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Originally Posted by lonewulf
" I want to resolve this once and for all" Hahahah, ... well pal, I don't think you have somehow. These sorts of stories have their place but they don't prove very much. A couple of guys who, in reality, may have had just an hour or two of actual combat flying between them, making sweeping assessments about aircraft they've never flown. If we can take anything at all from this it's maybe that while German fighter tactics (shoot and scoot) may have been difficult for Fighter Command to counter, and allowed the Jagdflieger to notch up impressive victory totals, it didn't win them the Battle. German bombers were shot down in numbers that made the whole exercise an unattractive proposition going forward. As for the comments about armaments, well, we all know that cannon rounds make bigger holes. However, you still have to successfully position your aircraft in order to use them. I personally think agility is a more important factor. As for the totally misleading comment about the 55 seconds of continuous fire, well, for the two cowling mounted MGs maybe, but certainly not for the cannon. And if eight .303 Browning MGs are 'pop guns', how would you describe just two MG 17s, after your 7 seconds of cannon ammo is gone? And finally we have the mysterious reference to "long wide curves". What does that mean exactly and how will this help you defeat a pesky Spit? Anyone know??
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Uhm, use a bit of imagination *hinthint*
This manoeuvre might have been in many cases a good excape manoeuvre because of a speed advantage of the 109 combined perhaps with a better climb performance when using a slow climb rate. With enough speed advantage there is no way a plance could catch up just by short cutting when the curve is wide enough however nimble the chasing plane was but it allowed to keep an eye on the pursuing aircraft which was likely the reason to fly a wide curve
