Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: C_R_Caldwell on July 04, 2002, 10:39:17 PM
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I was really hoping that with the introduction of the P-40B and P-40E we would finally get a fighter with Aussie markings. Heck, even the Brazilians have an AH fighter to call their own thanks to the P-47D-25. There can be no doubting the bravery of Brazilian pilots during the latter stage of the Italian campaign, but AFAIK, considerably less than 200 pilots took part in the action. Aussie pilots , OTH, took part in every theatre of combat from 1939 to 1945. Something like 11,000 Aussie pilots and aircrew lost their lives during WW2.
Of all the British Commonwealth units (ie. Brits, Aussies, Canadians, Kiwis, South Africans etc etc) under the RAF's Bomber Command , Aussie RAAF squadrons dropped more bombs, flew more sorties, sustained more casualties, and were awarded more medals than any one else. In Nth Africa and Italy, the Desert Air Force fighter squadron that racked up the most kills was the RAAF's No.3 Squadron. The top Desert Air Force ace was Aussie RAAF pilot Clive R Caldwell, who was also the No.1 P-40 ace of WW2 with 20 of his 28.5 confirmed kills scored on P-40B/Cs and the P-40E.
Caldwell was seconded to the RAF's famous No.112 Squadron during his service in Nth Africa as its leader. For those who aren't aware, No.112 Sq. was the 1st squadron to paint shark's moouths on their P-40s. Later, American pilots with the AVG copied the design for their P-40s (a fact which Pappy Boyington readily admitted in his autobiography).
Anyway, most of the greatest exponents of the P-40E (or the Warhawk/Kittyhawk in general) were RAAF pilots. There are loads of great Aussie P-40 camo schemes - especially with regards to RAAF units that served in the PTO. Surely HTC could've given their Aussie players an RAAF P-40E Warhawk/Kittyhawk I ?!?! Nah, why do that when we can have *another* Allied a/c with US markings :rolleyes: ...
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One good thing is that we CAN have an Aussie Marked one in some upcoming Scenarios with terrains with custom Plane Skins.
Any good at making Plane Skins ?
Got some Reference that others can use to make one ?
Mike "DmdJordi" Bowman
Scenario CM Staff
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Can I hear Port Moresby calling?
New Guinea would be fun!
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you have my vote.
from an old post
I think it is an unfortunate choice.
The best P40E to have in the game would be one of these
(http://www3.telus.net/pongo/caldw4.jpg)
Preferebly Killer Caldwells LD-C
best looking...probebly most successful P40 pilot..or up there at least..
and Australias top Ace I believe..
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and who'd want to sit on the wing all the time ?
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I can speak austrailian, bt only if I go slow
"Where is the toilet room??? Mate???"
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S!
Don't mean to denigrate the brave Aussies but...
Over 20,000 Canadian Airmen died in WWII, most flying Lancasters and Halifaxes, plus of course all the Typhoons, Spits and P-40's.
And I believe the Canadians dropped more bomb tonnage too.
The Spit V should have been in 'Screwball' Beurlings markings.
They weren't too shabby in P-40's either, Jame's 'Stocky' Edwards was a Canadian Ace in the desert who got 16 of his 20+ kills in Kittyhawks.
http://www.accessweb.com/users/mconstab/edwards.htm
But you are right, the P-40E should be in Aussie colours. ;)
Salute Buzzbait
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Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!
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And don't forget the Brits/Aussies copied the sharkmouth from Bf110s they fought against.
:)
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Agreed
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Originally posted by Fester
I can speak austrailian, bt only if I go slow
"Where is the toilet room??? Mate???"
So what is a toilet room mate?
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Skyrats/files/Steve_and_Croc.jpg)
I'd prefer to trade an Aussie marked P-40N for a Beaufighter Mk21 anyday!
Tronsky
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Rofl steve irwin, gotta love the guy. He's so enthusiastic when he handles animals it's comical.
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lets just add a aussie plane.
bring the 'Boomerang' to AH!
(imagine pic of boomerang here)
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Originally posted by Pei
Can I hear Port Moresby calling?
New Guinea would be fun!
Yea, time for a little wantok payback!
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nah a dutch version will do :D
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Originally posted by KG45
lets just add a aussie plane.
bring the 'Boomerang' to AH!
(imagine pic of boomerang here)
couldnt agree more if ya paid me too :)
CAC Boomerang to AH!!
Blue
PS...at the end of hostilities, the RAAF was the third largest air force in the world, apart from the fact that I'm an Aussie and biased as hell, that alone should be reason enough to have some Aussie roundels here somewhere IMNSHO.
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A pic
Lynette Ziccolli's "Millingibbi Ghost"
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Originally posted by Bluedog
PS...at the end of hostilities, the RAAF was the third largest air force in the world, apart from the fact that I'm an Aussie and biased as hell, that alone should be reason enough to have some Aussie roundels here somewhere IMNSHO.
hmmm
"On the first of January 1944 the RCAF reached its peak wartime strength of 215,200 all ranks (including 15,153) women, 104,000 were in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, 64,928 were serving at home and 46,272 were serving overseas. There were 78 squadrons in service: 35 overseas, 43 at home (of which six had been ordered overseas)."
From here: http://www.rcaf.com/history.shtml
At the start of World War II, the RAAF consisted of about 3000 personnel and 300 aircraft. By 1945 it had grown 50-fold, to a force of over 180,000 personnel operating more than 3000 aircraft.
From here: http://www.defence.gov.au/raaf/shorthis.htm
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Originally posted by Pongo
Preferebly Killer Caldwells LD-C
best looking...probebly most successful P40 pilot..or up there at least..
and Australias top Ace I believe..
Thnx Pongo. Caldwell was *the* top P-40 ace of WW2. He finished the war as one of the top 10 Allied fighter aces , a feat made more remarkable by the fact he saw little air 2 air action after late '43 thnx to Macarthur's policy of forcing the Aussies to fight Jap forces that had been "hopped" ", taking part in dangerous (and often unecessary) close support missions,while his US pilots racked up large kills. Caldwell actually lead a near-mutiny on the issue in late '44 and ended up returning to Australia. As he said more than once, "The "Spit was never made for air 2 ground!".
Btw, Caldwell is also the only P-40 pilot to bag 5 kills in one sortie which he did in Nth Africa, shooting down 5 Ju-87s in the space of less than 90 seconds. "Killer" Caldwell was never shot down, though he himself is credit with shooting down several aces, and was also one of the few Allied pilots that managed to score kills over all 3 TriPartite Axis powers - Germany, Italy, and Japan.
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Originally posted by Buzzbait
S!
Don't mean to denigrate the brave Aussies but...
Over 20,000 Canadian Airmen died in WWII, most flying Lancasters and Halifaxes, plus of course all the Typhoons, Spits and P-40's.
And I believe the Canadians dropped more bomb tonnage too.
The Spit V should have been in 'Screwball' Beurlings markings.
They weren't too shabby in P-40's either, Jame's 'Stocky' Edwards was a Canadian Ace in the desert who got 16 of his 20+ kills in Kittyhawks.
http://www.accessweb.com/users/mconstab/edwards.htm
But you are right, the P-40E should be in Aussie colours. ;)
Salute Buzzbait
Sorry, Buzz but per capita Aussies dropped more bombs, suffered higher casualties, performed more sorties, and received more decorations than any other Commonwealth country in Bomber Command including Canada and Britain. In particular, RAAF No. 460 Sq. flew more sorties, dropped more tonnage, suffered more casualties, and received more decorations thany *any* squadron in Bomber Command.Also, the 11,000 Aussie airmen I mentioned are casualty figures for the ETO only. I have no idea what the figures for the PTO are, though I do know they were significantly less.
Don't forget that Australia only had a population of only 7 million at the time (it's about 20 million now) which was less than half of Canada's population during WW2. Even still, at the end of WW2, with Japan defeated, the RAAF was actually the *fourth* largest air force in the world behind the USAAF, RAF, and Soviet air forces, and ahead of the RCAF which was fifth. With almost 100 RAAF squadrons active, the Aussie air force punched well above the country's weight.
As far as more Canadian airmen dying in the ETO goes, that is true, but you have to compare how many served with how many Aussie airmen served. On a per capita basis, the Aussies easily suffered the highest casualty rate of any Commonwealth nation in the ETO. Obviously , Canada had a larger population and therefore more Canadian airmen served in the ETO, but you have to take into account that many Aussie airmen served in the PTO, whereas relatively few Canadians saw service in that theatre. Your argument is akin to a guy who makes $100,000 a year and pays $30,000 in taxes complaining that the guy down the road only paid $20,000 (even though he earned $50,000).Do the math...
No offense mate, but I didn't really want to go into all this, but you forced my hand. Buggered if I know why you wanted to bring Canada's effort into the discussion and *wrongly* suggest that Canada was somehow more worthy. For one thing, you Canucks already have the Mossie in RCAF markings, don't you? And whilst I have sympathy for your argument re: the Spit Vb, the premier exponents of the Kittyhawk/Warhawk were overwhelmingly Australian.
Sheesh, the statements I made re: the RAAF was *not* meant to be a put down of the heroic efforts of the RCAF during WW2, so I'm really quite puzzled re: your response.
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Originally posted by Fester
I can speak austrailian, bt only if I go slow
"Where is the toilet room??? Mate???"
Shitabria, you can't even SPELL "Australian" !!! Maybe if I spell it REEAAALLLLL SLOOOOW you'll catch on ;)
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Originally posted by Thrawn
hmmm
"On the first of January 1944 the RCAF reached its peak wartime strength of 215,200 all ranks (including 15,153) women, 104,000 were in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, 64,928 were serving at home and 46,272 were serving overseas. There were 78 squadrons in service: 35 overseas, 43 at home (of which six had been ordered overseas)."
From here: http://www.rcaf.com/history.shtml
At the start of World War II, the RAAF consisted of about 3000 personnel and 300 aircraft. By 1945 it had grown 50-fold, to a force of over 180,000 personnel operating more than 3000 aircraft.
From here: http://www.defence.gov.au/raaf/shorthis.htm
Mmmm, Thrawn. Firstly the RAAF was the fourth largest air force in the world at the end of WW2, and not the 3rd. With the end of hostlities in Europe, Canada had demobilised a large chunk of its air forces as it was never planned that the RCAF would play as large a role in the PTO as it had in the ETO. As you noted, the RCAF reached its peak in *early* 1944, at which stage it was larger than the RAAF, and thereafter slowly began to diminish in size until VE day,whilst the RAAF actually kept growing in size right up to 1945.
As far as the number of *active* combat squadrons is concerned on VJ day the RAAF was the *fourth* largest air force in the world, behind those of the US, the Soviet Union, and Britain, with the RCAF *fifth*. But frankly, who gives a toss anyway!?!? Immediately after VJ day both the RAAF and RCAF were massively demobilised so the "honour" of being 4th or 5th hardly lasted very long. In fact post VJ-day the RAAF was demobilised to an even greater extent than the RCAF - so much so that the RCAF again had a greater number of active combat squadrons (due mainly to the fact that the RCAF had a much more active role in the defence of post WW2 Europe, especially after 1950).
:rolleyes:
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Originally posted by Fester
I can speak austrailian, bt only if I go slow
"Where is the toilet room??? Mate???"
WTF does, "Where is the toilet room??? Mate???", mean? I can see you're right up to date with Aussie idioms, Cit. Not even that nitwit Steve Irwin would come out with such meaningless babble (in case there are other non-Aussies with Cit's level of intellect, I can assure you the vast majority of Aussies don't utter "gobbledygook like "By crikey!" ;) ).
As we do say down here, Pester, I think you have a "Roo lost in the top paddock" :D ...
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Originally posted by C_R_Caldwell
Shitabria, you can't even SPELL "Australian" !!! Maybe if I spell it REEAAALLLLL SLOOOOW you'll catch on ;)
Well, not to stir anything up, but that's Fester aka FesCAF not Citabria aka Fester. If you actually read the entire post you would realize this, besides he wasn't trying to be insulting, just cracking a joke.:rolleyes:
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C_R_Caldwell, I only wish to keep the records as clear as possible about my country's contribution (which can be difficult being an insigniifcant colony ;)), as I'm sure you are doing.
As far as the current topic is concerned. Hells ya the Australians deserve a plane, and it's long past due.
Canada got her own after a great appeal launched by Nash, I believe. He picked a "Canadian" plane and the colours of it . I would suggest that the Aussies might do the same.
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S! Caldwell
Once again, nothing personal, but you should be more careful before you make statements.
You first post made claims about suffering 'more' of everything, and mentioned nothing about population percentages etc.
I corrected that misimpression.
Canada suffered 17,100 dead in the air. (That is dead by the way, not casualties, not sure whether your 11,000 is dead)
Canadians fought from the first day of the war in the air, through the battle of Britain, and yes, in the Pacific in Burma and off Carriers. (A Canadian won one of the last VC's flying Corsairs off a British CV in the last few days)
And as far as tonnage of bombs dropped is concerned, I don't have the stats in front of me, but I still very much doubt Aussies dropped more.
And by the way... Canada had the 3rd largest Navy at the end of WWII (including Carrier's) and did more to win the Battle of the Atlantic than any other nation...
But I still think you should get your P-40... ;)
Cheers Buzzbait
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We cant count Canadians anyway.
Its a well established fact that only Americans and Canadians see a difference in themselves. The rest of us in the world still see you as the same.
We band the North, South and Canucks together and call you all Yanks :)
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Originally posted by Fester
I can speak austrailian, bt only if I go slow
"Where is the toilet room??? Mate???"
It's called a "dunny", mate. ;)
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And New Zealand declared war on Germany 2 days before anyone else did! Ha! Yer all Chicken! Chicken I say! :)
Fair suck o' the Sav mate!
palef
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Originally posted by scspook
We cant count Canadians anyway.
Its a well established fact that only Americans and Canadians see a difference in themselves. The rest of us in the world still see you as the same.
We band the North, South and Canucks together and call you all Yanks :)
Or Seppos.
PS....I stand corrected on the 'third largest AF' thing, make that fourth.
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What's amazing is how many squadrons New Zealand fielded, considering the size of that country. I hope that if the P-40N is added, it will be in ANZAC markings, to give credit where credit is due. BTW, I also hope the Canadians get an aircraft with RCAF markings at some point too :).
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hey, at least New Zealand has its top fighter ace in an AH aircraft already...
The SpitXIV belongs to Colin Gray of course...
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Is all this non-Kurt Tank-related?
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Originally posted by faminz
hey, at least New Zealand has its top fighter ace in an AH aircraft already...
The SpitXIV belongs to Colin Gray of course...
Always shoved to side is the contribution of ANZAC aircrew like 'Cobber" Kain, Alan Deere, Colin Gray, Robert Balfour, Hughie Edwards, 'Killer' Caldwell, Sir Keith Park etc.
Tronsky
486 Sqn (NZ), "Hiwa hau Maka"
(http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/images/aodkit1.jpg)
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Skyrats/files/f4u1-3.jpg)