and the swordfish wasn't a WWI plane at all, and to give you some idea of the skill involved, at some points they were flying so low that the AA guns COULDN'T be depressed far enough to hit them, and no planes were lost during the attack, however 4 chrased on landing...................
that's becuase the spits were flying as escort, when you have to stick to whatever it is you're escorting you loose everything important in winning a dogfight, just look at the 109s that had to stick to the bombers during the BoB...................
The idea behind the close escort the 109s flew during the BoB (and that the 8th AF used initially) was that you forced the enemy fighters to fly through your fighters to get to your bombers. However, it also prevented your fighters from acting agressively as they were shields and not swords.
Thank you, for pointing out the obvious. The dogfights happened around the bomber formations so the bombers were still in the firing line. Have you got any idea why the 8th AF did it, even though the Germans had failed so horribly?
GrG, the Spitfire was better than the 109. It's like the nice curves were better than the flat.