Originally posted by Naudet
At low altittudes the FW190A will outperform the P47 cause it has the better speed and climb at low/med alts, as the FW190A was a low/med alt fighter and the P47 was a high altittude escort fighter.
Especially the light FW190A5 will do very well against a P47.
An age-old debate; count me on the side of the 47 afficionados. FWIW, I add the following account from Roger A. Freeman’s Bible of 8th AF operations, “The Mighty Eighth,” at page 125. What I like about the AH P-47 (at least, the D11), is that it is possible to duplicate Mahurin’s third encounter (note altitudes).
This occurred on the March 6, 1944 mission to Berlin. At the time Mahurin, of the 56th FG, had 16 victories:
- oldman
Captain Walker Mahurin, leading Red Flight, said: "At the time of the attack, we were unaware of the actual presence of the E/A. We first noticed them when we began to see the flashes of the 20-mm shells bursting around the firsts division of bombers....by the time we got into the combat vicinity the concentrated attack had been dispersed leaving the E/A flying singly and in twos and threes down on the clouds at 7,000 feet.
"I noticed three of these E/A about 11 o'clock to me down low: after considerable manoeuvring, I was in a position to attack one of these E/A, a single Me109. As I came down on him he saw me, and after one turn to the left, he headed down for the clouds. I found myself closing on his tail. I fired several short bursts, none of which hit him. He finally disappeared into the clouds.
"When I pulled up from this attack, I sighted a single FW190 at about 9 o'clock to my flight, heading down for the deck. This Jerry also saw me. As soon as the element of surprise was gone I knew I would be forced to follow him before he straightened out, before I could make a proper attack. We milled around and around in a turning circle to the left, until suddenly the 190 straightened out and headed for one of the half-mile-in-diameter clouds which covered the area. As he did so, I closed in behind him and started to fire. By this time we were both in the cloud and it turned out to be considerably thinner than either one of us had anticipated. I could still see the Hun, and when I fired I saw many hits on both of his wings, as well as a few on his fuselage. I was close enough to him so that my hits did not converge to a point. I was then forced to break off the attack as the cloud obscured him. This 190 I claim as probably destroyed, because I hit him quite heavily.
"By this time the flight had worked itself down to about 3,000 feet and were darting in and out of the clouds trying to spot more Huns. The Huns were darting in and out of the clouds trying to evade Thunderbolts.
"As we climbed back towards the bombers, I looked over the side of my ship and spotted a Thunderbolt in a turning circle to the left with an FW190 on its tail. I immediately called on the R/T to tell the '47 to break left, however, I later discovered that it was a ship from the 78th Group and on a different frequency to ours. I led the flight into attack the 190, which was all silver and with a large black "V" painted on its side. He saw us coming, because he broke the attack and began to turn left to save his own hide. I throttled back and closed in behind him, but held my fire until he, too, would straighten out.
"In the turn itself I was only just able to stay with him, both of us would stall a bit and then recover. However, when I added water I was able to out-turn him and also able to go around the circle faster than he did. I got within 150 yards of him and stayed there. After we had both gone around the circle several times, he pulled up into a steep climb. I followed and was able to get in a few shots, as I closed on him in the climb. As he fell off, he rolled over in order to pull the old stand-by of the Luftwaffe - the split S. I followed this also, gaining on him in the dive. When he pulled out of the dive he headed straight for the clouds in the same manner as the other Jerry had. I was able to pepper him soundly, seeing many hits on both wings and fuselage. The Jerry appeared to be having difficulty in flying his ship. He made a 180 degree turn to the left, and as I pulled up I saw his canopy fly off and saw him jump over the side."
