Allied Fighter Aces: The Air Combat Tactics and Techniques of World War II

240 Pages·1997·8.52 MB·English

by  Mike Spick

The Air Combat Tactics and Techniques of World War II
MIKE SPICK
ALLIED
FIGHTER ACES
ALLIED
FIGHTER ACES
The Air Combat Tactics and
Techniques of World War II
MIKE SPICK
GREENHILL BOOKS, LONDON
STACKPOLE BOOKS, PENNSYLVANIA
Greenhill Books
Allied Fighter Aces
First published 1997 by Greenhill Books
Lionel Leventhal Limited, Park House, 1 Russell Gardens
London NW119NN
and
Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg
PA 17055, USA
© Mike Spick, 1997
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without first seeking the
written permission of the Publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Spick, Mike
Allied fighter aces: the air combat tactics and techniques of World War II
1. World War, 1939-1945 - Aerial operations
I. Title
940.5'44
ISBN 1-85367-282-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spick, Mike
Allied fighter aces: the air combat tactics and techniques of
World War Il/by Mike Spick
p. cm.
ISBN 1-85367-282-3
1. World War, 1939-1945 -Aerial operations. 2. Strategy
I. Title
D785.S69 1997
940.54'4-dc21 97-19006
CIP
Typeset by Ronset, Blackburn, Lancashire
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by Creative Print and Design (Wales), Ebbw Vale
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations 7
Preface 9
Prologue 12
The Fighter Ace—Flying and Marksmanship—Pre-war Allied Air
Power: The Royal Air Force—Fighting Area Attacks—Manoeuvre
Combat—Fleet Air Arm—United States Army Air Corps—United
States Navy and Marine Corps
1 France, September 1939-June 1940 26
Sitzkrieg—Against the Luftwaffe—The Fighters—The Opposition
—Into Action—Blitzkrieg—Dunkirk—Aces of the French Campaign
2 The Battle of Britain, July-November 1940 45
Detection and Control—Organisation—Aims and Attitudes—
Aircraft of the Battle—'What-ifs'—The Hour Approaches—Phases of
the Battle—RAF Tactics—Against the Bombers—Against the
Fighters—Fighter Command Tactics—The Aces
3 Leaning Forward, January 1941-May 1944 78
Wing Leaders—Basic Tactics—Policy for 1941- Changing Times,
1942-May 1944—The Fighters—The Aces
4 Maltese Falcons, June 1940-November 1942 96
The Fighters—The Aces
5 North Africa, June 1940-August 1943 125
The Fighters—The Aces
6 Night Fighters over Europe 136
'Catseye' Fighters—Radar Fighters—Intruders—Bomber Support
—The Fighters—The Aces
7 Against the Rising Sun, December 1941-February 1943 149
The Fighters—The Aces
8 Seven-League Boots, 1943-45 161
Escort Tactics—The Fighters—The Aces
9 Victory in the Pacific, 1943-45 174
The Fighters—The Aces
10 Normandy to Berlin 186
The Fighters—The Aces
Epilogue 196
Overclaiming—Relative Scores—Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...
Appendices 202
1. Leading Aces of the British and Commonwealth Air Forces
2. Leading Aces of the American Air Forces
235
Bibliography
237
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
Plates (pages 97-112)
1 Spitfires of No 19 Squadron
2 The Skua
3 The Fulmar
4 Bob Tuck and Spitfires of No 65 Squadron
5 No 1 Squadron in France, 1940
6 Pilots of No 43 Squadron
7 Frank Carey
8 Eric Lock of No 41 Squadron
9 Disbanding Fighter Command in April 1968
10 Keith Park
11 'Sailor' Malan
12 Douglas Bader and pilots of No 242 Squadron
13 'Al' Deere and Colin Gray
14 Mass take-off by No 122 Squadron
15 'Killer' Caldwell
16 A Kittyhawk of No 112 Squadron
17 George Beurling
18 Reade Tilley in his Spitfire
19 Paddy Finucane
20 Aces of Biggin Hill
21 Neville Duke
22 The Blenheim
23 John Cunningham
24 Bob Braham
25 A Beaufighter
26 'Flying Tigers'
27 The P-51 Mustang
28 Bob Johnson
29 Gabby Gabreski
30 David McCampbell
31 John C. Meyer
32 Dick Bong
33 The Hellcat fighter
34 'Pappy' Boyington
35 The Corsair carrier fighter
36 The Spitfire Mk XIV
37 'Johnnie' Johnson
38 Don Blakeslee
39 The Tempest V
Figures Page
1 Fighter Command Attack No 2 20
2 Turning Capability 22
3 Standard RAF Fighter Formation, 1939 29
4 Comparative Turning Ability 49
5 The Break 58
6 The 'Ten Second' Envelope 64
7 The Scissors 66
8 Deflection Shooting 68
9 Sailor Malan's Formation 70
10 Peter Brothers' Defensive Measures 73
11 The Finger Four 83
12 Beating the Box 123
13 Caldwell's Evasion Method 134
14 Early AI Radar Display 138
15 Serrate Display 142
16 Shooting Position from the Beaufighter 144
17 The High Side Attack 152
18 The Overhead Attack 154
19 The Thach Weave 159
20 The Split-S 164
21 Gabreski's Evasion 170
22 The Vector Roll Attack 172
23 Lightning Sweep Formation 178
24 The Best Laid Plans 183
25 The Gyro Gunsight 189
PREFACE
In 1939, world democracy was in a pitiable state. The Geneva-based
League of Nations had signally failed to impose any restraint on the
emergent Fascist states. A bloody civil war had left Franco in control of
a shattered Spain. Mussolini's Italy had conquered Abyssinia, notwith
standing widespread international condemnation, while Hitler's
Germany had annexed first Austria, and then the Sudetenland area of
Czechoslovakia. Stretching across the vast land-mass from Poland to the
Pacific, the Soviet Union was suffering horrendous purges under Stalin,
who also harboured territorial ambitions towards Finland. In the far east,
Japanese armies occupied Korea and ravaged China. To the west, the
United States of America, the sleeping giant, pursued a policy of non
intervention at best, isolationism at worst. A world war was inevitable;
the charge was set, the powder train laid. All that was needed was a
spark. This was duly provided on 1 September 1939 when Germany,
having first signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union,
invaded Poland.
Pre-war, it was widely accepted that air power would assume a greater
importance than it had in the 1914-18 conflict, but to what degree was
not known for certain. In the event air power was critical to ultimate
victory. It hamstrung armies in the field; reduced war-making capacity at
home; and reduced naval forces to near impotence. But before any of this
could be done, air superiority had to be gained. Without air superiority,
air forces were ineffective in the close air support role; with it, armies
were disadvantaged, production was curtailed, and naval units became
vulnerable.
Air superiority was the task of the fighter, and fighters determined the
eventual outcome of the entire war. In Western Europe, North Africa, the
Mediterranean, the Far East and the Pacific, Allied fighters held the ring
when all seemed lost on the ground. Having stemmed the tide, they then
led the way back to eventual victory.
9
ALLIED FIGHTER ACES
'Allied' is defined as those air forces which fought against the Axis
powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan), but not for or in alliance with them.
This eliminates the Russians, who became allied to the West by default
after Operation Barbarossa in June 1941; those Italians who switched
sides after the capitulation in 1943; the many Eastern European nations
which changed sides when it became obvious that Germany was losing
the war; and most important of all, the French, many of whom elected to
go to Russia to fly with the Normandie-Niemen Regiment rather than
serve with the British and Americans. This hardly qualifies them (or the
Russians) as bona fide Allies. Top-scoring French pilot Marcel Albert (23
victories) flew with this unit. The Vichy French served to muddy the
waters still more. The classic example was Pierre LeGloan, who, flying
a Dewoitine D.520, was credited with three Italian BR.20 bombers and
four CR.42 fighters in the summer of 1940. Transferred to Syria, he
claimed seven victories over British aircraft for the Vichy regime before
returning to Algeria, where he flew against British and American forces
in 1942. He was killed during the following year flying an Airacobra. He
was far from being the only pilot to fight on both sides.
Many thousands of fighter pilots, of many nations, flew and fought
and died in aircraft bearing the roundel of the British and
Commonwealth air forces, or the white star of the USAAF and USN. Of
these, a mere handful became famous. About five percent of fighter
pilots accounted for roughly forty percent of all aerial victories. These
were the aces.
The value of the fighter aces was incalculable. Throughout recorded
history, mankind has needed heroes as an inspiration and an example,
and this, together with leadership and tuition, the aces provided in full
measure. Their effect on morale and capability was out of all proportion
to their purely material achievements. And this was only within their
units. At home too, the population was greatly heartened and encouraged
by their deeds. This is their story.
The question of what singles out the fighter ace from any other
successful fighting man of the same period is largely a matter of
visibility. Firstly, air fighting has many of the attributes of gladiatorial
combat. Rarely is it really a one versus one encounter, but it often seems
that way, giving the fighter pilot the mantle of the old-time single-combat
champion. Secondly, not only can the deeds be seen, often by watchers
on the ground as well as actual participants, but they can be counted.
Even as a batsman in cricket is acclaimed for the number of runs he
10