Dog fights on the History channel

[Hornet_Driver]

I watched the "Last of the Gunslingers" F-8 documentary and the air war over Hanoi during 1967. Man! Catch it, if you can.

[mkloby]

Originally Posted by Hornet_Driver

I watched the "Last of the Gunslingers" F-8 documentary and the air war over Hanoi during 1967. Man! Catch it, if you can.

HD - how many squadrons of FA-18C's does the USN have? I thought they were replacing them all with the E/F.

How long ago did you go through flight school? I am just starting helos now, and got slated for the MV-22.

[comiso90]

I'm watching it now. They've added more "in the aircraft" human animations. I like it. Some great programming physics went into how the aircraft behave under stress.
I'm disappointed at the ramming and kamakazi theme. It's interesting but lacks the drama of a desperate knife fight by two capable combatants.
I look forward to subsequent episodes.

.

[PearlJamNoCode]

Originally Posted by comiso90

I'm watching it now. They've added more "in the aircraft" human animations. I like it. Some great programming physics went into how the aircraft behave under stress.
I'm disappointed at the ramming and kamakazi theme. It's interesting but lacks the drama of a desperate knife fight by two capable combatants.
I look forward to subsequent episodes.

.

Here's a synopsis of the episodes for the rest of the season... looks pretty awesome.

Dogfights (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Erich]

not sure why I stayed up to watch the Elbe thing, it was cut off way too short as the other LW units were not covered, Fritz was up 7 times and they cut him off more than once without allowing him to finish his statements in German. Crandall was up 2 times and got 15 seconds in. Graphics were interesting...

I gave the show a 3 out of 10 with 10 being best

hopeful the future sessions will be better - # 14 should be good one, Alden Rigby is a great guy and this actually made him an ace with the attack by JG 11 over the 352nd fg airfield at Asch, the 352nd fg slaughtered the German LW unit. geez they cannot even get Oskar's name spelt correctly was on a mission with a small part of his Sturmgruppe and one of his Kameraden was shot down by a spitfire, and in turn Oskar got in behind and vaporized the RAF fighter with his Minen rounds.

I have the stories already.......will be interesting to see if they get it right.

thanks for the link PJNC

[lesofprimus]

Heres a link to the episode that had my Uncle Swedes excellent story of 3 vs 1 while flying in his SBD....

Part 1 : YouTube - Dogfights: Long Odds - "Swede" Vejtasa - Part 1 of 2

Part 2: YouTube - Dogfights: Long Odds - "Swede" Vejtasa - Part 2 of 2

[Njaco]

Les, I watched that and was amazed! He was your uncle!! My hats off to him. Kinda like taking a butterknife to a gunfight and still makin out on top. They had alittle about his gunner but did your uncle ever say he flew with him again? I'd probably stick to him like glue on any further missions.

[lesofprimus]

He wasnt my actual Uncle, but an "Uncle" who was great family pals with my Grandfather.... I have since given my Liberty Head Silver Dollar collection that Uncle Swede gave me over the years of my childhood to my son...

As for his gunner, yes he flew with him on numerous occasions...

As a side note, Swedes entire body was one huge bruise after this combat.... Throwing those G's around gets tough on the body..

[renrich]

Great stuff about Swede V. One thing that makes me crazy about TV is the mistakes. For instance, the Marine Top Gun instructor states that the Zero cannons outrange the SBDs guns. If I am not mistaken the SBD had 2 cowl mounted 50 cals. The low velocity Oerlikon cannons in the Zero were very short ranged and the twin 50s could reach out with their much flatter trajectories and touch the Zero before those cannon were effective. That was the reason why the Thach Weave was effective. The Zero did not like to go head to head with a Wildcat because the Wildcat could hit him before the Zero could hit back and of course the Zero was much more fragile. Anyway, nit picking but Swede was a hell of a pilot. Wonder what his gunner was thinking during the dogfight?

[lesofprimus]

The gunner was trying to stay conscious throughout the battle...

[Njaco]

Wonder what his gunner was thinking during the dogfight?

"wow, this is better than Six Flags!" Really, he must've been scared as hell! I give Swede a big for that action. To evade a far superior machine than yours is one thing, to shoot several down, AMAZING!

[Stupid]

Wow I saw the episode yesterday and personally I thought it was awesome. Saw the SBD one on TV also and it was amazing as well. They've come a long way in effects since their first 2 hour episode.

[AAA_leadsled]

At first I was a little disappointed at the title of the first episode when I looked into it, since kamikaze didn't seem like a "dogfight"!.

After watching it tho, I think they took the show to the next level in terms of explaining and they seemed to have alot of veterans who were there.

I am thankful that this show exists, I can't get enough of warbirds!

I imagine alot of their choices for shows has to do with finding veterans to help explain it all, after all the human element is what it is about!

I would like to see more european, eastern front action, or even the med.

I think its a good show and helps to get more people interested in this part of history which after all can't be a bad thing!

[syscom3]

I wonder why the German "sondekommando" -109 was only fitted with a single MG?

[davparlr]

The article on the U.S.S. Laffey was especially meaningful to me. My childhood neighbor was in the 5 inch gun turret that was hit by the kamakazi. He was one of the survivors. I wish I was old enough to talk to him about it. It was an incredible story about an incredible ship.