Courtesy of The Aviationist, we find this video clip (including gun camera footage) of aerial combat in the skies over Europe during the second half of World War II. It's a bit distorted, but to see it in color lends added realism to the conflict.
One can better appreciate the courage it took to go up against that sort of opposition day in, day out, knowing that the odds of making it through a full tour of combat missions were decidedly against you.
Peter
4 comments:
At 4:41 and 6:57, we see some G4M 'Betty' bombers getting hosed.
The Kamikaze were obvious too.
I'm a bit curious, what were the Japs doing here, in the European' theatre, ...work experience maybe?.
On the order of 8 to 1 against. As I recall from reading in High School which was many decades past.
Yeah Stu,
I saw the Japanese planes too.
Been a while since I've watched it, but I think a lot of the B-17 crew footage was from a documentary about the Memphis Bell. Worth a watch if you can find it. Probably out there in youtube land somewhere.
I can't imagine our nation today willing to accept the casualty rates the Army Air Corp had back then. Or the Army/Marines either.
LCB, I believe the same, re losses.
The thing was, back then, if the free world did not prevail, then, as Winston Churchill said, "...we would sink into the abyss of a new dark age"..
Todays technology is such that stand-off armaments preclude the necessity of massed armies confronting each other in conflict.
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