[SES]

Hi,
Everything moves in circles great or small, but in circles it moves and hard learned experiences from previous conflict are sometimes forgotten. During unrealistic peacetime training the the Vic (3 aircraft in a close formation) may be attractive, but it is an unwieldy formation, which hardly can maneuver and where the wingmen's eyes are glued to the leader instead of scanning the sky for baddies. The RAF also utilized the Vic during the B-o-B, but in many sqns it was quickly abandoned because of too many losses to unobserved bounces.
In the Pair or the Rotte the wingman can devote more time to look-out and less time to staying in formation, the combat effectiveness of the formation of 2 aircraft in a loose formation is actually higher than that of 3 aircraft in a close formation. When you combine 2 pairs you have a section. If all 4 members have freedom of action and maneuver you probably have the most effective fighter formation.
But back to the circles. During the Cold War we again saw some airforces utilizing The Welded Wingman Formation and only real conflict and realistic exercises forced those air forces to reconsider and revert to the loose formation.
There is a highly recommendable book on this subject by AVM J.E. Johnson called "Full Circle", Chatto and Windus, London 1964, no ISBN nr.
bregds
SES