I guess most of you guys who read these forums are familiar with the P-51's in the game, but some of you are not to well acquainted with the F-8 Bearcat.
A little background on the F8, from Wiki, because all I know about it is how many rivets it has on left side of canopy, as you will see later in the story!
The F8F prototypes were ordered in November 1943 and first flew on 21 August 1944, a mere nine months later. The first production aircraft was delivered in February 1945 and the first squadron, Fighter Squadron 19 (VF-19), was operational by 21 May 1945, but World War II was over before the aircraft saw combat service.
Postwar, the F8F became a major U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps fighter, equipping 24 fighter squadrons in the Navy and a smaller number in the Marines. Often mentioned as one of the best-handling piston-engine fighters ever built, its performance was sufficient to outperform many early jets.Its capability for aerobatic performance is illustrated by its selection as the first demonstration aircraft for the navy's elite Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron in 1946, who flew it until the team was temporarily disbanded in 1950 during the Korean War and pressed into operational combat service. The F9F Panther and McDonnell F2H Banshee largely replaced the Bearcat as their performance and other advantages eclipsed piston-engine fighters.
The first combat for the F8F Bearcat was during the French Indochina War (aka First Indochina War 1946-1954) when nearly 200 Bearcats were delivered to the French forces in 1951. When the war ended in 1954, 28 surviving Bearcats were supplied to the State of Vietnam and entered service in 1956. The VNAF retired their F8Fs in 1959 which were replaced by North American T-28 Trojans, then later Douglas A-1 Skyraiders as the Vietnam War (aka Second Indochina War 1957–1975) continued through the 1960s. F8Fs were also supplied to Thailand during the same time period.
It was one of those hot, hazy days in South Georgia, as "Toney" and I, "EarlyTango", taxied out in our P-51K's for a practice rocket mission on some old railroad cars at Avon Park in central Fla. After a decent formation takeoff, Toney had the lead and we climbed out smoothly towards Fla trying to work our way around a lot of build ups and one petty good thunderstorm ahead about our 1 O'clock position, but it wouldn't present a problem as we had been briefed to stay VFR all the way, but we might have to shoot an approach back to home plate later in the day. We finally got above the stuff at about 19,000 and settled down for the 1 hour flight. We had to file with ATC because we broke that magic altitude of 18,000 feet, when you have to be on an IFR flight plan.
Arriving at the park, making contact with range officer, cleared out of "redwood" entrance gateway to the park, we dropped down to 8,000 and I begin to slow in order to go in the rocket run about a mile behind Toney! Slowing down, I increased my RPM level full forward in anticipation of my egress from target...let me review, 30 degree "jinks" inbound, heading base of 060, then left turn, on the deck, to 360, then 45 degree banked "jinks" for 2 minutes then climb back to 8,000, tag "toney" at Redwood, then finish last two rockets on this pass. First two rockets were short about 50 yards, so had to think about that on the way back in..this time I will use top of HUD, or come in a little more shallow, but either way I decide at last minute, don't tick the damn things off until the target fits the sight, "Tater".
One sailed right over the top of the rail car, but #2 looked like it went right though the door. Of course those practice rockets don't do a lot of damage, if they were the real thing, guess they would run out of rail cars sooner or later!
By now though, big buildups in all quadrants and I asked Toney, which way home. Lets go East he said, so off we went 090 and it wasn't long before the Fla coast line came into to view and we could see we were going to have to go out to sea about 20 miles or so to get around the end of this stuff. We had climbed all the way up to 24,000 to RTB and as we were making our left turn to 360, as I banked, I could see something in the water down there! A "Carrier"! Wonder if they would let us make a hi speed run over the CV, Toney! I'll ask he said, but before he could, he said, uh, oh, look at 9 O'clock coming right at us. OK, looks like they want to play, hold this 360 until them get about our 7 O'clock, the you break right and I will go left, said toney.
Don't break the wire or we will get our butts chewed out was last thing I remember him saying as I was busy looking for that aircraft which I now ID'd as a F8F Bearcat, guess its might be a couple of Marine guys, but who knows. I just didn't want this guy to get within two miles of me if I could help it, until I had the advantage. I am in a 4G turn to the right, roll back to the left inverted, then chopped throttle, pulled the stick back in my gut and pointed the thing straight down. I did a couple of vertical rolls going down hill, looking back for this guy, but no joy. I am nudging 400IAS and decided to go level and assess my SA. Where in the dickens did this guy go? As I was twisting around in my seat looking, I looked forward for a second and there was that big ole R-2800-34w staring me right in the face, about a 1 mile away! During all this I am trying to figure out where toney is at, I am supposed to be his wing, but we thought as he said later, we would blow their minds by splitting up. Then I saw him at my 10 O'clock, closing on that big Blue thing in my face! Turn right he said and I'll be right on his tail. Gun cameras are running now, but don't know how much film left after the practice rocket runs, but we'll see when we get back.
Sure enough, the guy turned left right in behind me about a mile back and I could see toney coming in the "slot" for a shot! But where did this other guys go? Something caught my eye and it was the second guy, 12 O'clock to me about 5,000 feet above me. He rolled inverted and I saw what he was going to do, so I added full power as I pulled the "K" straight up and headed right for him! I saw right away he was going to get a pass on me and then one on toney following the other guy! I was down to about 250MPH IAS and I knew it would be touch and go to just pull on up into a loop and then I would be on this guys tail on the way down. This is where the rocket "tree" hurt the Ponie, if you could eject the darn things it would sure help, but you can't.
I continue to the top of the loop, looking thru the top of the canopy for this guy to show up, but whoa, where did he go? I had past the top and had started down and toney says break left hard, which I did and lo and behold, there was this guy toney was chasing, right off my left wing climbing and I passed within about 50 feet of him. Couldn't see his face as he had on a colored shield. I leveled out, glanced at my mirror and uh, oh, a big old radial engine about 50 yards back and I could have swore the thing had a grin on his face.
After about 10 minutes or so, I told toney, we got to go somewhere and land, we are getting low on fuel.
We still had about a 1 hour and 1/2 of fuel left, with about a hours flight home and with all the build ups around, we gotta go IFR to get back to South Georgia.
Rest of the flight was OK, had to make a "Tacan" approach into home plate but was not a big deal. The only big deal was getting our butts kicked with a couple of Bearcats. Never did figure out how that guy got on my tail like he did, last time I saw him, he was headed straight down, darn good stick, never could shake him off, but after we turned Northwest and slowed downed a little, he and the other guy headed for the carrier I guess or to Jax Naval Air Station, not sure which!
