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Nuthin wrong in that, my man!Oh and best plane in the world is spelt DeHavilland Mosquito no P Fw or Bf anywhere near it
I am sure these are all capable combat aircraft. I am also sure they could not do it a 600 miles or stay in the air for long periods of time.P51,without its numerical superiority and height advantage because of the bomber presence , could be outfought by late Spitfires,Tempests,Yak 3s
The early P-51Bs at 67" boost on 100 octane fuel was faster than the Fw-190A-5 and much faster than the Bf-109G from sea level to ceiling. In addition, it could out climb the Fw from 5k ft. to ceiling and the Bf-109 above 20k ft. It could probably out dive the two and also out turn them. Not many tools for the German flying these two aircraft against the P-51 one-on-one. Post May, '44, with the advent of higher octane fuel and 75" boost, the P-51B is significantly faster than either German aircraft, much better climbing than either. Not until the advent of the late model aircraft such as the Fw-190D-9 and Bf-109G-10+ and K in the fall of 1944, did Germany have planes that could realistically challenge the P-51 and by then it was way too late.post spring 44 109s and 190s
The F4U-1D was a powerful fighter which had similar performance as the 67" boost P-51 up to 20k ft but would need to have the wing tanks added back in to be a long range escort., F4U
So, add to this range and speed, climb, dive and turning, and you can understand the success the P-51 had over Germany.,. True its package of exceptional range , high speed in horizontal flight, good communication equipment was very valuable.
Oh and best plane in the world is spelt DeHavilland Mosquito no P Fw or Bf anywhere near it
Let's take into account that it was the 8th AF strategic bombing campaign over much of Nazi-occupied Europe and Nazi Germany itself that achieved the air superiority necessary for a cross-channel invasion.
No long-range fighters, no air superiority; no air superiority, a doubtful cross-channel invasion; no invasion at all, a very different outcome of the war in Europe.
Allied managed to undertake succesfully 2 Overlord size landings into Europe, to Sicily and to Salerno, before P-51B had arrived, so I doubt that P-51B had decisive effect on Overlord.
Juha
Not to say anything to diminish the landings during Torch, Husky or Avalanche but they were not in the same league as Overlord.
I think the presence of the P51 in German airspace forced the luftwaffe to retreat a large part of their fighter force from France to Germany. Pretty hard to fight of an allied invasion if there are no planes in the neighborhood
I have "Duels in the Sky" in my library and have read it several times. Eric Brown is highly biased in his appraisal of the many airplanes in the book. His comparison of the Corsair II and F6F3 versus the FW190 makes no sense at all when compared to actual tests run by the USN on the three aircraft and the subsequent choice of the Corsair over the Hellcat as the fleet's fighter.
Husky was the Sicily operations and really in Husky and in Avanlance the landing forces were on the size of Overloard. And Germans had the plans, which they executed soon after D-Day to move fighter and fighter-bomber units to France but because the overwhelming Allied air-superiority, these units achieved little. But during D-Day LW flew around 300 sorties against the landings, not only 2 as was claimed in that old film was that "The Longest Day" Also Ultra helped, Allied knew where the units were to arrive and when the bombed airbases were again nearly repaired and so ready for another go.
I could be mistaken (it has happend over the years) and I have nothing to look it up but according to wicked Wiki: 'The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune, commonly known as D-Day). A 12,000-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving almost 7,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English chanel". I don't know the comparable figures for either Husky or Avalanche but I'm quite sure that the number of ships/landingvessels was substantialy smaller and there certainly was nothing like a 12000 plane airborne assault over Sicily or Anzio. Nevertheless good arguments are usualy enough to convince me.
Chrzzzz
While I agree that both Torch and Husky were massive endeavors, I believe that Overlord was yet substantially greater and perhaps more critical in respect to enemy oppositions than its counterparts.
During the late '43, early '44 period, long-range escorts did not only engaged the LW well into its own airspace but also wreaked havoc on logistical communication lines all the way from the interior of Germany to the landing zones. By the time the landings occurred, LW airfields close to the beaches were unusable and intermediate airfields were congested with German fighters that were easy pickings for marauding Allied fighters; on top of that much of the needed ammunition and fuel that could be rapidly deployed to service those fighters did not make it to the battle zone due to fractured logistical lines, again achieved by long-range fighters bombers operating still out of England prior to the landings.
... however, it would have taken longer to materialize an invasion and time was not a luxury the Western Allies had if they wanted to prevent Soviet forces to have a greater window of opportunity and take a bigger portion of Europe.