Cobras, Mustangs, Thunderbolts, Eastern vs Western front, Franek vs ...

[kalender1973]

Originally Posted by drgondog

I had a detailed conversation with Galland in 1983 before publishing my book and he permitted me to reprint a letter about the impact of the Mustang on LW Operations. Essentially the Mustang interdicted formation assembly, killed many German pilots taking off and landing, shot up airfields and reduced 'effectives' at strategic points (munich/Berlin for example) for days - shot up rail and barge traffic when Speer decentralized plants and needed to move subassemblies from one factory to another.. and put up a fighter with equal performance (or greater at bomber altitudes) over HIS cities...
Regards,
Bill

Hi Bill,

I am also convinced that Mustang play very important role. But without other component of air force component they were not so successful.

I would be also careful with the statements of former responsible of wehrmacht generally and especially with Galland. He was responsible for fighter arm and he is also at least partly responsible for the disaster over Germany. After the war all former german generals try to give over own responsibility to other. And Galland was not an exception: he was the best, he understood all but Hitler, Göring, Joschenek etc were fault at the problems. And the last but not least: “Mustangs, what we can do?” But if I read his “The first and the last” and compare it with actual facts, I see many problem, where Galland was pesonally responsible.

Best regards,