Innholdsfortegnelse for November - December 2022 i Flight Journal

A UNIQUE FACT about the Allied fighters featured in this issue is that though most are American-built, they also flew under a variety of foreign flags during World War II. The Vought F4U Corsair series is one of these. With a world class airframe, unusual bent wings, and one of the finest engines ever, the Corsair attracted a lot of attention at home and abroad. In June 1943, the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm started to receive their first Corsairs through Lend-Lease as they were in desperate need of a high-performance, carrier-capable fighter, and they pressed them into operations right away—well ahead of the U.S. Navy. Interestingly, the U.S. had been operating Corsairs since 1942 but made the decision to limit them to Marine Corps land-based operations because of numerous…

P-47D UN-V, NAMED “PAT,” from the famed 56th FG, 63rd FS, prepares for another fighter sweep in support of the D-Day invasion. ThesecondmountofCapt. GordonS. Stevens, it survived until early September, when it was lost with Capt. Roy Fling at the controls. Stevens himself was lost in a “Pat” replacement on September 18, a victim of flak over Belgium. From its inception, the 56th was destined for excellence and historical significance. As the first fighter group to be challenged, and possibly intimidated, by Republic’s new radial-engined beast, the group took on that mission and remained faithful to its charge till the end of hostilities. As part of a pre-war build-up of 35 Army Air Forces combat groups, the 56th Pursuit Group was activated on paper in January 1941, initially at Savannah,…

LEGEND HAS IT that the initial creation of the P-51 Mustang was drawn on a napkin. The fact of the matter was that the British RAF was in desperate need of fighters during the early days of WW II and didn’t care if it had been drawn on tissue paper. The need for fighters in the RAF was so great that they contacted the North American Aviation Corporation (NAA) to ask if they would be interested in manufacturing license-built P-40 Tomahawks to assist them in their cause of repelling the Luftwaffe. Instead of tooling up their plant in California for P-40s, the movers and shakers at NAA promised a better, all-around fighter, one that could be designed, built and delivered in around 120 days. NAA came very close to meeting the…

It was during my initial flight training in early 1942, after performing loops, rolls and Immelmann turns, that I knew I wanted to fly fighters for the Luftwaffe. I was granted my wish in December of 1942 when I was sent to No. 1 Fighter School at Werneuchen near Berlin. My instructors were all high-time fighter pilots, many of them gaining their experience on the Russian front. One instructor, Maj. Hannes Trautloft, stood out from the rest. He had seen action on the Russian front with Jagdgeschwader (JG) 54, also known as the Green Hearts. What struck me the most, though, was his concern for his fellow men and the camaraderie they developed as they relied on one another day in and day out. From that day forward I was…

Saburo Sakai was a samurai, tracing his warrior-caste linage back to sword-swinging feudal forebears who had invaded Korea in the 16th century. Raised on a small farm near the city of Saga, Japan, he learned to scorn money and to endure resultant poverty rather than stooping to accepting servitude in exchange for currency. His family still proudly wore the twin sabers-emblazoned emblem of the abolished samurai order, and stoically, pridefully endured the harshness of their lot. His iron constitution helped him stand out in the Navy Fliers’ School. His abilities were many and marked. Instructors were impressed as they watched him swim 50 meters in well under 30 seconds, hold his breath underwater for two and a half minutes, hang by one hand from the top of a pole for…

I HAD ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A FIGHTER PILOT, the “man in charge,” if you will. After I had earned my wings in 1943, I was given the choice of single-engine fighters or bombers. Although multi-engines may have sounded safer, I knew that the only person who would be able to put my flying abilities to the test was me! I was sent to the 54th Fighter Group in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to begin my indoctrination into becoming a fighter pilot. Most of the guys in the group had just returned from combat in the Aleutian Islands and the whole group was getting ready to go to the Southwest Pacific. EVEN AT FULL THROTTLE, THE P-40 LAGGED BEHIND … IT WAS A DOG, BUT IN A TURN CHASING TAILS WITH…

IN MID-1943, the Grumman Aircraft Corp. began to deliver the F6F Hellcat—its latest and greatest fighter—to the U.S. Navy. It was fast, maneuverable, heavily armed and armored. It was built “Grumman tough” and soon earned the nickname “Ace Maker.” As a replacement for its little brother, the F4F Wildcat, the Hellcat was everything the F4F wasn’t. FLYING A WILDCAT WAS LIKE FLYING A BRICK. IT COULDN’T CLIMB VERY FAST, BUT IT COULD DIVE LIKE A ROCK! During this period, the Navy began to use a one-two-punch technique against the Japanese. First, it used a full fleet and light carriers to attack Japan’s warships and other vessels landbased airstrips, and troop concentrations. At the same time, a combination of TBM/TBF torpedo planes and Curtiss Helldiver bombers destroyed targets of opportunity, and the…

Late into the night of February 27, 1943, Oblt. Heinz Knocke and Lt. Dieter Gerhard of 5./JG 1 sat up discussing how best to combat the B-17 bomber formations that were beginning to increasingly menace the German homeland. Gerhard eventually came up with a brilliant suggestion: “Why don’t we try using our own aircraft to drop bombs on the American formations?” The concept works and is revived After taking time to try out their idea using Messerschmitt 109 Gs carrying 250-kilogram (550-pound) bombs, Knocke undertook the first such operation on March 22. He recalled: “I fused the bomb, took final aim, and pressed the release button on my stick. My bomb went hurtling down. I watched it fall and banked steeply as I broke away. Then it exploded, exactly in…

Of all the written accounts by the fighter pilots of the RAF during 1941, two stand out, in my opinion. Both were by pilots who flew Spitfire Mk Vs with 610 Squadron, which by summer 1941 was one of the squadrons under Wing Commander Douglas Bader. “Circuses” were usually composed of six bombers, escorted by many squadrons of fighters, typically Spitfire Mk Vs; the formation was called a “Beehive.” At this time, RAF Fighter Command, headed by Air Marshall William Sholto Douglas, was carrying out its new policy, “Lean towards France.” The policy was suggested by retired Air Marshall Hugh Trenchard, who had commanded the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. Unfortunately, Trenchard failed to absorb the lessons of the Battle of Britain, which had finished in victory…

It’s hard to accurately put the importance of the WW II crew chief, his mechanics and the armorers in perspective. It’s just as difficult to visualize both the complexity of their jobs and the environments in which they had to perform them. First the hardware: If you strip away the intricate electronic systems of today’s fighters, it’s not stretching the facts to say that it’s easier to maintain a jet than it is an R-2800 P & W or a Merlin V-12. A jet engine may be incredibly precise but the parts count is MUCH lower than something like a high-performance two-row, 18-cylinder radial engine. Keeping a jet running is relatively easy compared to keeping almost any WW II combat engine hale and hearty. Especially considering two important facts: the…

BY MID-1935, the Republic Aviation Corporation (formerly the Seversky Aircraft Corporation) designed a single-seat monoplane fighter for the U.S. Army Air Corp called the P-35. It was, without a doubt, the granddaddy to the P-47 and the beginning of a great lineage to what would become not only one of the heaviest U.S. single-seat fighter produced, but also the most widely produced fighter in the Army Air Forces during the war. In 1940, the P-43 Lancer leapt off the drawing board and began to form the genesis of the Thunderbolt line. This included incorporating a turbo supercharger running down the center line of its belly to assist the 1,400-horsepower Pratt & Whitney 1830 radial engine in propelling the P-43 to 356mph while cruising at 20,000 feet. But Republic saved the…

IN EARLY DECEMBER OF 1944, most of the pilots in the 78th Fighter Group, especially those with over 25 combat missions under their belts, felt “fat and sassy” flying the reliable and hard-hitting P-47 Thunderbolt. Seasoned pilots realized early on that the “Jug” was like a flying tank: one that could deliver deadly punishment to the enemy and absorb most anything thrown at it. Whether flying a bomber escort, dive bombing a bridge or strafing an airfield, the P-47s of the 78th FG cut a destructive swath through occupied Europe. A great affection and bond between pilot and plane soon established itself as the Eagles of Duxford tore apart the Axis. Many times, the black-and-white checker-nosed P-47s brought their pilots back from a mission with extra weight in the form of…

THE ROYAL NAVY operated over 2,000 F4U Corsairs during World War Two. It was flying them from aircraft carriers when the U.S. Navy had declared the aircraft unsuitable for deck operations. “Of all the aircraft I had seen, it was the most wickedlooking bastard. It looked truly vicious. I saw no reason why a Corsair shouldn’t kill me and that day I sat down and typed my last will and testament.”—Lt. Norman Hanson, RNVR 1833 NAS (later Lt. Cdr. DSC), July 1943 Fighters for the Fleet Air Arm At the start of WW II in September 1939, the British Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm consisted of 20 Naval Air Squadrons with just 232 aircraft. In the early part of the war, the Royal Navy’s fighter aircraft requirements were met by…

WHEN HIGHLY COVETED KODACHROME transparency film was present in the tropics, it could suffer the ravages of humidity as is evident in this spotted, yet evocative image of Spitfires in a faraway place. In the absence of formal caption information, some clues in this battered Kodachrome may help identify the players. The Spitfires all wear two-tone fin flashes and roundels; the lack of any red pigment in these markings matches American efforts to avoid any confusion with Japanese aircraft markings, which used red extensively. The tail of a nocturnal B-24 of the 868th Bombardment Squadron looms over buildings in the upper left corner of the photo. The 868th moved to Morotai, Indonesia, in March 1945, about the time the Royal Australian Air Force’s No. 80 Wing was set to depart with…