Spitfire Ace - Episode 4 - Part 4

Spitfire Ace
Episode 3: The Greatest Day
Part 4

[@countrywideboy]

Hans-Ekkehard Bob.... what a funny German....He says we'll call it a draw.... very comical.

[@hetmanbasza]

You did not ask about Hartman. ... I have his picture over my desk... The man had a talent. He figured out how to take by 1944 an inferior airframe and still fire 30mm canon in such a way that it only took a couple of hits to disable the enemy. That was his genius. He was better than all other Germans. I have great admiration for top 3 experten even though, if I was born 30 years sooner, I wold cherish a chance to point my 4 .50 cal's in their cocpit and squize the triger...

[@ThePhantomMajor]

I'm 35 and I just think how some 18-40 year olds nowadays are just wastes of space ... compared to the sacrifice 1940 etc.

[@CJLinton]

Thats true... but I like to think that should this country ever come under the same threat as it did in 1940 that there would still be plenty of people with the same charachter as Peter Pease and Raymond Hillary ready to truly defend this country, this green and pleasant land.

[@hetmanbasza]

You do realize, that Goring was at first convinced, that raports comming in, in the first few days of Barbarosa were full of lies claiming 100's of Russian planes destroyed and then when Wermaht overrun the airfields and confirmed the #'s he DEMANDED similar numbers from all wings! He even bitched out a unit stationed near arctic circle because they hardly had any kils for obvious reason: No Ruski's to shoot down!

[@hetmanbasza]

@vnck25 Well, if I saw 85 enemy planes EVERY TIME I took off, hell, I would be in top 3myself! Chuck Jager flew if I remember correctly 30 some missions and saw enemy 6 times and still managed to become an ace! Gunter Rall was actually flying for 14months out of the entire war and is #3. Rest of the time he was reconvalescing his but back to health from being shot down!

[@hetmanbasza]

@dudekidPL Right! Polish boys flew the longest and fought the hardest! There was no going back to the states after 200 combat hours! You just started another 1000h! When France fell, some of the Poles had all ready 3000 combat hours. That made them the most valuable personel in Europe.

[@hetmanbasza]

I appologize, 500 characters are not enough to delve into any subject... Commonly refered to RAF "Squadron 303" always refers to the one and only "Dywizjon Kosciuszkowski". It is the most famous of all of Polish Air Force units who flew in England. Poles moved their prewar gov. to Eng. That included the General HQ of all branches. I have to check stats on this but I believe Div. 303 was the top scoring squadron during BoB or really near the top.

[@forestg83]

well afaik after 100hours pilots were temporailry retaired (based on book "Lwowskie puchacze" by Jerzy Damsz)

[@lukaszM46]

@hetmanbasza very true my friend!

[@hetmanbasza]

I have to throw little statistics into this: Just for argument sake, Germany and England were about equal in population. That lives us with about the same amount of avalilable man power to find good pilotes. Int that #, there is 5% "naturals" and 95% that will end up as marks on the 5% tailes as "trophies". The only wild card there is the fact that Luftwaffe started basic training of their personell before Spain while Brits showed intrest but did not commit to it untill they had to.

[@Icarusdecending82]

Well I think its probably because in their day they believed it was about survival. The stakes were much greater then. Today everything seems so distant, especially when you dont have people from a distant land flying airplanes over your capital trying to kill your mother, children, etc. And maybe technology has made us lazy and less productive. Im an American and it seems like immigrants from India and Vietnam have a work ethic my people have largely lost.

[@lukaszM46]

what about squadrons 300-309.....especially 303? nothing as usuall.those squadrons played a huge role in the BoB and seccesfully shot down german bombers...

[@hetmanbasza]

It is worse than that. Brits did not mind Poles, Czech's etc. help in flying Spits/Hurracanes and burn to death in these death traps taking a place of a Brit! Many vets who ended up in the states had very negative opinion of Brits and some actually called them "swolocz". In 46, there were no jobs for anyone who shed blood over England in England and happened not to be English! That's why most of them left for Canada or US.

[@KevinJKtheman]

@countrywideboy lol, of course the Germans have a sense of humour, at least they did back in 1940, they thought they could defeat the British Empire, and United states forces all by themselves lol, now you gott admit thats funny ?