Note worthy air battles in WW2

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Hunter368

Tech Sergeant
2,145
17
Nov 5, 2005
Winnipeg
What are some of the note worthy air battles from WW2 from any side's perceptive? They could be small or great, many planes over a long period or just a hand full of planes in a short but interesting battle.

-BoB

-Battle of Midway

-Sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse

-Any ace vs ace battles

-Battle for Guadalcanal

What are some of the note worthy / interesting air battles (large or small, important or unimportant) that you can think of?
 

Marianas Turkey shoot
Defense of Malta - small but significant
Coral Sea
 
The entire strategic bombing campaign over "Festung Europa", waged by the Brits by night and the Americans by day. By the sheer number of aircraft involved on both sides, and with the quality of the opposition, nothing comes close for me.

Of note, Ploesti and the Regensburg-Schweinfurt missions need special mention.

TO
 
how about the 3 Sturmgruppen up against the US 8th AF 445th bg and slaughtering them with around 30 B-24's lost..........today s date even : September 27th, 1944 near Kassel. the 445th bg would of been wiped out of the skies had not the US 8th AF 361st come to their rescue in the last moments
 
1) The USAAF (and ANZAC) had several noteworthy attacks on Rabaul in late 1943 and early 1944.

2) Then there was the USAAF raid on Wewak (New Guinie) on Aug 17th 1943 that wiped out most of the IJA airpower in that region.

3) The 380th BG raid on Balikpapen (Aug 14th 1943) from their bases at Darwin. It was a 3200 mile mission with nearly 16 hours in the air.
 

Good ones, I love the battles in the South Pacific.
 
Battle of Malta resulted in losses of over 1000 aircraft (recent numbers) combined hardly a small battle .
The air battle over Dieppe in Aug 42 was the largest dogfight of WW2 48Spit squadrons and over 200 LW aircraft
 
Operation, err, whichever one was the Luftwaffe's last push. It flopped pretty badly. Can't remember the name, but it was 1944.
 
How about the Battle of the Bismark Sea, when Allied airpower pretty much sank the whole Japanese invasion force headed for New Guinea? That one has always stuck with me.
 
no doubt Bill, can also think of several more, one of them my cousin in JG 301 KIA.........Schwarze Tag für JG 301, November 26, 1944. what a blood bath over Germany.

another real mess: January 11, 1944 another 60 US bombers downed
 
pbfoot said:
Battle of Malta resulted in losses of over 1000 aircraft (recent numbers) combined hardly a small battle .
Click to expand...



I didn't realize that many were lost.... I'll have to do some reading. Thanks for the clarification. When I think "Malta", I think "Faith, Hope and Charity" - the Gloster Gladiators. It's a story we dont hear enough about!

Faith Hope Charity

To say Malta's air defences were small at the beginning of WWII would be an under statement.
The total air power on Malta consisted of 4 Gloster Gladiator biplanes. These were packed in crates left at Kalafrana flying boat base by HMS Glorious which left to join the Norwegian campaign. In fact, there were enough parts to make up 8 biplanes but the Navy wanted 4 back to join the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle.
The remaining 4 were assembled, 3 were to be used on operations with the reamaining 1 kept in reserve. After assembling the biplanes the Royal Navy decided on having them back for work in Alexandria, so they were taken apart for re-packing.
Following talks between Air Commodore Maynard the Royal Navy it was decided to leave the biplanes on Malta they were re-assembled. Their first use in combat came at 0649 on the 11th of June 1940 when 10 Italian Savoia Marchetti 79 bombers bombed Grand Harbour. No aircraft were shot down in this encounter.
On the 7th raid of the day the Gladiator's drew blood by shooting down a Macchi 200 fighter. Although the biplanes were slower than the Italian fighters they were more manouverable.
Flying Officer John Waters nicknamed the aircraft 'Faith, Hope Charity'.
Three bladed propellers were fitted in place of the usual two to give the biplanes a faster rate of climb. Other parts were later used from a Swordfish. Superchargers were left on maximum during the climb after take off (which was against orders) so they could gain height faster. This put extra strain on the engines 2 of them blew pistons. Maintenance crews converted Blenheim bomber engines to fit the Gladiators.
Faith, Hope Charity fought for 17 days without relief played a fundamental role in fooling the Italian intelligence into thinking Malta had a substantial fighter defense.

Italian intelligence is that an oxymoron?
Hey... I'm half Italian... I can say that!




IMO, The Battle of Coral Sea is almost equal in importance to Midway.. I'm sure any Australian thinks so too!



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comiso90 said:
IMO, The Battle of Coral Sea is almost equal in importance to Midway.. I'm sure any Australian thinks so too!
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'll also throw in the defence of Port Morseby by 75 sqn RAAF in early '42 when they were the only fighter squadron to oppose the Japanese in New Guinea at the time.
Mention should also go to the two RAAF Kittyhawk squadrons who played a big part in helping to defeat the Japanese at the Battle of Milne Bay.
Also what about the Japanese pushing aside all allied air opposition at the start of the pacific war in the PI, Malaya, Singapore, NEI etc.
 
Malta was an intense aerial Guadalcanal , read about operation Pedestal.
those P40's would take a lot of work to keep flying in that moist hot climate in New Guinea
 
Operation Tidal Wave, The Ploesti raid... a day without parallel in the history of the USAAF.

In all, 54 B-24s were lost, 41 of them shot down. Others crashed on landing, and seven were stranded in neutral Turkey. Two were lost in a midair collision during the return flight. In all, 306 men were killed and some 200 others were taken prisoner or interned. The damage sustained by the surviving aircraft was such that only 30 or so of the original 178 were fit for combat on the following day.

Five medals of honor were awarded, more than for any single mission in WW II.

TO
 
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