Placing the Bell P39 Aircobra.

[mayfair35]

Mr Franek,
I am not sure what you mean by "disregard the above??" In our case, the 325th landed at Piryatin and observed the P-39s at close hand. Clearly these did not have radios as the pilots all ran to their aircraft when an alert came in and simultaneously took off in all directions. They were dispersed completely around the airfield. Try to visualize the situation of our 60+ aircraft landidng while the 39s were all taking off!! If you disagree with this, that is your right. I thought that what was observed in this instance might be of some value to the members of this board. I also think you may be making a mistake thinking that everyone obeyed the tech orders put out for their airplane.

The operating instructions for the Thunderbolt stated that when dropping the external wing tanks, the aircraft should be flown at no more than 160 mph and in straight and level flight. Now visualize yourself being bounced. Do you think you would slow up, go straight and level, and then drop the tanks. Of course not and no one did. This resulted in some bent ailerons and flaps but was eventually resolved.

Also it is my impression that many of the folks writing on this thread seem to think that there was no variation in the aircraft assigned to a Group. I cannot speak for the Russians or the Germans but the Americans modified their aircraft in many instances. In our P-40s, some of the pilots removed 2 of the machine guns for better performance. The same was true in the P-47 and although I have my doubts, one pilot was said to have his 8 guns loaded with 800 rounds per gun. I believe that all the other P-47s carried a load of 400 rounds per gun. Many of the pilots changed the convergence point of their guns. Wayne Lowry, an 11 victory ace had his guns converge at 200 yards, I had mine at 250 yards, but others decided that 300 yards was more to their liking. Then just prior to when we were supposed to get the K-14, all the gun patterns were changed.

Our Mustangs could not be set up to draw more than the 66 inches of MP because of the fuel octane. In the 8th as I am sure you know, they could draw 70 inches with the higher octane of their fuel. In the Thunderbolt, WEP was supposed to be 56 inches of MP as I recall; however in our group, we modified the engine so it could pull 70 inches. This was certainly not condoned by anyone from higher headquarters, and it drove the tech rep nuts. Our philosophy was that if you could not get away from an opponent, and you were in real trouble, you might as well use the 70 inches. But everyone knew this was a last ditch effort and so was seldom used.

Cordially, Art Fiedler