A-hopefully NOT TOO Silly-question RE: 'nachwuchs'

[John Beaman]

Yes, inexperience and panic were major factors. When viewing Maj. George Preddy's gun camera film from Aug 6/44 where he was credited with 6 109s destroyed, he and 2 others come up behind an ENTIRE gruppe of 109s and he shoots down 2 BEFORE they even start to break! Who was watching?

Also, a 109 is a very tight fit and, as other have pointed out, damage to the canopy, fire, smoke, etc. can be totally debilitating towards bailing out. The impact of the rate of fire for 6 x .50 cal MGs is often underestimated. It is the same as 20mm cannon shells and can severely damage an aircraft.

[NickM]

Originally Posted by John Beaman

Yes, inexperience and panic were major factors. When viewing Maj. George Preddy's gun camera film from Aug 6/44 where he was credited with 6 109s destroyed, he and 2 others come up behind an ENTIRE gruppe of 109s and he shoots down 2 BEFORE they even start to break! Who was watching?

Also, a 109 is a very tight fit and, as other have pointed out, damage to the canopy, fire, smoke, etc. can be totally debilitating towards bailing out. The impact of the rate of fire for 6 x .50 cal MGs is often underestimated. It is the same as 20mm cannon shells and can severely damage an aircraft.

The thing that I found strange was that, even during the 'Focke Wulf Summer', when the JW units on the Channel were full of VERY experienced pilots the JW's losses seemed to be majority fatal....I, sort of assumed that more shot down pilots would be able to bail out & survive to fight again.

NM

NM

[Nick Beale]

I'd noticed that some of the top scorers baled out many times. I suspect that one secret of a long career was realising quickly that your machine was probably past saving and getting out.

As for experience levels, I can remember from researching Air War Italy 1944-45 a couple of cases where RAF pilots shot down Axis ones on what the ORB noted was either the Squadron's or the individual's first ever encounter with enemy aircraft in the air. That seems to point to the quality of Allied training.