Author Topic: A real life WW2 pilot's thoughts on vulching (Read 3457 times)

JB42 · « **Reply #15 on:** June 20, 2003, 05:56:46 PM »

"Vulching" is a very easy and effective way of suppressing a base. Beats the heck out of dropping a ton of ord. to take out hangers. If radar for your country is working, the best way to avoid being vulched is to up from the airfield thats about to get whacked. A flyers inability to react in time to an obvious threat is no excuse to call out Vulcher (or cherry picker, learned my lesson the hard way on that one.) As for chute shooting, in AH its just stupid, the longer an nme is in a chute, the longer the time until he becomes a threat again.
In RL, there was a simple rule often adhered to. Over friendly territory, you let him live. Hopefully he is captured and interrogated. Over enemy territory thumbs up on the kill. No sense in letting him up again to try to kill you another day.

Ack-Ack · « **Reply #16 on:** June 20, 2003, 06:08:58 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by TW9
Once on pbs i was watching a ww2 show inwhich a pilot said shooting planes on the airfield was the most exciting and dangerous thing he did as a pilot considering all the AA fire.. He didnt use the term "vulching" he called it "straffing".. The object of the mission he was in was to destroy the planes b4 they could be manned then upped or used later but im sure if 1 tried to up while he was "in" he would have popped it..

That's how Earl also described the feeling of vulching Germans while they tried to take off. He said the AAA was the only real threat and the pucker factor was way off the scale.

Ack-Ack

devious · « **Reply #17 on:** June 20, 2003, 06:10:45 PM »

Vulching is fun.

Saintaw · « **Reply #18 on:** June 20, 2003, 06:26:00 PM »

Vulching is when you stop fighting the enemy, and start fighting your squaddies for the nrs of Kills you can rack up

PS: Bailing is good too, please BAIL!

hyena426 · « **Reply #19 on:** June 20, 2003, 07:12:26 PM »

from the fighter books i have read,,vulching and head ons were the best tatic for usa planes,,,ill have to dig up the book,,but a famous p47 pilots said ,,when attacking a german plane he would go for the head on because his 50 cals would out range the german cannons,, he got most of his kills doing head ons,,and when he was in trouble he would simply nose down and run till he got another chance for a head on or go home instead of dieing

i have heard alot of people complain about head ons, in real life head ons were a valid tactic for the right plane,,,and the best way to shoot down 262s were when they were landing and when they were taking off,,,but do that in main and some people just throw a fit,,even know its a real tactic

aces high is far from real life ww2,,but everyone should be able to atleast use ww2 tactics in this game with out hearing slack about it,,lol,,i guess thats one thing about ww2,,after ya shot down a pilot ,,you didnt have to lisin to him complain about how your not honorable and a dweeb,,hehehe<~~maybe aces high should get rid of main channel?,,hehe

Grizzly · « **Reply #20 on:** June 20, 2003, 07:40:39 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by hyena426 aces high is far from real life ww2,,but everyone should be able to atleast use ww2 tactics in this game with out hearing slack about it,,lol,,i guess thats one thing about ww2,,after ya shot down a pilot ,,you didnt have to lisin to him complain about how your not honorable and a dweeb,,hehehe<~~maybe aces high should get rid of main channel?,,hehe

Any thought of AH without the whining is a pipe dream. Letting it bother you is like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer... counter productive. Relax, grab some popcorn, a beer and enjoy the show =o)

Ack-Ack · « **Reply #21 on:** June 20, 2003, 07:43:14 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by TW9
Could be the same guy they interviewed on the show.. It was about 262's but they went on to talk about b17s and when they finally got p51 escorts.. The same person i mentioned also talked about an engagement he had w/ a 109 while escorting 17s.. He said they both went vertical and said that basicially the 1st guy to stall was going to lose.. The 109 stalled 1st and he took him out.. They showed footage after of a 109 being shot down by a mustang but i dont know if it was from that actually fight.. He then started talking about strafing the field which now that i think about it was probably 262's that they were after..

Pretty sure it was two different pilots. I believe Earl spent most, if not all his combat time in the MTO and I don't think he ever ran into any Me262s or escorted buffs. I'm pretty sure he mostly ran convoy escort duties (in the P-39N), fighter sweeps (P-38) and ground attack missions (P-47) but not sure. I'll ask him though because it could be possible they are the same guy. Earl did give a couple of interviews in the last couple of years, so like I said it could be but I don't think it is.

Ack-Ack

Ozark · « **Reply #22 on:** June 20, 2003, 09:27:28 PM »

TW9!

I have great respect Ted!

Is this your site?
http://www.tedwilliams.com

hyena426 · « **Reply #23 on:** June 20, 2003, 09:45:15 PM »

Quote

Any thought of AH without the whining is a pipe dream. Letting it bother you is like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer... counter productive. Relax, grab some popcorn, a beer and enjoy the show =o)

it dont bother me,,and i wasnt complaining:) i was just making a comment about vultching and ho's and if this was real,,we wouldnt hear a peep out of are victums,,heheh

dsrtrat · « **Reply #24 on:** June 20, 2003, 11:32:00 PM »

My great unncle flew spits and hurris all over the Med. They would strafe anything enemy that moved. Trucks, cars, troops, trains and even planes. The goal was to win the war. Kill or be killed.

Should a person in a vullch situtation NOT do it and let the enemy get up and possibly shoot you down? I can assure you that did not happen in WW2. Strafing airfields was a common practice. DABA airfield for instance was visited almost daily and sometimes by 5 or 6 squadrons at a time to ensure that IF anything got airborne, it was hunted down by gaggles of Enemy Aircraft.

The difference was that strafing a German airfield in 1942 with a hurricane put you in range of every gunner on the property. Not 6 acks like a AH field, there was usually a hailstorm of bullets. My uncle did a run over the centre of Daba and could hear round after round of light MGs hitting the armour seat behind him. That airplane AK-W(213 squad) serial number HL887, was a write off after he RTB'd.

Vulching is part f the game and was part of RL WW2 battles. Maybe some more ack would deter the vulchers a bit.

hyena426 · « **Reply #25 on:** June 21, 2003, 12:10:50 AM »

wow the things your uncle must have seen got to give it up to the true vets that had to deal with such death and horror

my family was all in the navy,,,soo all i got is old ship stories<~~i soaked up all there stories,,could right a book allmost about it,,hehehe,,in pearl harbor my uncle was on 2 diffrent ships that got sunk,,,he was on a destroyer,,got blew off the deck,,swam to anothere ship threw the oil and crap,,got on board and that ship was sunk right when he got on board,lol,,talk about bad luck,,finaly he had to swim across the habor to land,,lol

cool to hear a story from a pilot that was there,,or anyone who was there,,,them people had to live threw that crap,,it was war,,,kill or be killed like you said,,glad to hear ya soaked up his stories too,,,need to soak up all them,,somthing like 1,000 ww2 vets dieing every day:( so they wont be around long to tell there stories

zroostr · « **Reply #26 on:** June 21, 2003, 12:11:07 AM »

Who cares if it's honorable or not. To cap, some vulching will happen cuz there's always a rambo who wants to save the day. I've been blasted before my prop could do 3 full turns too, it's part of the game when you try to up under fire. I do try to avoid being on the wrong side of vulching.

Murdr · « **Reply #27 on:** June 21, 2003, 12:20:31 AM »

The other r/l tactic I havnt seen mentioned was when a portion of the bomber escorts were set loose for targets of opportunity. The fighters would try to catch the german interceptors returning to base, knowing they did not have enough fuel to stay in the air long. Sort of the opposite end of a vulch.

Animal · « **Reply #28 on:** June 21, 2003, 10:37:16 AM »

I do believe that vulching is a gallant act of chivalry.

Beegerite · « **Reply #29 on:** June 21, 2003, 11:55:23 AM »

Vulching!!! Ahhhhh, The proverbial question has been asked since time immemorial in Fighter Ace, Aces High, War Birds, Air Warrior and World War 2 Online.

Real World:

"No war was ever won by dying for your country. Wars are won by making some other son of a squeak die for his country" - Patton as close as I can recall the quote.

By this definition, the idea is to kill the enemy at all costs to keep him from killing you or your buddies. Remember that if he kills you and enough of your buddies he will eventually get your sheep and this is bad.

Consquently in real life a totally different tactic is used to protect against vulching. This tactic is called the high cover squadron. They are sent aloft and just sit there flying donoughts in the sky waiting for any stupid enemy aircraft to attempt an attack. This doesn't happen all the time but it is an accepted principle of real life combat which in all the sims I've played I have never seen. Who among us will be willing to fly high cover over one of our airfields? Maybe 1 or 2 for let's say 3 mins and then they would be off somewhere else in search of glory.

Bottom line. When this game is played as a strategic simulation of real war - then vulching is perfectly acceptable because it can be defended against with the proper amount of dedication and resources. When we're just hacking around without any kind of plan and we take advantage of somebody in a vulnerable position then we're scum. We're having fun but nevertheless we're scum.

von Beeg