In the later stages of the war the LW was running out of capable fighter
pilots. There are several accounts (from both sides) of LW pilots bailing out
before they were even engaged because they were barely experienced enough to
take-off & land, never mind survive a dogfight. In those circumstances, I
would believe that an Allied fighter pilot, bored of rarely seeing enemy
fighters and forced to carry bombs would drop them at the slightest excuse and
opt for a dogfight even when the enemy has a height advantage ;-)
Rob
On Friday, 30 April 2021, 20:00:37 BST, Lee Fisher
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 30 Apr 2021, at 4:22 pm, 56RAF_phoenix <phoenix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think the "drop bombs and fight" is simply a myth
You do a great disservice to the aggresivness of the RAF Fighter pilots who
flew against the Nazis.
While reading Shores & Thomas 2nd TAF Volume 1, firstly I was surprised by how
many, almost exclusively, Fighter sweeps and Armed Recce sorties were carried
out following D-Day by Spitfires and Mustangs, the GA being mostly being done
by Typhoons and medium bombers, there were a very few occasions, only 1 in
June, such as the following, where Fighters did some ground attack and saw
enemy fighters before target.
20 June ’44.19 Squadron Mustangs sent to bomb marshalling yards at Rambouillet,
before the attack could be made 16 Fw190’s of III./JG54 were seen over Dreux,
bombs were dropped so the Mustangs could give battle. 2 190’s were shot down
and 6 damaged for the loss of one Mustang, the pilot bailed and evaded capture.
There are numerous accounts of Spitfire IX's and Mustang III's engaging enemy
fighters after strafing ground targets or bombing, even though they would still
have the bomb shackles fitted!
The emphasis seems to have been that the enemy fighters were a real threat
"immediately" but also, they had the potential to be a future threat to all
allied aircraft so should be destroyed.
Witch
