Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Angus on November 27, 2001, 08:27:00 AM
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Hello there forum.
I have something to ask of you.
Imagine that you had the chance to interview a ww2 ace, or aces.
Which ones would you choose, and what would you ask them about?
There are but precious few left, slipping away from us one by one. Does anyone contain information about ww2 aces that are alive and well, and ready for a little interview?
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This is VERY interesting!
I met an italian pilot of 205. I'm planning to make an interwiew with him and film it. This thread would be vry useful for me. And I'll be glad to publish the interwiew here.
<S>Great idea, mate! :)
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This is actually easy for me. I would pick David McCampbell, but he, sadly, passed away in 1998 I believe. I would probably talk to Alex Vraciu instead. I would talk to him about the Hellcat, FDO's and the Marianas Turkey Shoot.
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How manouverable were four engine buffs, and how effective were gunners under manouvers?
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Hartman..the German ace.
He had a ridiculous number of kills and I would like to talk to him about 109 tactics.
German aces though had less of an onus to prove/confirm kills than the US or British, so I wonder if all of his kills were accurate.
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Originally posted by Curval:
Hartman..the German ace.
He had a ridiculous number of kills and I would like to talk to him about 109 tactics.
German aces though had less of an onus to prove/confirm kills than the US or British, so I wonder if all of his kills were accurate.
Let's remember that he didn't fight just for a season and then sent to home, instead he fought throughout the war.
Oh.. most scoring non-german pilot in WWII were finnish pilot, Ilmari Juutilainen.
with "ridiculous amount of kills" also ;)
Anyway, I'd ask what was average shooting range.
I doubt it was 700 yards aka AH.
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The RAF pilot with no legs. Forgot his name. I'd ask him what he used instead of rudder pedals...
Lupo, are you a real fighter pilot? Cos I saw some from Aviano once. They were flying 10 feet above my head. Tornados...was very cool! :cool: :cool:
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Originally posted by Curval:
Hartman..the German ace.
He had a ridiculous number of kills and I would like to talk to him about 109 tactics.
German aces though had less of an onus to prove/confirm kills than the US or British, so I wonder if all of his kills were accurate.
I think you're wrong there Curval. I've seen many accounts where the German pilots were assigned "probable but not confirmed kills" so were not counted as an official kill.
Also, Fishu has it spot on. German pilots used to fight until dead. Unlike US or Brit pilots who served a certain amount of tours and then were home.
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I'd ask "Dude I'm buying... What are you drinking?"
Then I'd let him talk, since that's a fighter pilot learns what's really important - experienced guys talking sh*t at the bar.
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Name was Bader
CRASH
Originally posted by FlyingDuckSittingSwan:
The RAF pilot with no legs. Forgot his name. I'd ask him what he used instead of rudder pedals...
Lupo, are you a real fighter pilot? Cos I saw some from Aviano once. They were flying 10 feet above my head. Tornados...was very cool! :cool: :cool:
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Originally posted by Angus:
Which ones would you choose, and what would you ask them about??
Bong and Mcguire if they still lived.
I would ask them if their dive flaps worked, and if their twinbooms fell off when they sneezed.
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Talked to a guy here in my home town once last name was Ledbetter (I called him Mr. so 1st name escapes me). He was a gunner ace in B-25's with the Tuskeegee Airmen (487th Bomb group I think, looking for my autographed picture as I type.), had 5 confirmed kills. He had just retired as a member of our local school board. I asked him about the war, and all he wanted to tell me was that he was the AAC middleweight champ for 2 years. :) Think he got some pleasure smackin white soldiers without reprisal.
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I would ask only a few questions 1 would be to a japanese zero ace and see how they overcame the speed of US fighters later in the war; second I would ask the Fling Tigers commander how did he over come the attrition problems of fighting a war where U R absurdly out numbered and out classed.
To answer your question about average shooting range in WWII, I saw this show on Discovery Wings channel about the planes and tactics of WWII aircraft, the British pilots often engaged at around 300 yards. They said at 300 yards a 109 would fill your sights and it seemed to be right next to u. I would imagine this would hold true for most of the nations pilots of the war.
Hodo
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If they ever toejam or pissed themselfs.
I'm not trying to be mean spirited at all.
I really think if "I" was In ww2 and a fighter pilot in a dogfight, and REAL bullets and 30-40mm cannons were being shot at me, I'm SURE i'd crap myself.
And i REALLY do wonder how many would admit to soiling themselfs. I'm sure it took Brass balls to be a fighter pilot, and I'm wondering what made them rise above the fear factor and triump.
I am pretty fearless IRL, but only been shot at once, and that Once was enought. I would "think" i would have the "right stuff" and courage to be a fighter jock. But "thinking" what it was really like with Live ammo shooting at you, and Living it are worlds apart.
So, really thing about That question.
And <S> to all the fighter jocks!
NUTTZ
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Originally posted by FlyingDuckSittingSwan:
The RAF pilot with no legs. Forgot his name. I'd ask him what he used instead of rudder pedals...
Douglas Bader. He used... rudder pedals.
[He was fitted with artificial limbs after crashing a biplane fighter before the war. He then spent a long time working on his ability to operate the prosthetic limbs well enough to walk without crutches. He next had to fight the RAF heirachy to fly a plane on active duty, which he did with a lot of success until shot down and taken POW.]
If you want to learn more about him, read his autobiography "Reaching for the Sky".
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Robert S. Johnson, if he were still alive at least. Questions? Hhhhmmmm.......
#1: Was the P47 really a match for the German planes as it came from the factory, or did your crewchief have to make mods to it to make it more competitive.....and did everyone else do the same to their birds?
#2: Since they were in service at the same time, how would you personally rate the Jug compared to the the P51 and P38 as air to air fighters?
Next, Warrant Officer Kaneyoshi Muto. Questions:
#1: When you engaged those 12 F6F Hellcats singlehandedly, at what point did you turn on your anti-gravity drive? :eek:
#2:Another N1K2-J pilot said that the Homare engine performance was much lower than catalog due to reduced fuel quality (85 octane), and that the Shiden-kai performed well against the Hellcat but had troubles with the Mustang. Do you agree with his assessment of the Shiden-kai performance? :rolleyes:
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Bob Hoover.
#1 - Why yellow, man?
#2 - Do you and Chuck ever get together anymore?
#3 - (After asking him to try AH, until his first death) How do you feel about a snot-nosed, ground-bounder dweeb killing you?
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How many licks to the center of a tootsie pop?
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Good topic, BTW.
If I had a lot of time, I would ask any WW2 pilot to take me through a day in the life of a fighter pilot. I'd ask him to try and remember as many details as he could about daily routine--not necessarily a specific mission. What was it like from reveille to chow to briefing to getting the plane and waiting to takeoff into the mission and landing, then getting drunk at the end of the day. :) We could go off on tangents from anything above.
In the book P-47 Pilots: the FighterBomber Boys, author and 9th AF P-47 pilot Tom Glenn devotes a single chapter to this kind of stuff--taking you with him as he goes on a mission and its really a brain dump of everything he can remember about how it was. Awesome stuff.
The pilots I'd want to talk most (mostly to talk about tactics) with would be Hub Zemke, Robert S. Johnson (both now dead :( ), Francis Gabreski, Walker Mahurin, Gerald W. Johnson, Mike Gladych--all aces from the 56th FG. I'm happy to meet whatever ww2 pilots I can though. Aces or not, allied or axis, they've all got good stories to tell.
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Some months ago I had a long interview with Emanuele "Ele" Annoni, an 11 victories italian C.202 ace. He led the 96a Squadriglia, 9°Gruppo, 4°Stormo in North Africa. I asked him 1/100 of what I wanted to know. One week with him would not have been enuff :)
Anyway ... no furballs, only Hit&Run, short and furious dogfights, great respect for RAF pilots, stress, fellows dead ... this was his life.
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Great thread!
Gatt (or any other) i would really appreciate it if u would post the interview or a link to the interview or links to any other interviews :)! Maybe its worth a new thread in the history forum?
My grandfather was flying in a HE 111. Unfortunately i havent talked to him much about WWII. So my questions would be what feelings/thoughts he (or any other pilot/gunner ...)had when he was flying over enemy territory knowing this could be the last sortie.
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I was not suggesting that German pilots were "lying" or that they did not deserve respect...just that the Germans had much less rigorous confirmation of kill requirements.
The US pilots, for example, had to have a confirmation of the kill by another pilot who saw the enemy pilot get shot down....if there was no second set of eyes then the kill did not count as official. I do not think that this was the case for the Germans, but I could be wrong. Hey...other question for Hartman.
I was actually very lucky to be taught History by a Wing Commander of a Hurricane Squad who took part in the Battle of Britain. He was the best teacher I ever had....he could draw maps in seconds that were unbelievable...and he had the knack of being able to capture and entrall his students with the details of a given battle or senario. He is one reason why I am flying here today! A few friends of mine, and I, used to be able to distract him from the topic that he was trying to teach with a simple question about WW2. He would then launch into a detailed description of the battles in which he fought and draw his maps to show not only the tactical aspects of a battle, but also the overall strategic situation that faced them at the time. Sadly he passed away about 10 years ago...I recently sent his wife a letter telling her how much I enjoyed his classes and how he turned me into a WW2 buff. She wrote back and mentioned that my letter brought tears to her eyes....not because it was well written or anything, but because she was so happy that her husband was fondly remembered by his students.
He was a very tough man (he played Rugby for the Lions - British national team)...but very fair as well.
(http://curval.freeservers.com/images/bdaflag.gif)
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Originally posted by Voss:
Bob Hoover.
#1 - Why yellow, man?
#2 - Do you and Chuck ever get together anymore?
#3 - (After asking him to try AH, until his first death) How do you feel about a snot-nosed, ground-bounder dweeb killing you?
Voss, I can answer #2 for you. Yes, They see each other every summer at Oshkosh. Bud Anderson is there also. What a bunch of Great Guys. The Oshkosh Fly-in AirVenture is the place to be man!
If I see Bob, I will ask him about the Yellow :D
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This is a Great Question.
Hmmmm... Well Chuck Yeager is out, Iv already met him, and heard about every story by now.
Iv never met Bud Anderson, but Iv heard him tell all his stories about a dozen times.
Maybe Dick Bong. Then I can ask him why his nephew Chris is the way he is... ;D (yup Chris used to work for my uncle)
How about Earl "Dutch" Miller. I would ask him what he is going to order for lunch. (got lunch plans with him)
I guess the one question that I would ask of any fighter pilot is this.
How can you get into a dogfight and not get sick from pulling positive and negetive G's for an extended period of time. I know 15mins is about my limit??
You know its great living in Wisconsin, We have alot of aviation right in our backyards.
::Brag mode off::
Muhahahahahahaaa
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Originally posted by Grimm:
How about Earl "Dutch" Miller. I would ask him what he is going to order for lunch. (got lunch plans with him)
::Brag mode off::
Muhahahahahahaaa
Peanutbutter and jelly sammich. I swear it is true, ask +Mia ;).
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What about Butch O'Hare?
I think he's dead though.
I would want to talk to one of my drunks. Seems jumping out of a perfectly good airplane takes alot of balls.
I recently got a letter from Dick Winters, The CO of 101st Airborne Easy Company.
He ws nice enough to write back after I saw the HBO series "Band of Brothers"
Hell of a nice guy.
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I've met about 5 fighter aces and about the same on Bomber pilots. Listened to thier speaches and shook thier hands. All you have to do is go to an Aces High CON. They always have at least two or more speakers at each CON I've been to. You also might wanna look up AKWabbits post in the archives here and download his vidoes of this years CON. He taped both speakers and posted it to the BBS.
LLB OUT!!!!
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Curval. Some tactics with 109:
- Boom and zom (Hartmann didn't like dogfigths)
- Shots at <d100(*) with 20mm & 30mm (remember the words of Hartmann: near, near). You know the story of a pilot of P51 agaist Bubbi over Ploesti(Rumania)?
- Spiral climbs, hammer...
- 4 Fingers
- Split-S, G negatives,
- Don't dive with P51,P47 at the back.
- Don't turn with spits, yaks, etc...
About the Hartmann kill, they were probably more than 352. The German systems of recognition of victories were so rigorous with those of the allies. However the japoneces was enough bad: overclaims, kills of group. They had very liberal methods of counting the victories. For example Tetsuzo Iwamoto birdcall 200 victories.the alone historians recognize him 80. The same thing for Tanimizu, Nishizawa, Sasai, etc.
The 109 were such a good airplane as the P51, although difficult to steer. For experten like Hartmann, Barkhorm(the best), Rall, Krupinski, Galland, Marseille etc etc at the end should not be very difficult to get victories.
Greetings, and sorry for my poor english
( poor english of Power Translator Pro ;-) )
P.S: Hartmann was shotdown 17 times ... fortunate boy, but it was for the 11 years of prisoner in the URRS after WW 2.
(*) Kills D900 of AH. They are not too real.
;) ;)
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Was invited to a military dinner a few years ago, one where Chuck Yeager was the guest of honor. Was told we could all meet and chat with him. Wanted to ask him about the X-flights and how it felt to be the 1st to fly faster than the speed of sound and not be able to talk/bragg about it. Was waiting near the door for him when it swung open suddenly, nailing me in the face and knocking me down the the ground. Regained my marbles as I lay there, and Chuck held his hand out to help me up. "Nice landing" he says with a grin and helps me up. Buys me a beer and moves on, chatting with other guests. Didnt get any questions answered but I sure remember that like it was yesterday!
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Originally posted by Duedel:
[QB]Great thread!
Ya, but it belongs on the O' Club!
(Hey! I had to :)
But seriously folks.... During my association with AW, I've got to meet many a WW2 Pilot and ask the dweeby questions we all always wanted to. And stading next to these men, one tends to snivel a bit. :)
The first question to ask bar none is.....
"So whatcha drinkin'?" I havn't met a WW2 pilot yet that forgot how to drink. It's only polite to buy him a cocktail and adress him as "Sir".
Now....
When you look into the *eyes* of a man like Bud Anderson or General Olds or Gabby etc. you see "something". A something that time cannot dim. It's sad to lose these guys.
Last month I got to talk to Gen. Paul Tibbets and Col. Bob Morgan. Talk about a couple of buff drivers from hell. :)
-W
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PS
The second question is "How much for your book Sir?" If you buy it and read it, you won't be asking questions already answered.
Plus it feels good to help keep our Heroes wealthy. :)
Originally posted by Ratbo:
The first question to ask bar none is.....
"So whatcha drinkin'?" I havn't met a WW2 pilot yet that forgot how to drink. It's only polite to buy him a cocktail and adress him as "Sir".
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Originally posted by Ratbo:
PS
The second question is "How much for your book Sir?" If you buy it and read it, you won't be asking questions already answered.
Plus it feels good to help keep our Heroes wealthy. :)
Originally posted by Ratbo:
The first question to ask bar none is.....
"So whatcha drinkin'?" I havn't met a WW2 pilot yet that forgot how to drink. It's only polite to buy him a cocktail and adress him as "Sir".
I couldnt agree more :)
I remember a couple of the AVG Guys, Old men now, but there attitudes were those of young fighter pilots. These Guys were laughing and joking about which one was the good looking one and who was going to get the girls. There was definately something special there. I have just been very lucky in life to have had a chance to meet and thank these kinda guys.
Some the most special guys are ones you wouldnt expect.
I spend a week each summer at Oshkosh. I roam around, and when I get tired, I look for a bench, often with a white haired older fellow sitting on one end. Most of them are vets from WW2. Iv talked to many of them, never get their name and have heard many stories, asked questions and aways thanked them for their efforts many years ago.
One last short story. A few years ago, They had a tribute to the ending of WW2. They put 200 Warbirds overhead at the same moment, that was amazing. But the best part was at the end of that, they ask the Vets to hold up a hand or stand. Then they asked the crowd to give them are round of applause. The Cheers where incredible. around 1/2 million folks giving standing ovations.
Regular guys, but heros
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Originally posted by NUTTZ:
If they ever toejam or pissed themselfs.
NUTTZ
I have a book where a P-38 ace in North Africa admits to crapping his pants.
When it happend he wasn't being shot at. He attributed it to a variety of factors largely centering around a bad piece of cheese he ate.
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S!
"World War II Fighters", a pretty sim with a crap FM has a series of interviews with various aces which are almost worth the cost of a WWIIF CD now. (cost around $5.00 U.S.) They make some interesting comments.
Of course, the best thing is to read the various autobiographies in order to really get inside their heads.
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got a light?
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If i coul have chance to speak with them, i apply them to explain to you, how is that possible , that they can sit behind their enmy few years after.