Dogfight: Long Odds

[ordnance11]

 Logan Darklighter wrote:
 

---

 Excellent point. I keep forgetting about the ranges involved in the Pacific. They are almost always enormous. For some reason I remember the ranges when it
 comes to the European theater much better. I guess it's because the maps and diagrams I've seen typically illustrated things against a backdrop that
 was easier to grasp. The Thunderbolts can only go THIS far before turning back, the Mustangs could go all the way to Berlin and back, etc.

 Speaking of the Thunderbolts, or "Jugs", did anyone see the episode of Dogfights that was centered on them? Good GOD what a monster of a plane!
 Didn't have nearly the range of the Mustang of course, but in all other respects was a great dogfighter. Incredibly tough. That episode (among other
 stories) told of a "Jug" pilot who nearly got shot out of the sky before recovering and as he's limping back home, is attacked by a Focke
 Wolfe. He can't do ANYTHING to fight back because the plane can barely fly in a straight line and he can't bail out because the canopy is stuck.

 The Focke Wolfe Pilot used ALL HIS AMMO on that plane and COULD NOT KILL IT. He finally had to give up and fly away. The Thunderbolt pilot made it home alive
 and relatively ok.

 Oh hey - here's a link to the footage I mentioned.

The jug pilot got lucky there...the Focke Wulf used up his cannon ammo before and he wasn't going for a head on pass.

There were a couple of problems deploying land based-fighters for offensive operations in the Pacific theater during WW II. One of them is range. The P-38 or
the P-51 were the only birds in the U.S inventory with the legs. The other problem is long range over the water navigation. It wasn't much of a problem
during the early stages of the war where you have island landmarks inbound or outbond to target. It became a problem much later when you have a 700 mile round
trip from Iwo Jima to Japan over open water.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell