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Excuse me, but just exactly where did I say anything about B-32's in Europe?
My friend originally was training in the U.S., shooting at RP-63's, and was told that for the invasion of Japan he would be a gunner on B-32's which would be used for low altitude "gunship" strafing missions. The A-bomb attacks eliminated the need for that mission. And B-32's were used over Japan; in the Pentagon there is a painting showing a B-32 fighting Japanese fighters, labled as "The last aerial combat of WWII."
As for what the combat vet told my combat vet friend about the 109 pilot bailing out , I rather would tend to believe them rather than your objections, so excuse me. The fact is, by that time in the war the Luftwaffe was tracking pilots via some of their new IFF and charging them if they failed to engage the enemy. And our bombers reported cases in which German fighters just flew out of gun range and seemed to decide not to get involved.
Tell ya what - bring it on. I knew LeVier personnaly (I also worked at Lockheed Burbank for 10.5 yrs) and interviewed him several times.I was going to post next here a very interesting P-38 story I heard personally from Tony LeVier but I can see that would be pointless. It would only bring more calls of BS. Sorry to disturb y'all.
....third party's ...