RE: MiG pilots got worse

["Daniel T. Fahey" <DanFahey@DanSources.com>]

Yes you are very correct about tactics.  The only commander prepared was
General Chennault. AND I agree for the most part US planes were competitive
but rarely superior. Interestingly the P40 was the superior plane in the
CBI. Probably the only case other then the Brewster being used by the Finns
against Russia durign early WW2.

My only contention was that the Army with the Allison engines did not
implement superchargers for high altitude in WW2.  Or the USAF in Korea
mounting 20mm in the Sabers.

We had a very good turbosupercharger system that went on the P38. The P39
had one but was eliminated.  My contention was that having altitude
advantage and good high altitude performance set up very sucessful attacks.
We had the technology to implement.  We just did not.  In fact the Mustang
getting the Merlin was a major grind and insult.  Tactically, logistically
and for maintenance it was very smart.

Marcelles(sp?) in Africa shot down 17 allied airplanes in one day.  All from
pearched several thousand feet above his quarry.  The very sucessful pilots
all wrote about not having to maneuver to shoot soen their target. All were
able to take a quick shot and get out. This boom and zoom tactic works great
especially for cannon carrying planes.  Much like the Russians in Korea with
the Mig and Japanese with the Zero.

The USAAF preferred machine guns. With 6-50's this worked out OK.  The
British liked 30cal for some reason. Which was OK against fighters.  The
Bombers needed the Cannon.  Finally the Brits went with cannon. So did the
Germans, Russians and Japanese.

What is interesting the Japanese Navy and finally the US Navy went 20mm.  I
estimate that when the Panther or Meteor hit a Mig it was a sure kill.  Few
probably excaped after being hit with 4-20mm.  Where as the Sabers created a
lot of maintenance problems if they did not shoot down a Mig with 50cal.

Yet the Japanese Army and USAAF/USAF were reluctant to move away from
machine guns.
In Korea the F86F model with 20mm probably had a significant kill
confirmation increase over the 50cal F versions.

This is what I am talking about.  It just took us longer to put in better
equipment.
Even though it was available and if they did always toward the end of the
conflict.

Dan Fahey



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu
[mailto:owner-KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu]On Behalf Of Marc James Small
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 12:31 AM
To: KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu
Subject: RE: MiG pilots got worse


At 06:26 PM 3/18/02 -0500, Daniel T. Fahey wrote:
>One of the reasons the US did not have a strong tank was the task of
getting
>them to Europe.  Still we should have had a more robust tank, earlier.
Even
>our tank tactics were stupid. Why we did not mount a 90mm cannon on the
>Shermans until it was too late.
>
>The same thing happened with our planes. The US seemed to lag on building
>the better plane, until the end of the war. Yeah we did build the A bomb
>first, but barely.
>

Good heavens!  US aircraft were competitive at all times during our part of
the Second World War:  it was our tactics and operational doctrine for
their employment which were greivously at fault.  Once these were cured,
the rest was a simple matter of attrition.  And we shouldn't sell the
Sherman tank short:  Patton was applauded by the Assembled Multitudes
(including such sterling tankers as Collins, Middleton, Walker, and Abrams)
when he commented after the War that his armored thrusts would have never
gotten out of Normandy if he'd had to rely upon the mechanical
unreliability and logistical nightmares which were the PZKPFW IV and
Panther and Tiger tanks.

And no one but no one was anywhere close to the US in building the bomb.
The British had the theory down but lacked the money for a Manhatten-sized
project;  the Germans didn't even have the theory right.  Their bomb
project was axed by Speer in 1943 as it was at least ten, if not fifteen,
years from achieving even a sustained reaction, such as the US had already
attained at Soldier's Field in Chicago in 1942.

Marc

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