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Now that is some pathetic sheet! Pure postwar-propaganda.
Sometimes I'm pretty glad, that I am living in the 'land that lost'.
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It is same in most countries. I saw the other day where a museum worker was writing an article on the "P47 problem" trying to attribute the performance of the P47 to the destruction of the Luftwaffe.
I agree with him that the P47 is type of aircraft that shot down most of the Luftwaffe and bore the brunt of that task.
However, the USAAF could have practically flown paper airplanes and beat the Luftwaffe under the conditions of 1944 with the numerical superiority and pilot quality advantage in the Allies possession.
It was men and not machines that won the day, just like the Battle of Britain. My hat is off to the pilots of the RAF who served in that time.
Churchill was right in calling them "the Few". If you examine the data, it was a meat grinder for the FC pilots. The world should be thankful for the lucky few who survived and those who gave all of their tomorrows.
Quote:
(13) E. B. Haslam, Journal of Strategic Studies (June, 1981):
It was estimated in the summer of the battle that every pilot kept in action for more than six months would be shot down because he was exhausted or stale, or even because he had lost the will to fight. In terms of flying hours the fighter pilot's life expectancy could be measured at eighty-seven.
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