On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 11:28:46 -0400, "G.R. Patterson III"
wrote:



Rick Durden wrote:

When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 the Polish
Air Force fought courageously with outdated airplanes, all of which
could easily out-turn the Bf-109.

According to Len Deighton in "Blitzkrieg", Poland's aircraft were destroyed
on the ground early in the morning of 1 September, 1939. According to Johnny
Johnson and other British pilots, losing speed rapidly in an attempt to make
your opponent overshoot was a tactic used successfully by both sides in the
Battle for Britain period. Commander Lamb in "To War in a Stringbag" also
points out some of the defensive advantages of being slow and maneuverable.
While it's true that you aren't likely to shoot anyone down if you can't
catch them (though at least one Swordfish scored a Bf-109), speed isn't
everything.

George Patterson
The optimist feels that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The
pessimist is afraid that he's correct.
James Branch Cavel

It was true that in the hands of a skilled combat pilot, a
maneuverable WWII fighter could often survive against faster
opponents. But if that was all they had, the odds of combat were
against them and eventually they would be shot down.

Saburo Sakai, the well known Japanese fighter pilot, fought an epic
battle single handedly against a dozen F6F Hellcats off Iwo Jima in
1944. He was basically trapped alone in the sky with the Navy pilots
taking runs at him. He kept rolling out of the way of their gunfire,
timing his maneuver's perfectly. But that's all he could do because
they were faster then him and basically used him as target practice.
He grew very angry at being the target of so many inexperienced pilots
and whipped around onto the tail of one of them and peppered it with
gunfire. But he had to roll out of the way when his squadron mates
rushed to the rescue. Eventually he ran for the protective gunfire of
Iwo Jima to brush the fighters off and landed literally soaked in
sweat and totally exhausted. Where most maneuvering fights ended
within a minute or two, this one lasted over 20 minutes.
Unbelievably, he had not one bullet hole in his Zero. He was
evacuated from Iwo Jima shortly after this and basically the island
lay naked to invasion. However the Navy wasn't ready to invade then
and did not for many months. By the time the invasion did occur, the
Japanese had used the interval wisely and had built the defenses up to
a formidable degree.

This fight occured after he'd been wounded at Guadalcanal and had lost
the vision in one eye. He wrote about this incident, commenting that
he could not escape his opponents, he did not have the speed.

Corky Scott