I read a book about a Norweigian ship that was interned by the Vichy French on west African coast, Dakar I think. The Norweigians reported air clashes between Brit & vichy planes. This would have to be one of the most obscure air battles of the war. Another would be British Corsairs off coast of Norway engaging sucessfully 109's. I believe That Condors engaged 4 engined Brit planes once or twice. Anybody got anything to add? Or to elaborate on large plane vs large plane encounters?

In the Pacific there are pictures of B-24's shooting down Japanese Kawanishi K6K1 flying boats.
For the battle for Java and Sumatra the Dutch put a good fight flying Brewster Buffaloes against Zeros for a short while. Not an easy job to do in a Buffalo !

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Yah, that was what I was looking for, battle of the Giants. The Condors may have run into Sunderland flying boats, long time since I read about it. There must have been a few other big plane vs big plane encounters. Didn't Swordfish go up against 190's in the channel dash?

How about small vs small ? Piper L-4 vs Fieseler Storch

http://www.historicaviation.com/hist...rt&category=ww

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Neither RN nor USN F4Us ever tangled with the Luftwaffe aircraft.

RN F4Fs, FM-2s, and F6Fs did, as did USN F6Fs, though the USN credits were against bombers and transports, the only targets that presented themselves during Operation Dragoon (Luftwaffe fighters being occupied elsewhere at the time). RN and USN F4Fs also flew against the Vichy French, USN planes in Operation Torch and the RN planes there and in the invasion of Madagascar. RN F4Fs also scored against the Italians. I won’t bore you with the numbers for all these various encounters. One RN squadron, 888, had the distinction of scoring against Japanese, German, Italian, and Vichy adversaries; I believe the only Allied squadron to do so.

In the Pacific, for USN twin and multi-engine patrol types against Japanese twin and multi-engine aircraft, PB2Y credits included:
H6K – 1
G4M – 5

PB4Ys credits included:
H6K – 6
H8K – 10
G3M – 11
G4M – 46
DC2 – 13
L2D – 6
Ki-76 – 1
Q1W – 1
Ki-21 – 2
Ki-46 –5
Ki-51 – 2
Ki-57 – 14
P1Y – 1

PBY credits included:
H6K – 1

PV credits included:
G4M – 5
LO – 1

These add up to 131 of a total 349 identified Japanese aircraft brought down by these four USN types.

In the Atlantic, PB4Ys were credited with:
Ju 88 – 3
Do 217 – 1
He 177 – 1

And PBYs were credited with one Ju 88.

Combat Lost / Damaged for the entire war of the four types were
PB4Y – 28 / 99
PV – 6 / 9
PBY – 36 / 32
PB2Y – 0 / 5

The other major USN multi-engine type was the PBM. PBMs were credited with 17 identified shoot downs, all single-engined. Three PBMs were shot down and 6 damaged.

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Eric Brown mentioned the Corsair vs 109 encounter in his book as I recall.

How about Hurricat vs Fockwe-Wulf Condor?

The first success coming on 3 August 1941, when Lt RWH Everett intercepted and destroyed a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor.

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/Ai...ahurricane.htm

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Or, an L-4 Grasshopper as tank buster. There were several that the pilots armed with bazookas and went tank hunting. One 4th Armored Division pilot actual made ace killing a dozen tanks including several Panthers......

Better check again, F4Us had no, none, credited victories in the European Theatre.

Encounters with Luftwaffe fighters by US built carrier-based fighters was limited to:

On 26 March 1945, FM-2's from 882 (Squadron Lieut Comdr. GAM Flood, RNVR) off Searcher, escorting a flight of Avengers along the coast of Norway, was attacked by a flight of eight III Gruppe JG 5 Me-109Gs. The Wildcats were credited with shooting down four of the Me-109Gs at a cost of one Wildcat damaged. A fifth 109 was claimed as damaged.

And

On 8 May 1944, F6F's from the Fleet Air Arm's No. 800 Squadron (Lieut. Comdr. SJ Hall, DSC, RN), off HMS Emperor, while escorting a flight of Barracudas was attacked by a mixed group of Me-109's and FW-190's. Two F6F's were lost, one, probably, to anti-aircraft fire (one source indicates that both F6Fs were lost in a mid-air collision, not to any German fire of any kind). F6F claims were 2 Me-109's and one FW-190,

Regards,

Rich

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NAVY & MARINE CORPS WORLD WAR II COMMEMORATIVE COMMITTEE: Lighter-Than-Air Craft in World War II

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This information has been posted for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes.
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"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." - Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 19, 1863
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"The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past." - William Faulkner

On the same USN Chief of Information page referenced for the info on Blimp K-74's misadventure there’s also the story of USN blimp L-8, the crew of which disappeared without a trace. The command pilot, not named in the story, was Lieut. Earnest Cody, USN. Cody was one of my father's classmates in the USNA class of 1938.

Anyway, here’s an interesting story . . .

Lieut. Lou Menard of VBF-12 operating off USS Randolph near the coast of Japan on 15 February 1945, was leading a division that was giving chase to a low flying intruder that was just managing to stay of gun range. In his words: "I fired one rocket and it missed him. It went right over top of his wing and landed in the water. When it hit, the shell went off and made a huge geyser of water. He flew into it and his plane disintegrated." Other members of the division were Ensigns Manhold, Barr, and Glasser, all in F6F's. In this case, close enough was good enough.

Regards,

Rich



[ 08. August 2004, 10:36 AM: Message edited by: R Leonard ]

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This is a curious story. The California State Military Museum's website also has some information on Lt. Cody, Ens. Adams and the Ghost Blimp.

[ 07. August 2004, 10:51 AM: Message edited by: Deep Web Diver ]

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This information has been posted for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes.
- - - -
"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." - Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 19, 1863
- - - -
"The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past." - William Faulkner

</font>[/quote]The Naval Historical Center's website has a four page Naval Aviation News article on the battle between K-74 and U-134: The Battle Between the Blimp and the Sub

[ 07. August 2004, 10:26 AM: Message edited by: Deep Web Diver ]

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This information has been posted for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes.
- - - -
"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." - Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 19, 1863
- - - -
"The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past." - William Faulkner

Hi TA, where can I read more on this sharpshooting L-4?

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