8th AF Bombers.....

I don't know Crazy, studying some of the Luftwaffe aces such as Hartmann, Barkhorn and Rall, just to name several can be quite addicting ! You'll never want to study the ground actions ever again.......ha ha ! I have found it very stimulating over the 37 plus years just as gents as Timo on the 1st SS Recon and Herr Kaleun on the U-booten arm, Ron on the Pacific front and others. I really do appreciate the diverse nature of our forum members as it would be somewhat of a drag to have to just discuss the same tired theaters repeatedly. Anyway as I mentioned the invitation is open. Getting back to Flak if you are intersted this is an Austrian site which has quite a few links besides covering Flak defences around Vienna. I beleive it shows in summary fashion the coverage of flak as a general rule for the major centers in all of Austria during the war. I haven't visted this link for a while but look for the mention of Luftwaffe and punch that up and it should bring up some nice materials.

www.geheimprojekte.at/

also our forum has Tony Williams from the UK who has quite the knowledge of AA guns /.....ammo / so this is a possiblity to if interested in ballistics and ranges given of certain weapons systems.

E

 

I think that one of the reasons that the eight air force did so well is the fact that the P-51 did very well as an escort and gave it very good defense against enemy fighters. Two drop-tanks could be affitted to the P-51 making it so that it could escort B-29's on very long trips. The B-29 had a range of 5,400 miles.

 

Do anybody know how did the "George", flown by a good pilot performed against the P-51? It was the best Japanesse fighter at the moment, I think...

 

I just looked it up. The Kawanishi N1K-2 Shiden could hold it's own against the P-51. The only plane which gave it serious trouble was the F4U Corsair. It was also one of the most heavily armed planes in WWII, with 4 20 millimeter cannon and 2 machine guns. Since it did not do well for the purpose it was intended for, which was that of a bomber-destroyer, it was seen as a failure by the Japanese. It did not go into production until late 1944.

Some planes do better against other planes than others that others do against others.

[ 28 September 2002, 11:00 PM: Message edited by: Mustang ]

 

Crazy

I was just doing some research this morn for two family's interested in the Air war missions in October 1943. I have a listing of kills claimed by the Luftwaffe against the B-17 formations on August 14, 1943 whilst attacking the Schweinfurt VKF ball-bearing werk's. You you like this information for your book project ? I will be working on this and other items for late 43 for veterans/families so the info will be handy if needed......

E

 

Thanks, Erich... but at the moment we don't need that level of detail (Unfortunatley!)...

But a couple things did come up this week... I have very little time on this, so I may well be finished before anyone gets to this...

A. I need the human and material/financial costs of the 8th Air Force's efforst in Europe. Mainly for the 8th, but supporting numbers for the germans or british would be good too... Sources here must be pretty legit (but send anyting my way!)

B. Some kind of immediate post-war stories from the 8th. Men returning home, bond tours, the heroes of the 8th, etc. Where they returned to... anything. But it needs to be quick (no long stories really) and from right after the war- not stuff from 10 years later...

If anyone can come up with anything for this, it would be huge!