Originally Posted by csThor (Post 387000)

Quite seriously: I am considering soviet war stories to be usually grossly blown out of proportion on behalf of the soviet authorities (Stalin ordered "improved" historiography after the war). Far too often this or that soviet pilot was injured/got his aircraft set on fire/whatever and still outfought so-and-so-many german fighters. I have read too many stories like this, most of them following exactly the same script without many or any deviations, so I simply discard them all as potentially or even most probably made up.

Sorry and hats off to the veterans. No slant against them, they're as much the victims of state propaganda as the general audience. :-(

Originally Posted by Jaws2002 (Post 386996)

Those were real Bf-109 fighter pilots, not internet comandos. They flew real planes, in a real war. In war they fly how they have to in order to achieve the mission goal.
If they had to chase an I-16, on the deck, they did just that. Not all made it out of it and not all could afford to fly how they wanted.
It was a real war not a game.

Originally Posted by Tvrdi (Post 387054)

Sure. Their task was to protect bombers and to fly patrols. In russian campaign, in earlier stages of the war sometimes they took the plunge and chased planes on the deck....but that was more exception than a rule...Jabos are different story Im not talking about them....

And dont tell me about real war please....I experienced it recently....