Pappy Boyington on "To Tell The Truth"

[SIM]

This may have been posted in the past, but here goes anyway.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV3SAAtb3XY&feature=channel

[soda72]

Great find

With todays media availablity they would never be able to do a show like that now...

[Angus]

Utterly cool 

[Saxman]

I knew which one was Boyington immediately.

[CAP1]

number two, when you were shot down, did you bail out????????

[AWwrgwy]

number two, when you were shot down, did you bail out????????

No one shot down ever ditched.


wrongway

[CAP1]

No one shot down ever ditched.


wrongway

well, to me "shot down" means your aircraft was disabled beyond flight. hence "shot down".

 now, if my aircraft were disabled to the point of not being able to fihgt, and my wingman got the guy off of me, so i headed towards home.....but couldn't make it.....so i ditch....i wasn't shot down.

 i believe that's also how they confirmed them during ww2? they saw the pilot bail, or his a/c hit the ground?

[fudgums]

well, to me "shot down" means your aircraft was disabled beyond flight. hence "shot down".

 now, if my aircraft were disabled to the point of not being able to fihgt, and my wingman got the guy off of me, so i headed towards home.....but couldn't make it.....so i ditch....i wasn't shot down.

 i believe that's also how they confirmed them during ww2? they saw the pilot bail, or his a/c hit the ground?

depends on the country IIRC

[Motherland]

Generally if your aircraft was brought down by enemy fire you were considered shot down. IIRC Erich Hartmann was shot down 14 times but only bailed once or twice.

[ink]

Generally if your aircraft was brought down by enemy fire you were considered shot down. IIRC Erich Hartmann was shot down 14 times but only bailed once or twice.

as far as I read Hartmann never hit his silk, or lost a wing man.

[Motherland]

as far as I read Hartmann never hit his silk, or lost a wing man.

I know that Hartmann was forced to bail over Ploesti in 1944 by American P51's, don't remember any others, though.

[Saxman]

i believe that's also how they confirmed them during ww2? they saw the pilot bail, or his a/c hit the ground?

Depends on country, as said before.

In the US, "confirmed" kills were: Seeing flames, seeing the aircraft hit the ground or go into the water, or seeing the pilot bail out. Confirmed kills were usually backed up by witnesses (another aircraft or someone aboard a nearby ship) or gun camera footage. "Probables" included smokers or other aircraft that fall out of the sky that no one saw go in.

[ink]

I know that Hartmann was forced to bail over Ploesti in 1944 by American P51's, don't remember any others, though.

do you know cuz you was there?

Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993), also nicknamed "Bubi" by his comrades and "The Black Devil" by his Soviet enemies, was a German World War II fighter pilot and is the highest scoring fighter ace in the history of Aerial warfare. He claimed 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were won against the Soviet Air Force, and 260 of which were fighters) in 1,404 combat missions. He engaged in aerial combat 825 times while serving with the Luftwaffe. During the course of his career, Hartmann was forced to crash land his damaged fighter 14 times. This was due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down, or mechanical failure. Hartmann claimed never to have been shot down or forced to land due to fire from enemy aircraft.

Erich was

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Hartmann


and some more

...In 1944, he shot down at least 5 American Mustangs, but most of his 352 victories were Russian aircraft...

...He crash landed 14 times, but always emerged unharmed. Once he was almost captured by Russian soldiers. ( I guess the fact that he always crash landed and not parachuted is an indicator of the usually low altitude of the Russian tactical aircraft, especially the numerous Sturmoviks which used to fly extremely low, as modern Attack helicopters do today...

http://www.2worldwar2.com/erich-hartmann.htm

[Angus]

AFAIK "Bubi" hit the silk once, but I will have to dig in his book to verify.
Gunther Rall will simply say "I was shot down 8 times", but I only recall him hitting the silk once. However, it meant that he had to bail or crash-land immediately due to enemy fire thereby wrecking his aircraft.

[Motherland]

do you know cuz you was there?

Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993), also nicknamed "Bubi" by his comrades and "The Black Devil" by his Soviet enemies, was a German World War II fighter pilot and is the highest scoring fighter ace in the history of Aerial warfare. He claimed 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were won against the Soviet Air Force, and 260 of which were fighters) in 1,404 combat missions. He engaged in aerial combat 825 times while serving with the Luftwaffe. During the course of his career, Hartmann was forced to crash land his damaged fighter 14 times. This was due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down, or mechanical failure. Hartmann claimed never to have been shot down or forced to land due to fire from enemy aircraft.

Erich was

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Hartmann


and some more

...In 1944, he shot down at least 5 American Mustangs, but most of his 352 victories were Russian aircraft...

...He crash landed 14 times, but always emerged unharmed. Once he was almost captured by Russian soldiers. ( I guess the fact that he always crash landed and not parachuted is an indicator of the usually low altitude of the Russian tactical aircraft, especially the numerous Sturmoviks which used to fly extremely low, as modern Attack helicopters do today...

http://www.2worldwar2.com/erich-hartmann.htm

I know because it's in the biography that he contributed to.
This is apparently a less reliable source than wikipedia, though.