#21
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♚ Legacy Gold Member ♚ Poster Rank:112 Male Join Date: Nov 2009 Mentioned: 4 Post(s) Quoted: 3728 Post(s)
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This appears to be a training video, probably for new German fighter pilots, showing the results of attacks on U.S. aircraft. The films are labeled with the attack method (from behind, from in front, and one says inbound converging attack - a curving atttack from the side. They also list the approximate distances from the initial firing, to when the attack was broken off. (Meters from the target aircraft) I was most impressed by the methodical attack in the last film where the B-17 was attacked from the rear (Luftwaffe pilots tried to avoid doing head-on attacks due the heavy return fire from the bombers). The German pilot is slowly targeting one engine, then the fuselage, then the tail gunner, then the other engine, and you can tell by the time he breaks off his attack that the aircraft is finished. The landing gear is starting to fall from the wheel wells, which means he had nacelle damage and lost hydraulics. Also, pieces are starting to separate from the aircraft, and it is obvious the German knocked out at least 2 engines. He probably killed the tail gunner and both waist gunners during the concentrated attack on the tail center. Also, he got the lower ball turret gunner, either through killing him or knocking out the drives, as the guns are hanging straight down, and there is no sign of them firing. It appears the German pilot did his best to remove all the defenses from the rear of the bomber on the first pass, so if he had to come back for a second pass, he would not be risking counter-fire from the bomber. This must have been a very experienced pilot, maybe a fighter instructor pilot, demonstrating the correct way to attack an American bomber. He also stayed on the attack for a fairly long time. Less experienced pilots would normally fixate on one engine nacelle, or other item, and break off fairly quickly. This guy really worked this bomber over like an expert. He left nothing to chance and stayed with it to finish the job. From the damage he did, I would assume the bomber was done. I have seen a LOT of gun camera footage, and I have to say that the most impressive footage I have seen from American aircraft was the gun camera footage shot by the "Red Tails" (The Tuskegee Airman - the Black fighter pilots). I never saw footage from their gun cameras that looked more than 100 feet from the target aircraft they were shooting at. They are always in CLOSE, (You can actually see access doors coming open on the German aircraft as they are hit by the guns) and they STAY in close. It's pretty apparent they were going to shove their guns right up the German's asses before they fired. Frequently the German aircraft simply break up into pieces and disintegrate . They were obviously some pissed off MoFo's! It must have been very satisfying to them. I DO wish the gun camera film on all sides had attribution to the pilot's flying the fighter. It would have been historically valuable. |
#22
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I would love to take hiyo 'hinton' style ^ (well, at least the girl in the pic) ^ |