Interesting interviews with WW2 aces.....

[SEE]

Fascinating documetary on WW2 fighters. Gunter Rall (is that correctly spelled?) described his first encounter with what he thought was a pair of returning FW190's, as he flew over them he saw the Red Star on the fuselage but could not identify the Russian planes. He and his wingman turned to engage them during which he went head to head with one of them and his prop took the wing off one of the Rusian fighters. The Russian fighters turned out to be the Laag5. He barely made it back to base. He recounted how difficult it was to dogfight the later Russian planes and how well their ac and pilots performed compared to the early days when the Luftwaffe dominated the skies over Russia.

The American pilots considered the P47-D as a guarantee to get back home and loved that plane for its durability and fire power but acknowledged that the P51-D had a longer range and could out maneouvre any Luftwaffe plane as long as they stayed above 20,000ft. However, the P38 and F4U Corsair were regarded as the favourites of the Pacific US pilots Against the Japanese Zero and the Corsair remained in active service untill the 1960's and ultimately is the longest active serving prop fighter ever manufactured.

[Soviet Ace]

I believe it's Gunther. With an "h" in there. And they were just basic La-5s. No "GGs" at the end.

What documentary?

[FOZ_1983]

Wasnt the Corsair just the longest production for any US prop plane?

I thought the Spitfire was the longest serving Prop fighter, from 1938 until the early 60's with the Irish?

Should of been a Hurricane

[Soviet Ace]

I think for Russia, the Po-2 was the longest running plane. Starting in 1928, and lasting through to the Vietnam War.

Fighter wise, I can't think off hand.

[SEE]

He may well have meant the La5 but I may have misunderstood the German accent. I'm sure he said it was the radial engine of the Russian plane that made him think it was a FW (from distance) and had never seen one like that before. Another Bf109 pilot recounted how a group of Russian fighters bounced their flight and he tried every trick he knew to avoid being shot down but, whatever he did, he could not shake the Russian plane off, eventually it ran out of ammo and the reason he survived and the only survivor of that encounter.

[Soviet Ace]

Yeah, he meant the La-5. When they came onto the scene, many German pilots were thrown by the radial engined planes. They got a high kill/death ratio when first put out, and many German planes were shot down.

What documentary was it?

[SEE]

It was on Sky Sat channel 'Movies For Men' and the doc was called 'Fighters of World War 2'. WW2 docs are shown regularly during the late afternoon covering all aspects of the conflict. This was a particualrly interesting one given the number of WW2 pilots who described their experiences and thoughts of the ac they flew in combat. I would imagine it was a fairly old documentary rather than recent as I doubts that many of the WW2 pilots are still with us. Some excellent comabat footage and a great training video for P38 pilots concerning landing and correct method for bailing out to avoid slamming into the rear stabiliser. The video was in the form of a cartoon; humerous but highlighting the consequences of not landing on all 3 wheels or bailing out correctly.