Spitfires In Burma Might Fly Again

[huumlaar]

<<â€Spitfires are beautiful aeroplanes and should not be rotting away in a foreign land. They saved our neck in the Battle of Britain and they should be preserved.†>>

 

What a load of rubbish!

 

Hawker Hurricane - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hurricane

Although largely overshadowed by the Supermarine Spitfire, the aircraft became renowned during the Battle of Britain, accounting for 60% of the RAF's air victories in the battle, and served in all the major theatres of the Second World War.

 

Spitfire was prettier and faster, but the Hurricane was far easier to maintain and could absorb more punishment.

[The_Munchmaster]

<<â€Spitfires are beautiful aeroplanes and should not be rotting away in a foreign land. They saved our neck in the Battle of Britain and they should be preserved.†>>

 

What a load of rubbish!

 

Maybe your right, maybe the Hurricane was more effective, but you're also ignorant of the place that the Spitfire has in the annals of WW2.

[baa99]

... and the Mustang is better.

 

 

[huumlaar]

Maybe your right, maybe the Hurricane was more effective, but you're also ignorant of the place that the Spitfire has in the annals of WW2.

 

I'll post this again as it was deleted by someone.

 

I never discussed nor commented on the roll of WW2 in History of WW2. I was commenting on it's roll in Battle of Britain. Where did I refer to the roll of the Spitfire in WW2?

 

Interesting that my previous response here was edited out, far less inflammatory than many other posts?

 

Trivia I learned today,

 

What very important event that involved submarine activity used a condom in WW2?

[TheCorinthian]

I always liked the P-38 Lightning myself.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-38_Lightning

[kamui]

I always liked the P-38 Lightning myself.

 

http://en.wikipedia...._P-38_Lightning

 

Yep, I remember them flying over Germany in the 60s.

 

PS: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry flew a Lightning when he crashed into the Mediterranean sea.

[Flashermac]

Some of the Luftwaffe top aces made hash of the P-38. They said it wasn't all that maneuverable.

 

Wikipedia:

 

"The P-38 was unusually quiet for a fighter, the exhaust muffled by the turbo-superchargers. It was extremely forgiving, and could be mishandled in many ways, but the rate of roll in the early versions was too slow for it to excel as a dogfighter."

 

<< The P-38 remained active in the Mediterranean for the rest of the war. It was in this theatre that the P-38 suffered its heaviest losses in the air. On 25 August 1943, 13 P-38s were shot down in a single sortie by Jagdgeschwader 53 Bf 109s without achieving a single kill. On 2 September 1943, 10 P-38s were shot down, in return for a single kill, the 67-victory ace Franz Schiess (who was also the leading "Lightning" killer in the Luftwaffe with 17 destroyed).

 

Kurt Bühligen, third highest scoring German pilot on Western front with 112 victories, recalled later: “The P-38 fighter (and the B-24) were easy to burn. Once in Africa we were six and met eight P-38s and shot down seven. One sees a great distance in Africa and our observers and flak people called in sightings and we could get altitude first and they were low and slow.â€

 

General der Jagdflieger Adolf Galland was unimpressed with the P-38, declaring, "it had similar shortcomings in combat to our Bf 110, our fighters were clearly superior to it." >>

 

 

 

 

Did well in the Pacific though:

 

<< The P-38 was credited with destroying more Japanese aircraft than any other USAAF fighter. Freezing cockpits were not a problem at low altitude in the tropics. In fact, since there was no way to open a window while in flight as it caused buffeting by setting up turbulence through the tailplane, it was often too hot; pilots taking low altitude assignments would often fly stripped down to shorts, tennis shoes, and parachute.

 

While the P-38 could not out-turn the A6M Zero and most other Japanese fighters when flying below 200 mph (320 km/h), its superior speed coupled with a good rate of climb meant that it could utilize energy tactics, making multiple high-speed passes at its target. Also, its focused firepower was even more deadly to lightly armored Japanese warplanes than to the Germans'. The concentrated, parallel stream of bullets allowed aerial victory at much longer distances than fighters carrying wing guns.>>

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia...._P-38_Lightning

[Flashermac]

Still a very cool looking plane. Some were sold after WWII and a friend who'd flown them told me aerial surveying companies bought them. They would replace the nose guns with cameras. He also said the plane was difficult to fly with one engine out. He nearly crashed once when an engine quit just as he was coming in to land. A family friend was a retired USAF friend who was shot down by the Nipponese gents over the Solomon Islands. Lived with the natives for 3 weeks before he got rescued.

 

When I was a university student, I was always fascinated by the P-38 that sat at the local airport. Turned out it was one that had been used for surveying.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glzG9lizkSc

[The_Munchmaster]

I always liked the de Havilland Mosquito (great name to). Unlike Kamui though, I'm too young to remember them flying.

 

 

 

The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft, with a two-man crew, that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. The Mosquito was one of the few operational, front-line aircraft to be constructed almost entirely of wood and, as such, was nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder".[3] It was also known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews Originally conceived as an unarmed fast bomber, the Mosquito was adapted to many other roles during the air war, including: low- to medium-altitude daytime tactical bomber, high-altitude night bomber, pathfinder, day or night fighter, fighter-bomber, intruder, maritime strike aircraft, and fast photo-reconnaissance aircraft. It was also used by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) as a transport.

 

When the Mosquito entered production in 1941, it was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world. Entering widespread service in 1942, the Mosquito first operated as a high-speed, high-altitude photo-reconnaissance aircraft, and continued to operate in this role throughout the war. From mid-1942 to mid-1943 Mosquito bombers were used in high-speed, medium- or low-altitude missions, attacking factories, railways and other pinpoint targets within Germany and German-occupied Europe. From late 1943, Mosquito bomber units were formed into the Light Night Strike Force and used as pathfinders for RAF Bomber Command's heavy-bomber raids. They were also used as "nuisance" bombers, often dropping 4,000 lb (1,812 kg) "Cookies", in high-altitude, high-speed raids that German night fighters were almost powerless to intercept.

 

As a night fighter, from mid-1942, the Mosquito was used to intercept Luftwaffe raids on the United Kingdom, most notably defeating the German aerial offensive, Operation Steinbock, in 1944. Offensively, starting in late 1942, some Mosquito night-fighter units conducted intruder raids over Luftwaffe airfields and, as part of 100 Group, the Mosquito was used as a night fighter and intruder in support of RAF Bomber Command's heavy bombers, and played an important role in reducing bomber losses during 1944 and 1945. As a fighter-bomber in the Second Tactical Air Force, the Mosquito took part in "special raids", such as the attack on Amiens Prison in early 1944, and in other precision attacks against Gestapo or German intelligence and security forces. 2 TAF Mosquitos also played an important role operating in tactical support of the British Army during the 1944 Normandy Campaign. From 1943 Mosquitos were used by RAF Coastal Command strike squadrons, attacking Kriegsmarine U-boats (particularly in the 1943 Bay of Biscay offensive, where significant numbers of U-boats were sunk or damaged) and intercepting transport ship concentrations.

 

The Mosquito saw service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and many other air forces in the European theatre, and the Mediterranean and Italian theatres. The Mosquito was also used by the RAF in the South East Asian theatre, and by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) based in the Halmaheras and Borneo during the Pacific War.

[kamui]

I always liked the de Havilland Mosquito (great name to). Unlike Kamui though, I'm too young to remember them flying.

 

Actually I don't know much about planes, but the P38 just looks so different to any other plane that still remember it from my Kindergarden times.