Interesting interviews with WW2 aces.....

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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.