McGuire Last fight

[jeanba]

Thank you very much for this very usefull information.
The first version I read of Mc Guire's death was that he stalled while dogfighting against a high ranking Zero ace, then in the begining of the 90's, variants of the version I quoted came to be treated as the most reliable (ie : Mc Guire was caught by surprise by a Franck while chasing an Oscar at low altitude, he stalled and crashed).
Still, Mc Guire is supposed to have been shot down by a japanese ace according to all account I have read, was Mixunori Fukuda an ace ?

Edit : I found a "Fukuda Sumia" 11 kills IJNAF ace who was killed in October 44 ...

[gian paolo]

Originally Posted by jeanba

Thank you very much for this very usefull information.
The first version I read of Mc Guire's death was that he stalled while dogfighting against a high ranking Zero ace, then in the begining of the 90's, variants of the version I quoted came to be treated as the most reliable (ie : Mc Guire was caught by surprise by a Franck while chasing an Oscar at low altitude, he stalled and crashed).
Still, Mc Guire is supposed to have been shot down by a japanese ace according to all account I have read, was Mixunori Fukuda an ace ?

Edit : I found a "Fukuda Sumia" 11 kills IJNAF ace who was killed in October 44 ...

Jeanba

I think it's an accepted fact that no IJNAF A6M Zero were there.

Actually the details of Mc Guire demise went unnoticed even to his surviving comrades.He may have well stalled and crashed trying to

catch the agile and elusive ki-43 flown by Sugimoto or he may have been

shot down by Sugimoto himself who is credited of damaging 2LT Thropp

p-38 . Fukuda entered the fray later and probably downed Major

Rittmeyer.

The two IJAAF pilots were surely well trained and bold but are not

recorded in Japanese sources as aces.

Lastly the two Fukudas are not related , belonging to different air forces and having different names, moreover Mizunori survived the war and I read

it was even interviewed .

Best

gian paolo

[jeanba]

This is the history I have read most often in recent soruces and the most reliable too.
According to me, it is interesting to see how the legend evolved around the death of McGuire, and the tendancy that some persons have to say that
1st : he was not shot down
2nd : he was dogfighting an ace (and this was my question : none of the involved japanese pilot were "aces" as far as I could find).

[gian paolo]

Originally Posted by jeanba

This is the history I have read most often in recent soruces and the most reliable too.
According to me, it is interesting to see how the legend evolved around the death of McGuire, and the tendancy that some persons have to say that
1st : he was not shot down
2nd : he was dogfighting an ace (and this was my question : none of the involved japanese pilot were "aces" as far as I could find).

I suspect all this was for public comsumption at home . Mc Guire loss while

battling an "ace" was more palatable than admitting his loss at the hands

of an ( then ) anonymous Jap(anese ) pilot.

Even if we assume that he was not shot down , his was undeniably a battle casualty . Saying it was not , is the same as saying that a ground
trooper killed by a stone thrown up by an enemy shell blast is an accident


gian paolo