Aviation and War Machine

Many aviation authorities regard the North American P-51 Mustang to be the best American air superiority fighter of the Second World War. Many top aces flew the Mustang, including Colonel Donald Blakeslee (15 victories) and C.O. of the famous 4th Fighter Group (which destroyed over 1,000 German aircraft, more than any other American fighter group in WW II), Captain Don Gentile (35 victories), Captain John Godfrey (31 victories), and General Chuck Yeager (the first man to break the sound barrier). Also Colonel Eagleston (23 victories), commander of the 354th Fighter Group of the Ninth Tactical Air Force, and top ace of the 9th. Also in the 9th was Major James Howard, the only American ace in both theaters of the war (6 victories in China flying P-40’s, and 6 victories in Europe flying P-51’s).
(more…)

It is hard for modern researchers to understand just how dominant the Zero was in the early years of the Pacific War. No Allied plane could stand against it. The obsolete Brewster Buffalo and the sleek looking but comparatively low performance Bell P-39 fared poorly against the Zero. The best of the early American Army fighters was probably the Curtis P-40, and the early models of this fighter were distinctly inferior in most respects to the Zero. Even the contemporary models of the famous British Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, which had won the Battle of Britain, had major problems with the Zero when they met in 1942.

At sea, the situation was hardly much better. The U.S. Navy’s Grumman F4F Wildcat was out classed by the Zero, although it probably provided the best competition of any of the Allied fighter in the theater. Navy and Marine pilots used the stubby fighter’s maneuverability to good advantage in the desperate early battles in the Pacific.

Most of Japan’s many top aces flew the Zero. Prominent among them is Saburo Sakai (with 64 victories), the top scoring Japanese ace to survive the war, and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa (actual total of victories unknown, but 104 confirmed), perhaps the greatest Japanese ace of them all. Among other Japanese aces, Shoichi Sugita had 120+ victories, Tadashi Nakajima 75+, Naoishi Kanno 53, Teimei Akamatsu 50+, and Kinsuke Muto 35.
(more…)

In 1941 the German Luftwaffe encountered a previously unknown Russian fighter with a long slender nose, clearly powered by an inline or “Vee” type engine. The known Soviet fighters were powered by radial engines and lacked the performance of the front line German fighters. German intelligence was very poor concerning the Soviet Air Force and the existence of this new fighter took Luftwaffe fighter pilots completely by surprise.

Equally surprising, and disconcerting, was that this sleek Soviet fighter was faster than the Bf 109F, Germany’s top fighter at the time, and could out maneuver the vaunted Messerschmitt as well. At first the Luftwaffe High Command refused to believe the reports of their pilots, but soon the reality became undeniable. The MiG-3 had arrived.

The following comments from a German expert, Dr. Ing. Karl-Heinz Steinicke, as quoted in the book Horrido! by Trevor J. Constable and Col. Raymond F. Toliver, are worth repeating.

“In July and August 1941, during the first aerial combats over Kiev, elegant low-wing monoplanes with straight engines appeared next to the Rata. A few of them had been seen over Lemberg during the first few days, but this didn’t cause much of a surprise because they were held to be our own.”
(more…)

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter was flown by many of the top scoring Luftwaffe fighter pilots during WW II. The top fighter pilot of all time, Erich Hartmann (who flew 1,400 missions, shot down 352 enemy planes–mostly on the Eastern Front–and was proudest of the fact that he never lost a wingman), and the second highest scoring fighter pilot of all time, Gerhard Barkhorn (301 victories, all on the Eastern Front), both flew the Bf 109. So did the third highest scoring ace of all time, Gunther Rall (275 victories). The top scoring German ace of the Western front, Hans-Joachim Marseille (158 victories), also flew the Bf 109. As did the first “General of Fighters”, Werner Molders (115 victories), and his famous successor in that job, Adolf Galland (104 victories).

Squadron Commander Heinz Knoke, who wrote the fascinating book I Flew For the Furher had 33 victories (plus 5 that were not confirmed before the end of the war), 19 of them 4-engine bombers. Knoke logged over 2,000 flights and over 400 combat missions, all in the Bf 109.

The prototype Messerschmitt Bf 109 first flew in 1935. It participated in trials to become the new fighter of the expanding Luftwaffe and won decisively. The successful new fighter prototype was a low wing, all metal monoplane with an enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear; the type of fighter that became the mainstay of all sides in WW II. But the Bf 109 was the first such fighter to appear in service.
(more…)