First fight in a 109

[Jaws2002]

Originally Posted by JG5_emil

The LW knew their strengths and weaknesses and I doubt many real pilots would fly that way, many of the ones that did probably ended up at the bottom of the channel. The pilots that used the strengths of the aircraft surely survived much longer.

Nope. The majority of LW pilots did waht they were told to do. Did you forget the "fly close to the bombers" orders Goering gave them? It was bad for the fighters, but at the time that's what they were told and that's what they did.
Wars are not fought individually by the pilots. They fight as part of a machine that works towards a strategic goal. The life of one, or a few fighter pilots is not more important than the final strategic goal.
The idea of the whole fighter force of the luftwafe flying however and wherever they like is bloody stupid. Very, very few of them had the freedon to fly how they wanted. Those are the ones that got to the top, by fighing how they were told.
If your unit has to cover a ground offensive, you flew at the altitude they told you. Not everyone was flying at 6000meters and engaged only when it suited them. You could be assigned to fly between ground level and 2000meters. It was not up to you. The success of the ground offensive dictated the air tactics.


Look. Here's a very good documentary that explains very well how military organizations work during wars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31AXA...eature=related

You are basically a smal part of teh big picture.



I wish you all the fun and enjoy your flying. Just don't pretend this is absolutely the historical way to fly.
It's a game in the end, thanks God, and we all can get our fix however we like.

[JG5_emil]

You're putting words in my mouth that I haven't said.

Are you seriously going to tell me that the good pilots didn't know where their strengths lay and wouldn't want to try and use them in order to stay alive?

Yes there were given patrol altitude and tasked with escort duties as well as fighter sweeps and other missions. Sounds like you are the one who is forgetting that all of the fighter pilots hated being tasked with close escort? And why was that? because they knew they were being forced to fight in a situation where they couldn't use their strengths of speed and superior climb rate. There were slow and vulnerable. Once engaged do you think they didn't try to get the upper hand as soon as humanly possible? The 109 had several advantages over the Spit 1a and Hurricane and the pilots who survived would have tried to use them the best they could. I am yet to read about a 109 pilot who regularly flew round in circles 50ft of the deck at 250 kph and lived as you see in a dogfight server.

What I wrote was in response to the original posters request about tactics used by blue (CLOD pilots not real world pilots). Low and slow you are much more likely to die. Higher (than the enemy) and/or faster than your enemy you have more chance to win the fight and live. Higher doesn't mean 4000m higher, that would be ridiculous, I am speaking in terms of energy that can be converted in order to keep their advantage and ultimately win the fight or disengage at will and ultimately live to fight another day.

In short having a lower or equal energy state than your opponent is never a good thing and should be avoided.