Whining About Late 6 Calls - Real Life Parallel

[funked]

I found this story (from Johnnie Johnson's "Wing Leader") interesting in light of some of the squeaking I hear in the arenas:

 

I counted my Spitfires.  Four in my section.  Alan Laurie well out on the port side with three.  Seven.  Where were the other two?  I looked across the grey sea on the starboard side.  Nothing there, and then something caught my eye well above.  It was a section of two Spitfires still flying straight and level well above us.  The section was led by an officer who was not a permanent member of the squadron but who was attached to us for a week or two before going to another unit.  I could see a bunch of 190s behind the two Spitfires and I turned my section towards them and shouted a warning over the radio.

We were too late, for, when we straightened out of the turn, the Focke-Wulfs were breaking away from their attacks and our two Spitfires were going down.  The leading Spitfire was badly hit.  First of all it poured black smoke.  Then it began to burn.

From our cockpits we watched the burning Spitfire.  We could do nothing except wait for the parachute to flare out and then pass an accurate fix to Tangmere for the rescue operation.  But instead of using these few precious seconds to bale out the man inside suddenly panicked and screamed over the radio.  We had never heard this sort of thing before and for a few shocked moments we listened to his dreadful mouthings.  We were a lot of dirty bastards!  It was our fault he was on fire!  He was going to die!  Alone.  We would leave him.  And not return.  We...

I came out of my stupor and flicked on my transmitter switch to jam this creature's accusations.  Mercifully the radio was silent and we watched the Spitfire smack into the cold sea at a shallow angle.

[Ripsnort]

Read that, quite amazing how different it is  when its your real life involved rather than a virtual life, ain't it?

I'd be curious on how well some in the these sims would deal under the real pressures that a WW2 flyer dealt with from minute to minute.

[LJK Raubvogel]

He should have typed '.squelch idiot'

Was the guy stuck in the cockpit, or was he just too busy going off to bail out?

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LJK_Raubvogel
LuftJägerKorps

[JimBear]

He was a man who panicked and Died. maybe his canopy was jammed, who knows? But an idiot? Veterans day is coming up soon, are all those who will be remembered John Wayne type heros that went down, jaw outthrust spitting in deaths face? I dont think so.




[This message has been edited by JimBear (edited 11-03-2000).]

[miko2d]

 You would be surprised how many people in critical situations care more about enlightening others about their character flaws then concentrating on the resolving the situation. Even when their own life is at stake.
 miko

[LJK Raubvogel]

JimBear, I am a veteran, and certainly didn't mean any disrespect. But to panick and worry about chewing  people out instead of getting the hell out of a burning plane is certainly not a smart thing to do. Maybe a better choice of words....

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LJK_Raubvogel
LuftJägerKorps

[JimBear]

I understand Raubvogel, same here. No offence intended.

[funked]

Bingo Miko, that's what I'm getting at...

[easymo]

 It sounds like you guys don't have any real understanding of the military mind set. You are brainwashed to follow orders. You must turn your life over to senior officers and NCO,s. I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard "the Army isn't paying you to think soldier".

 When one of the nit wits,s gets you killed. It tends to piss you off.

[Dinger]

Be pissed off sure, but I'm not willing to die to prove the idiocy of someone else.

[easymo]

 Dinger. Back in '66 I knew a couple of D.I.,s  who would have changed you mind .

[Fishu]

It wasn't too easy to bail out of those World War II planes.
There was no ejection seat and most of all, you had to open canopy, open your straps and then try to get out of the plane if you succeeded in two first tasks.
Then there was other dangers even after that which could have got you down with the plane..
if you got stuck while climbing out of plane.. your chute stuck on the plane (this happend often)... etc.

Think about the mens in bombers, they weren't right off the hatch and if bomber began spiralling.. it must been one hell of a job to get to the hatch and open it.
..and in those planes where was ball turret, the gunner didn't usually have a parachute with him.

if this guy was from the reserve, he did not have too much time to learn things. (like how to not panic so easy)

[funked]

Easymo, this guy died because he didn't follow the order to descend with the rest of the formation.  If he had followed orders he might still be alive.  Read the book, it's only $11 from Amazon.

[Maverick]

No one on this bbs was there. No one here has the right to pass judgement on that man. He died and the reason why, died with him. You can call it panic if you want but unless you could see into his plane you are simply guessing. Pray that you will never be in a similar situation.


Veterans day IS coming. Try to do something nice about it. Tell a VET, thank you. You don't have to be sloppy about it but just tell him / her you are glad they did what they did. You can go to the cemetery if you want to remember a special vet, but it would be MUCH better if you told a LIVING vet so he / she could appreciate the sentiment while they are alive.

Mav

[CRASH]

Just getting into that plane to fly his mission was a heroic act and lets leave it at that.
     As for some of us being capable of it, well, many of the people whining in the ma are young people who have thankfully never been forced to mature by the trials of war,  yet, the same set of the population that has always fought and died for their respective countries, so my answer would be yes.....many of us would gladly have flown that mission, hopefully without the same result.

CRASH