Quote:
Originally Posted by 335th_GRExandas
Man!!!
What ever movie they can produce about WW2 allied pilots will not get the
feeling.
German Aces where fighting 4 straight years over all europe and africa continent THERE IS THE PILOTS REAL FEELING.
Especially the last desperate years when 100 GAF pilots where opposing
1000 well fed napped and fair treated American pilots in their shiny new P51s.
100 war dogs which usually bit the odds and returned back home with 2-3 kills
and obliged to take off back again in 10 mins the most.
Maaan that's is a feeling of a pilot.
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Actually the facts are, for anyone who cares to do the research, the actual numbers of USAAF fighter pilots who confronted Luftwaffe pilots at the point of intercept, the numbers were more often on the side the of the Germans.
American pilots had to cover a huge stream of bombers, which was up to 100 km long, typically one Bomb Group of approx. 64 planes would be covered by one fighter Group of approx. 32 planes. (1943 and early '44 would see smaller numbers of USAAF fighters, Groups put up 16 planes most of the time) The Germans would not intercept the whole stream, they would concentrate on one small section. Typical intercept numbers for the Germans were in Gruppe size, (approx. 30-50 planes) and quite often two or more Gruppes would hit the same Bomb Group, the German controllers would do everything they could to concentrate attacks. If another USAAF fighter Group was closeby, it would try to intervene, but typically the Luftwaffe made one quick pass, and then dove away. Thus it was quite common to see the USAAF fighter pilots outnumbered. Of course, the Germans focus was on attacking the bombers, but they more often than not had temporary numbers advantage in fighters at the point of attack.