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I know that - but for one very large combat org, as well as 9th AF, it was the only flak suppression being done on any organized basis.
Do American water towers look much different?
I think experience from a number of occasions showed that the costs exceeded the benefits.
Do American water towers look much different?
I think experience from a number of occasions showed that the costs exceeded the benefits.
Yes - visualize an upside down spherical lollypop/mushroom for new ones last 30 years, cylinders with open frame support for most older ones. .
The trigger happy knucklehead is attacking the water tower on May 15th 1944. This is prior to D-day so its rather puzzling as to what is being spotted from the tower. There are no viable "observation ports" unless there are tiny portholes with frogmen behined them in the tower. Unfortunatly the frogmen wouldn't be able to see upwards or even shoot up due to the slate roof.
Unless he had been specifically ordered to straff these are the kind of out of control pilot that might on a boring day straff an lone ox cart carrying produce on which a school girl is hitching a ride on the basis that it might somehow be military. I guess they exist in every airforce.
Sorry, this is a picture of a slightly silly act with an even sillier caption. It would have caused great discomfort to the local French population and no doubt sanitation problems.
Perhaps the photo should have been titled "staffing a water tower vaguely suspected of carrying out an observation function"
A whole bunch of German airfields in France were fake: included were fake aircraft complete with plexiglass canopies. At least 50% of the straffed aircraft claimed destroyed would have been dummy. Producing decoy's was considered as important as camaflauge of real assets.
You are correctTo encourage the pilots to engage in very deadly airfield ground strafing, the 8th AF gave aircraft destroyed on the ground the same status as air kills. I think this was the only Air Force to do so.
Geo
Especially the German air force in 1940.Unless he had been specifically ordered to straff these are the kind of out of control pilot that might on a boring day straff an lone ox cart carrying produce on which a school girl is hitching a ride on the basis that it might somehow be military. I guess they exist in every airforce..
Unless it was situated on a German airfield, in which case it would cause discomfort to German forces, which is to be applauded.Sorry, this is a picture of a slightly silly act with an even sillier caption. It would have caused great discomfort to the local French population and no doubt sanitation problems.
Which is a total guess; real aircraft, when attacked, tend to burn, or, at least, smoke. On the pilot's return, his combat film would have been studied, and claims only allowed when verified by the Squadron's I.O.A whole bunch of German airfields in France were fake: included were fake aircraft complete with plexiglass canopies. At least 50% of the straffed aircraft claimed destroyed would have been dummy.
For strafers the 'cost' of not doing flak suppression meant dead fighter pilots - not sure how to quantify but April 1945 cost a lot of 8th and 9th AF airfield strafers.
Especially the German air force in 1940.