Unlikely victors or encounters.

[awack]

Four Ju88's jumped I think 24 P38's and got away with it while the P38s lost I think six either shot down or crashed on landing

Now that's crazy! wow!

 

[stona]

I know of a victory for an unarmed PRU Spitfire flown by Canadian F/O George Patterson Christie. He was awarded the DFC, announced in August 1940 when he had transferred from the Photo Development Unit to 242 Squadron, for an action earlier that year when.

"On 13th June 1940, this officer, in an unarmed aircraft, attacked a Breda bomber off the coast of Monaco, and by repeatedly diving at it, forced it to land in the sea. The five occupants of the machine climbed out and swam for the shore, and the aircraft sank almost immediately. Flying Officer Christie has obtained valuable information concerning enemy movements and concentrations by daylight reconnaissance flights over enemy territory."

Those Canadians don't even need guns!

Christie returned to Canada early in 1941, joining Ferry Command. He was promoted to Squadron Leader on 1 March 1942. Sadly he was killed in a Flying Accident at Lac St.Louis on 5 July 1942 (Hudson FH395). I think that airfield is now Montreal airport.

Cheers

Steve

 

[stona]

Swiss Bf 109s also shot down several Luftwaffe Bf 109s early in the war. Between 10 May 1940 and 17 June 1940 a total of 11 Luftwaffe aircraft of different types were shot down. On the 20th June 1940, after protests from Germany, the Swiss stopped shooting Germans down and forced them to land, interning the aircraft and crews. About sixty Luftwaffe aircraft were thus detained.

One Swiss Bf 109 E-3, W.Nr. 2305, coded J310 was shot down by Luftwaffe Bf 110s on 4th June 1940, so it went both ways.

Romanian Hurricanes saw action against Soviet aircraft, though I don't know whether they confronted Soviet Hurricanes!

In 1939 the USSR received five Bf 109s. There maybe a story there somewhere.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Alex .]

I was watching a video earlier where a vet described a Short Sunderland becoming a gun platform whilst 2 Ju-88s were attacking some shipping off the English coast.

I did a search for an account, and found this story of a Sunderland being jumped by Ju-88s...http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/stories/sunderland-vs-eight-ju-88s-7987.html

 

[Rufus123]

What was the Sunderland armed with? I thought it was all .303's. They pulled off an amazing job with what they had.

 

[Rufus123]

Any more things where planes that were not meant to engage each other are fighting it out?

It would have been interesting if something like a flight of bombers was going to the Isles while at the same time a flight of bombers was going from the Isles to Europe ran into each other. That would have been strange as bomb laden planes fired on each other as they passed going to their real missions.

 

[pattle]

I once read somewhere that it was not uncommon for British and German bombers to pass in the opposite direction at night but from what I can recall they rarely fired upon one another as their was a strange form of loyalty between them. If I was in a bomber at night I might perhaps be reluctant to show gun flashes that may be seen by night fighters. If it is not your business best to keep out of it, if you were in a bomber then your job is to drop your bombs on target and not to be distracted by things outside of your given purpose. Recon planes were told to avoid enemy aircraft and that the most important part of the job was to return with their pictures.

 

[GrauGeist]

Here's a good thread of unlikely encounters by the large aircraft of WWII, particularly flying boats:
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/clash-titans-33981.html

 

[paradoxguy]

In 1944 the day zestorer and night fighter ace Hans-Joachim Jabs was about to land in daylight in his nightfighter Bf 110 when he was jumped by several Spitfire IX fighters. He managed to shoot down two of them, buying him sufficient time to land and for he and his crew to run for cover while his landed Bf 110 was shot up by the strafing Spitfires.

 

[muskeg13]

Don't forget the P-26 vs. Zero. Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-26_Peashooter:

"By December 1941, U.S. fighter strength in the Philippines included 28 P-26s, 12 of which were operational with the 6th Pursuit Squadron of the Philippine Army Air Corps.[9] Filipino-flown P-26s claimed one G3M and two or three Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeros before the last of the P-26s were burned by their crews on 24 December 1941."

 

[muskeg13]

Also, the Douglas SBD vs. 3 Zeros This encounter was highlighted in a History Channel Dogfights episode. Douglas SBD Dauntless - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia :

"Their relatively heavy gun armament—with two forward-firing .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns and either one or two rear flexible-mount .30 in (7.62 mm) AN/M2 machine guns—was effective against the lightly-built Japanese fighters, and many pilots and gunners took aggressive attitudes to the fighters that attacked them. One pilot—Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa—was attacked by three A6M2 Zero fighters; he shot two of them down and cut off the wing of the third in a head-on pass with his wing tip."

Pretty ballsy! But I'm sure when Swede got took off that day, he wasn't out looking to tangle with multiple Zeroes.

 

[Rufus123]

2 questions.

I think a couple of times either US carrier based dive bombers or torpedo planes (don't remember which) were sent off to battle incoming attackers because the fighters were already off doing other duties? I think they were used against incoming torpedo planes. I never saw if this was successful or not. Does anyone have any stories about this one?


Where there ever any encounters between twin engined bombers? Some twin engined bombers had significant firepower in the nose but I am sure it would a challenge for the pilot to put them to use against another plane.

 

[stona]

Flt Lt Arthur Johnstone of 430 Flight received a DFC for, amongst other things, destroying an Italian aircraft on the ground with a flare pistol during the campaign in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Rufus123]

Flt Lt Arthur Johnstone of 430 Flight received a DFC for, amongst other things, destroying an Italian aircraft on the ground with a flare pistol during the campaign in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Cheers
Steve

Very good use of a flare pistol. What that low of velocity that had to be hard.

 

[swampyankee]

A British pilot, Adrian Warburton, was the only bomber pilot to achieve ace status. He shot down five aircraft using the fixed armament in his bomber, which I think was a Martin Maryland.

In a later conflict, pilots in AD Skyraiders downed MiGs (I think they were MiG-17s). While this does say good things about the AD pilots, it also says very bad things about the MiG drivers.

 

[swampyankee]

A British pilot, Adrian Warburton, was the only bomber pilot to achieve ace status. He shot down five aircraft using the fixed armament in his bomber, which I think was a Martin Maryland.

In a later conflict, pilots in AD Skyraiders downed MiGs (I think they were MiG-17s). While this does say good things about the AD pilots, it also says very bad things about the MiG drivers.

 

[Bernhart]

supposedly he went into a bank to avoid the zero and wing tip hit the zero and as were close to the ground it crashed

 

[Glider]

2 questions.

Where there ever any encounters between twin engined bombers? Some twin engined bombers had significant firepower in the nose but I am sure it would a challenge for the pilot to put them to use against another plane.

There probably were combats between twin engined bombers but off the top of my head I cannot think of one. There were a number of examples where bombers fought coastal command aircraft or transport aircraft such as the Baltimore being used against the Ju52's in the Med. Hudsons were often in air to air combat

 

[Glider]

2 questions.

Where there ever any encounters between twin engined bombers? Some twin engined bombers had significant firepower in the nose but I am sure it would a challenge for the pilot to put them to use against another plane.

There probably were combats between twin engined bombers but off the top of my head I cannot think of one. There were a number of examples where bombers fought coastal command aircraft or transport aircraft such as the Baltimore being used against the Ju52's in the Med. Hudsons were often in air to air combat

The Hudson at Hendon is one of these shooting down a Sally and a Floatplane

 

[pattern14]

Does any one know about the Japanese pilot who landed on a US carrier by mistake? Read the story several times over the years, but no Idea what plane or carrier it was.