing

I particularly enjoyed watching the replay of Thorsness/Johnson fight to protect the Sandy attempts to locate Thorsness' wingman.

The 355th got two of the 12 Medal of Honor awards for USAF in VietNam but Thorsness and Deflethsen probably deserved the Medal as much for what they endured in the Hilton. They demonstrated why the 355th was top Mig killers in VN until 1972.. wasn't about agility - all about 'opportunity' and trying to survive.

The 355th dropped 202,000 Tons of iron on North Vietnam.. B-17's dropped 600,000 tons in all of their careers in all theatres..

Steve Daisley will get around to getting me the 105's for both of those missions but maybe not before the reunion this month - I will stick them in the Book Photos' forum when I get them

I laughed with the Mossie with the RCAF roundel somebody messed up

Cool show!! Nicely done!
But, felt a little bit bored after several episodes. Looks like a one-sided story or too much of propaganda: Americans fighting alone and always win... Is that accurate? Is that how it was?
I heard that over 75% of its aircrafts Luftwaffe lost on Eastern Front. Just curious if we ever see that part.

stasoid said:

Cool show!! Nicely done!
But, felt a little bit bored after several episodes. Looks like a one-sided story or too much of propaganda: Americans fighting alone and always win... Is that accurate? Is that how it was?
I heard that over 75% of its aircrafts Luftwaffe lost on Eastern Front. Just curious if we ever see that part.

Click to expand...

Highly doubtful that even 25% of Luftwaffe losses were on Eastern front. From early the mid 1943 the Luftwaffe started shifting Fighter units from Ost and LuftFlotte 2 to re-organize into Channel Front and Germany.

Just daylight fighter adjustments - by May 1943

In the east, JG 54 remained stable, keeping Stab., I.and II., losing III. and 10. and 11. Staffel.. JG3 lost Stab. and I. ... JG 52 lost I. ... - all lost to east or south and redeployed to West.

By May 1944 the`following units were pulled back from East and south to Austria and Germany

LuftFlotte Reich added

III./JG1, III.and IV./JG3, I. and II./G5, Stab. and III. and 10. Staffel/G11, II. and III. and IV./JG27, II./JG53, III./JG54, JG300, JG301, JG 302, JG 400

LuftFlotte 3 added

I./JG26,

LuftFlotte's 1, 4 and 6. with most coverage to USSR

10./jg54, lost II.&III./JG3, lost 15.Staffel JG/52, lost I.JG26, lost IV. and 15. Staffel/JG51

The combined day fighter strength in May 1942 for all units opposed to VVS were LF1 (71), LF4 (132), LF5 (97) and Kdo Ost(179)

one year later, after transfers LF1 (77), LF4 (105), LF5 (115), LF6 (108)

In May 1944 the East had, after transfers again had LF1 (88), LF4 (139), LF5 (67).

The drop in Serviceable day fighters in the East was 405 to 290 and parts of LF4 were deployed in Austria to resiste both 8th and 15th attacks to SE Germany and Czechoslovakia, and parts of JG5 were deployed to resist 8th AF attcks in Norway, Denmark and northern bomber routes, so the actual strength against the VVS was less than 290 day fighters.

The gain for LF3 and LF Reich in that same period was

LF3 (215) and LF Reich (198) in May 1943 to May 1944 was LF3 (115) and LFR (439) = and increase from 413 to 554 Day fighters.

This comparison between East and West is strictly to compare the shift in strength from Russia to try to stop the Allied strikes from England..

Elements of JG4, JG5, 53, 77 and KdoSud Ost were arrayed to resist RAF and USAAF strikes in Balkans and Southern Germany -

So of the serviceable day fighter strength of 1,063 s/e fighters a mximum of 28% was devoted to trying to stop VVS day attacks, the rest devoted to Allied day attacks.

The largest percentage of dedicated forces was t/e fighters both night and day - about 90% dedicated to fighting in the West.

All this from Dr Price's Luftwaffe Data book.

So, conclusions? Nowhere near 25% of LW losses occurred on Ost front and that would be generous.

pbfoot said:

I laughed with the Mossie with the RCAF roundel somebody messed up

Click to expand...

What episode was that in?

Supersonic was the episode , at the beginning .

Good info Bill... Have to agree with u.... Alot, and I mean ALOT of successful pilots on the Ost Front, when being re-assigned to the West, got smoked within the first mission or 2....

The West was the grinder for the Luftwaffe Sausage that the 8th devoured...