 | best fighter of ww II| Old Threads Discuss best fighter of ww II in the Old Stuff forums; I saw that here was some time ago discussion about the best fighter of WW II. My contribution to that ... |
|
06-02-2004, 09:20 AM
|
#1 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 19
| best fighter of ww II I saw that here was some time ago discussion about the best fighter of WW II. My contribution to that discussion :
Best kill ratio : Brewster B-239 (Used by Finnish Air Force) and the whopping kill ratio was 26:1 |
| |
06-02-2004, 10:00 AM
|
#2 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country: | i was just going to mention that - i think thats a pretty amazing kill ratio for only about 49 planes to acheive, i think throughout the war they only lost about 12 of them?
__________________ with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... |
| |
06-02-2004, 10:48 AM
|
#3 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 12,057
Country: | It looks pretty good on paper but it was against Soviet pilots. The Finnish were good pilots and had some pretty inventive tactics for air warfare. It certainly doesn't qualify the B-239 as the best fighter.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004  To those in that club. |
| |
06-02-2004, 11:05 AM
|
#4 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country: | It was effective in the early years but throught out the years it got out classed in the engine department, but the handling and manoeverability were brilliant 
__________________ with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... |
| |
06-02-2004, 12:33 PM
|
#5 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 2,512
| Maneuverability brilliant? I don't think so. Or maybe you would like to ask the Marines of VMF-221 who lost 13 of the 19 Buffaloes committed to the battle of Midway. One of the pilots who survived the battle, Captain Philip R. White, later wrote, “It is my belief that any commander who orders pilots out for combat in an F2A should consider the pilot as lost before leaving the ground.”
__________________ |
| |
06-02-2004, 01:08 PM
|
#6 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 19
| Well, here's a comment about B-239, it was said by Ilmari Juutilainen, leading finnish ace (97.5 victories) : "I started my Brewster flights in the beginning of April 1940, doing all the aerobatics maneuvers, stall and dive tests. I was happy with my Brewster. It was agile, it had 4,5 hours endurance, good weaponry - one 7,62 mm and three 12,7 machine guns - and an armored pilot's seat. It was so much better than the Fokker that it was in another category. If we had had Brewsters during the Winter War, the Russians would have been unable to fly over Finland."
So, remember that Finnish Brewsters were F2A-1 models, which was much lighter and more agile than later F2A-2's
I'm still not saying it was the best fighter, but pretty good in the circumstances |
| |
06-02-2004, 02:01 PM
|
#7 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country: | 97.5 victories, how do you get a half?
__________________ with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... |
| |
06-02-2004, 02:02 PM
|
#8 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country: | but as was said, it was against the soviots...............
__________________ 
"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." |
| |
06-02-2004, 02:03 PM
|
#9 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country: | its still impressive 
__________________ with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... |
| |
06-02-2004, 02:22 PM
|
#10 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 19
| Well, I don't know how you get a half-victory. It must be shared with someone else. But it can get even more strange than that. In some sources the number of his victories is 94 and a sixth of a kill. I don't know which is the correct number, but strange numbers still  |
| |
06-02-2004, 02:28 PM
|
#11 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country: |
__________________ with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... |
| |
06-02-2004, 04:04 PM
|
#12 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 12,057
Country: | It was all against the Soviets though.
To get a fraction of a kill you either share the kill with a wingman, or several wingmen. Or you shoot up the plane but never see it go down.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004  To those in that club. |
| |
06-02-2004, 10:52 PM
|
#13 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 2,512
| Typically shooting up an aircraft that wasn't seen to crash would only be ruled as a probable and not as half-kill. Different air forces had different methods of calculating scores with some counting half kills and even probables as whole kills for propaganda. One country even awarded extra kills based on the size of the plane, three kills for downing a 4 engine bomber for example.
__________________ |
| |
06-03-2004, 05:01 AM
|
#14 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country: | probably the french, to make em look better 
__________________ with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... |
| |
06-03-2004, 08:49 AM
|
#15 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 19
| C.C. you're probably right. Or how about germans, how do you get over 300 victories without cheating somehow. (Although I have heard that german aces got their kills so that the wingman "almost" made it, and then the ace finished the job.)
__________________ |
| | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | | Display Modes | Linear Mode |
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts HTML code is Off | | | All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:29 AM. |  | |