Good for a Laugh....
- Thread starter fubar57
- Start date
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That is a bit scary, considering there are still people alive who lived through it and enough books to fill a break bulk vessel.
michael rauls
Tech Sergeant
- 1,679
- Jul 15, 2016
They can't possibly be serrious. It must be satire....................right?
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
Well...huh.
And it claims all those Nazi aircrew killed in the battle of Britain but they didn't they list the numbers for the German aircrew that weren't Nazis.
By the way, the first intentional ramming of a bomber by a fighter was by the Royal Bulgarian Air Force - and they did it on many occasions.
And it claims all those Nazi aircrew killed in the battle of Britain but they didn't they list the numbers for the German aircrew that weren't Nazis.
By the way, the first intentional ramming of a bomber by a fighter was by the Royal Bulgarian Air Force - and they did it on many occasions.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
I got as far as part-way through the first line, said "B*ll*cks !", and gave up.
Can't even get the start date of WW2 correct - war wasn't officially declared until September 3rd, not September 1st as shown in this juvenile 'publication'.
Can't even get the start date of WW2 correct - war wasn't officially declared until September 3rd, not September 1st as shown in this juvenile 'publication'.
Not "officially" for Great Britain and France. But it started on September 1st. So the date is correct but the word "officailly" can be discussed and be confusing IMHO. There is a lot of such mistakes made all around the world .... eg.. "Polish death camps".
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
I agree.
Unfortunately the casual viewer might think that all the "information" contained there is accurately researched and presented which of course it is not. The Enlightened group on our site here know where the inaccuracies are and can hopefully educate more people of the errors.
The Night Witches flew 30,000 missions, believable, and dropped 23,000 tons of bombs ???
That would work out to about 1500 lbs per mission.
Pretty amazing lifting capacity for a airplane that had a 100 hp engine, and weighed just a little more than 1400 lbs empty.
Maybe UPS needs to build a fleet of Po-2s.
That would work out to about 1500 lbs per mission.
Pretty amazing lifting capacity for a airplane that had a 100 hp engine, and weighed just a little more than 1400 lbs empty.
Maybe UPS needs to build a fleet of Po-2s.
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A standard Polikarpov Po-2LNB (U-2LNB) could carry 300kg of bombs. It gives 3 tons per a mission if there were ten planes used and 1500kg if there were 5 planes only.. If there were 30 000 missions accomplished they could drop 90 000 or 45 000 tons totally. So the 23 000 tons of bombs is a quite real number if there were less than 5 planes used per a mission or they could carry less than the 300 kg of bombs..
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
It was my understanding the U-2VS could carry a max. load of 770 pounds worth of bombs distributed under the lower wing?
I took the 30,000 missions to mean 30,000 sorties .
I realize that in war some missions are going to be performed with a overload. But with a 1400 lb empty weight a 1962 max weight , even with a lightweight woman pilot, and almost no fuel, I don't see them managing 700 lb of bombs off the ground on a regular basis.
I realize that in war some missions are going to be performed with a overload. But with a 1400 lb empty weight a 1962 max weight , even with a lightweight woman pilot, and almost no fuel, I don't see them managing 700 lb of bombs off the ground on a regular basis.
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
I beleive they also had a gal in back manning a flexible-mount 7.62 MG...so add her weight and that of the MG and ammunition, too.
According to Wiki, the 588th Night Bomber Regiment ( Night Witches) flew 23672 sorties, dropped 3000 tons of bombs, and expended 26000 rounds of excendiary rounds ( 7.62, I guess ) .
So a slight inflation in the missions, or sorties, but big inflation on tonnage dropped.
So a slight inflation in the missions, or sorties, but big inflation on tonnage dropped.
Good stuff!
Hansie Bloeckmann
Senior Airman
The "Hitler's Buzzsaw MG-42?? Later morphed into the US issue M-60. adopted by the Army in 1959- saw usage in 'Nam-- it was in 7.62x51 mm cal. NATO-- Not sure about the length in mm of the German WW2 7.62 round- can the Grey Ghost perhaps shed some light on this? Danke..
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
7.62x54R ShKAS
Yeh, but they would still charge by the size of the bomb, not the weight!
GreenKnight121
Senior Airman
- 738
- Mar 16, 2014
Official issuance of amphetamines to pilots/aircrew was common among all combatant nations - no one wants their pilots falling asleep in the air or getting woozy from exhaustion.
Whether the Germans issued them to the ramming pilots to "improve" their performance is something I have no knowledge about, either way.
