Impossible Situations (1 Viewer)

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NightHawk

Senior Airman
325
2
Aug 3, 2004
Gaza Strip
I have no idea how did they get to this sitoations.............
 

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I could take a guess on the B-24. The nose gear on that airplane was pretty fragile and was prone to collapse on bumpy runways. The Germans flew a couple of captured B-24s that had the nose gear collapse when landing on a less than smooth grass runway. Probably a rough field combined with a nose gear collapse at a reasonably good speed.

The B-17 shot is quite well known. The aircraft in the picture was out of position in a lower formation. Because of that, he was in the path of the bombs. There is another famous movie clip of one taking a bomb right through the section where the wing meets the fuselage.
 
Actually the B-24 incident happened because the pilot, for some reason decided not to commit to a take off and decided to slam on the brakes. My guess is he (the pilot) felt that he didn't have enough runway for take off. This was a common occurrence for low time multi-engine pilots and in many situations, they actually had enough room to take off. Many runways have a natural "hump" to them an during a takeoff roll you have an illusion that you're running out of runway. Anyway I seen this photo before and it stated that 6 or 7 people were killed during this incident!
 
My Uncle was a B-24 Bombardier stationed at Mountain Home Idaho during WWII. About 2 weeks before he was supposed to go over seas he was on a training mission in a "D" model. He remembers looking outside and seeing a flight of P-38s escorting this formation. He rolled over and went to sleep -

When he woke up, he looked up and saw the P-38s again, except he now noticed they were hanging from a ceiling! When he looked down he was in a full body cast, someone even drew a checker board on his chest! He had been in a coma for almost 6 months as a result of an in flight engine failure and crash that took the life of his entire crew! He was the only survivor and probably survived because of his little nap!
 
That's a rough call Fly, still he had better luck than his poor old mates

Here's a couple of tales that I'm sure you probably know of but hey I'm a boring repetitive guy. :)

I.M. Chisov:

Lt. I.M. Chisov was a Russian airman whose Ilyushin IL-4 bomber was attacked by German fighters in January of 1942. Falling nearly 22,000 feet, he hit the edge of a snow-covered ravine and rolled to the bottom. He was badly hurt but survived.

Alan Magee:

Alan Magee, a gunner on a B-17 with the 303rd Bomb Group of the U.S. 8th Air Force, was on a mission to St. Nazaire, France in January of 1943, when his bomber was set aflame by enemy fire. He was thrown from the plane before he had a chance to put on his parachute. He fell 20,000 feet and crashed through the skylight of the St. Nazaire train station. His arm was badly injured, but he recovered from that and other injuries.

Nicholas Alkemade

In March of 1944, Nicholas Alkemade was the tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber on a night mission to Berlin when his plane was attacked by German fighters. When the captain ordered the crew to bail out, Alkemade looked back into the plane and discovered that his parachute was in flames. He chose to jump without a parachute rather than to stay in the burning plane. He fell 18,000 feet, landing in trees, underbrush, and drifted snow. He twisted his knee and had some cuts, but was otherwise alright.
 
I was thinking that. It looks more like he's flying in formation with him than shooting him down.
 
Look at the MC.205 markings...Co-Belligerant Air Force. Why would the Allies be formation flying with the Axis? :lol:


Thanks les...I might do in the future, when im bored of this one
 
cheddar cheese said:
Look at the MC.205 markings...Co-Belligerant Air Force. Why would the Allies be formation flying with the Axis? :lol:

Who knows... But what is clear, is that the MC.205 is closer to the camera, while the 109 is further away. And it doesnt look like the MC.205 is persuing the 109 at all, and there's no smoke coming from the 109 either.
 
CC is right. The Mc-205 and Me-109 are on opposing sides in that picture.

Anytime you have a picture of a Hellcat and a Zero or a P-38 and a Fw-190 or a any other enemy combatants where one is behind the other, it is reasonable to assume that the follower isn't admiring his opponents rear end but instead trying to blow it off.

One could say that the picture of the P-40 and Ki-21's isn't of hostile action either because there's no smoke eminating from the Warhawk's guns or the Sally's.

I do think the Mc-205 is a little closer to the camera but do not see how that is of any consequence to the reasonable inference that the Mc-205 is pursuing the Me-109 with extreme prejudice.
 

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