"Vanishing American Air Superiority"

In article ,
Jack Linthicum wrote:
On Mar 23, 3:58*pm, Bill Kambic wrote:
On Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:51:20 -0700 (PDT), Jim Wilkins



wrote:
On Mar 23, 11:21 am, Chris wrote:
On Mar 23, 12:55 am, -did-not-set--mail-host-address--

so-tickle-me wrote:
I'm not sure, maybe you know: I assumed the Japanese were good until
they lost their best attack and dive bomber pilots; and this
problem was

What is impressive about the Japanese early war aircrew is that
defending fighters often didn't break up the attacks, even when they
were in a position to intercept. Examine the Hiryu's airgroup pair of
attacks on Yorktown at Midway and notice that despite intense losses,
on both occasions the crews got in and hit their targets and did their
damage.

The relevance is if known Japanese experience predicts how well the
Germans might have done against the RN. To what extent had the skilled
attack pilots been lost during the BoB?

IIRC the RAF and the Luftwaffe both had extensive air-sea rescue
programs. *If I further remember correctly the IJN had none. *So a
Brit or Jerry knocked down had a chance of rescue and return to duty.
An Jap who got shot down just learned it was his time to die for the
Emperor.


The German air sea rescue operations were sea-planes escorted in one
instance by 12 Bf 109s, the German pilots got flotation devices and
all the requisite gear if they had to land in the sea. The RAF had
none of those. But they did have rescue boats instead of big white sea
planes covered with 8 red crosses.

And, more pertinently, the RN also operated an exensive force of ASW
craft (adapted Fairmile MLs in the main), which were heavily armed.
Most pertinently of all, RAF air spottin g of survivors and RN/RAF
launch rescue were well-co-ordinated: this greatly increased the
chances of survivors getting picked up whilst still alive (the channel
being a cold place).

--
Andy Breen ~ Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth

"Who dies with the most toys wins" (Gary Barnes)