The Greatest Air Battle

most of the battles were also fought by pilots who had the training and exp. of older pilots and more time in training so imy vote goes to BoB as most of these kids had minimal flying and no battle experience.peter

tuff 1 well for me it was between Battle of Midway Dieppe Raid and I chose the Dieppe Raid ,The Abbeville boys of JG/26 them boys new how to rip it up.

My opinion is that for the early part of the war, the most significant air battles were at sea. I would rate the disabling of the bismarck, the Battles for malta, and the disabling of the italian fleet at taranto as the most significant actions until the entry of the US. The reason is that it was at sea that had the greatest potential to cause an upset in the war. If the Axis could get heavy units into the Atlantic, they could threaten the escort forces holding the U-Boats in check. If the escorts were neutralized by these heavy units the war was essentially lost.

In the med, this seemingly secondary theatre had the potential to cause an upset. The key to the MTO was logistics, and the key to the logistics was malta, and the key to malta was the control of the oceans and the skies around it. If the British had been unable to undertake force projection into the central basin, (and the key to doing that was the carriers providing support to the RN), Malta would fall. with Malta fallen, the Axis supply problems to the North African theatre would be solved. With logistics solved, the Germans would almost certainly have overrun the oil fields of the middle east. With these under their control, the whole balance of power would change.

The actions by the miniscule CAGs onboard those handful of RN carriers (and on malta....an unsinkable carrier essentially) changed the course of history........

I agree Parsifal. The more I read about what went on in the MTO the more I'm convinced that it was just as important, if not more than, the ETO and PTO. If not for the actual battles and victories but also as a fair training ground for all involved.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned any of the air battles over Khalkhin Gol...their where several big battles that involved hundreds of aeroplanes.

1) The romance of "dogfighting" was still alive (the first big air battles sense WW1).

2) Modern aeroplanes meets old world tech and tactics.

3) Vicious huge swirling dogfights with battles that made "Aces" in a day.

4) Daring rescues (pilots landing behind enemy lines to rescue downed comrades)

5) The first air war (battles) with modern aircraft...

Ask those involved which was Greatest, I bet they were all tooth-grinding puckerers!

Njaco said:

...... it was just as important, if not more than, the ETO and PTO .......

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I will agree with the importance, but "more"? A bit of an exaggeration isnt it?

The equation changed fundamentally once the US and Japan were in the war. After Pearl the war took on a truly global aspect, and it becomes very difficult to argue that the RN carriers, and the battles they fought were as central to victory as those actions in 1939-41.

The British were not equipped to fight the japanese properly,. Only the US possessed the training, the equipment, and the numbers to undertake that task. Whilst the RN was capable of containing the Axis, and thereby limiting its power, it lacked the strength and equipment to push the fight forward and crush the Axis in the way the USN did in the Pacific.

After the Axis had been contained, it is more difficult to argue that Naval aviation was as important. I tend to believe that the key to victory swung over to land based air, though this argument is less convincing in the PTO. In the ETO there are four broad strategic choices

1) The Night battles over Germany
2) The day battles over Germany
3) The Tacair operations over the western front
4) Tacair operations over the eastern front.

Once one of these broad categories are selected as the "key" air baqttle, one has to select one fought in that genre that contributed the most to victory.

I tend to believe the destruction of the german army in Falaise, or the ardennes may qualify as the single most important air battle in the latter years of the war....but am unsure really

t

syscom3 said:

I will agree with the importance, but "more"? A bit of an exaggeration isnt it?

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That could be. But I don't really think the Allies would have as great a success as they had in the ETO without the trials and tribulations and ongoing combat within the MTO. Just my opinion which well could be misplaced.