Some of you don't remember, and the rest of you don't even know!
European Air War has an entire Flight School as part of the CD package. Contents include:
Lessons Learned
Aircraft and Armament
Air Combat School
Target Recon Data
Online References
Glossary
As a reminder, I have excerpted the contents of one of the three
"Lessons Learned" sections for you. Take a read through this section on
Luftwaffe data, then check out the rest of the CD. Note: This material reprinted directly by permission of Microprose/Hasbro.
The Luftwaffe amassed the most impressive record of individual pilot
accomplishment the world has ever known. In fact, the achievements of
their Experten (the German equivalent of Aces) were so far beyond those
of any Allied pilots that, after the war, the Allied Command suspected
that the pilots' records had been falsified. Regardless, subsequent
investigation revealed that, if anything, the Luftwaffe's internal
verification procedures prior to crediting an air victory to a pilot
were even more stringent than those of the Allies.
All in all, 107 Experten were credited with over 100 air
victories each, and hundreds more scored more than 25 air victories
apiece. Among the Allies, only a few pilots exceeded the 25-victory
mark, and only five victories were sufficient to make a pilot an Ace.
Erich Hartmann, the highest scoring Luftwaffe pilot, is credited with
352 total victories, while the balance of the top five scorers (Gerhard
Barkhorn, Gunther Rall, Otto Kittel and Walter Nowotny) account for
another 1101 downed aircraft between them. Though some Luftwaffe
detractors are quick to point out that these pilots amassed virtually
all of their kills on the Eastern Front, where the quality of enemy
opposition was lower than in the West, other Luftwaffe pilots
outperformed their Allied counterparts considerably in this theater of
operations as well.
Heinz Baer, the eighth highest scoring pilot in history with 220 total
victories, scored 124 of them in the West, including 16 while piloting
the Me262. Over the course of the war, Baer was shot down eighteen
times, bailing out four times and executing a forced landing the
remainder of them.
Unlike so many of his comrades, Baer survived the war. But his
incredible string of luck ran out in 1957 when he was killed in an
aircraft accident. The legacy of all the great Luftwaffe pilots lives
on in the history they created. Now, as you seek to join their ranks in
EAW, it behooves you to listen to the war stories and advice of the
"old heads" which preceded you: the Experten.
"Our mission was to provide close escort, which I loathed. It
gave the bomber crews the feeling they were being protected, and it
might have deterred some of the enemy pilots. But for us fighter pilots
it was very bad. We needed the advantages of altitude and speed so we
could engage the enemy on favorable terms. As it was, the British
fighters had the initiative on when and how to attack. We needed to
maintain speed, otherwise the Bf109 would have taken too long to
accelerate to fighting speed if we were bounced by Spitfires."
-Hans Schmoller-Haldy, JG54
"Their element is to attack, to track, to hunt, and to destroy the
enemy. Only in this way can the skillful and eager fighter pilot
display his ability. Tie him to a narrow and confined task, rob him of
his initiative, and you take away from him the best and most valuable
qualities he possesses: aggressive spirit, joy of action and the
passion of the hunter."
-Adolf Galland, 104 victories.
Lesson Learned: Flying close escort on bombers often requires you to
sacrifice the tactical initiative to the enemy. This leaves you
reactive instead of proactive, which is the antithesis of what you want
to achieve as a fighter. As such, escort missions will be some of the
toughest you encounter.
"The Bf110 was simply too heavy to contend with either the Spitfire or the Hurricane. You had to be lucky to survive."
-Hartmann Grasser, 103 total victories, 7 with the Bf110.
"Our mission was to escort a bomber formation in an attack on Kenely,
an airfield near London. Flying at about 6000 meters altitude, we
reached the target without being attacked and were only then engaged by
British fighters, which were primarily interested in the bombers and
Bf110's. I was still right beside the bombers when a Spitfire
immediately beneath me attacked a circling Bf110. It was simple for me
to get behind the attacker with a short maneuver.
We then had a Bf110, a Spitfire and a Bf109 (myself) flying in a row.
While the rear gunner fired at the Spitfire and the Spitfire in turn
attempted to silence the rear gunner, I found it easy to put a long
burst into the Spitfire, which immediately smoked and broke away…"
-Jupp Buerschgens, 10 victories before this same Bf110 mistook him for
another Spitfire and shot out his engine, resulting in six years of
captivity in England.
Lesson Learned: The Bf110, though successful in Poland and
France, was severely outmatched in terms of maneuverability by British
fighters. Independent operations in this aircraft are an invitation to
disaster. When mixed formations of Bf109's and Bf110's are pressed by
enemy fighter cover, the best tactic for Bf110's was to assume a
defensive circle, where the nose of each aircraft covered the tail of
the aircraft in front of it.
This circle, though defensive rather than offensive in nature, can
still be moved around the sky to complicate the tactical situation of
enemy single seat fighters seeking to engage Bf109's in support. They
cannot discount the presence of the Bf110's entirely because the latter
can roll out of the circle at any given time to shift the odds of an
existing engagement, even perhaps with a small measure of surprise to
an unwary pilot.
"The Spitfires showed themselves wonderfully maneuverable.
Their aerobatics display--looping and rolling, opening fire in a
climbing roll--filled us with amazement. There was a lot of shooting,
but not many hits."
-Max Hellmuth Ostermann, 102 confirmed air victories
Lesson Learned: You can pilot the most maneuverable aircraft in the
world but, without good deflection shooting skills to back up your
flying prowess, you are still ineffective as a combat pilot.
Spitfire
"The Gruppe flew over Dover, gaining quite a bit of altitude. Suddenly,
I saw a squadron of English fighters climbing far beneath us. We had
probably been reported, and the British were looking for us…I lead the
Gruppe after them immediately. We were in a favorable position as we
approached. Eight aircraft, Hurricanes, flew in front in flights of
vees. Behind them was a cover flight. Its fourth aircraft was
weaving--flying first left then right.
The English still had not seen us. They now had the more favorable
position, since they were higher, but we attacked. I flew toward the
weaving aircraft. At 100 meters, I had it in front of me, and pressed
the button. The fire of my cannon and machine guns literally blew the
Hurricane apart. Pieces fell away smoking and burning. The second
aircraft in the cover flight was now in my sights. I repeated the same
maneuver. I opened fire and the Hurricane burst into flames.
Undisturbed, the others continued spiraling upward. They had no inkling
that there were Messerschmitts on their tails. Now I was behind the
third aircraft. A short burst, and this one likewise fell apart. Number
three! The Englishmen flew onward; still they had noticed nothing. So I
took on the fourth aircraft. This time, however, I approached too
closely. When I pressed the button, the Englishman exploded, so near me
that pieces hit my crate. It sprayed oil so thickly on the front and
right side of my canopy that I could see nothing, and had to break off
the battle, which had lasted two minutes."
-Gerhard Schoepfel, JG26
Lessons Learned: The tail end of a formation is always the most
vulnerable to attack. Be mindful of this fact offensively and
defensively, both to achieve surprise and avoid being surprised.
Further, the British pilots in this engagement exhibited exceptionally
poor situational awareness. A similar lack of observational discipline
on your part in EAW will prove equally detrimental to your career.
Finally, you should note two things: destroying an enemy at point blank
range endangers your aircraft as well, and a lot can happen in air
combat in a very short time span.
"I dove from about 800 meters above them, approaching at high speed,
and fired at the far left aircraft in the rear flight, continuing fire
until point blank range. Finally, large pieces of metal flew off the
Hurricane. As I shot past the aircraft, I found myself in the middle of
the enemy squadron, which was flying in stepped formation.
B17 Weapons Coverage
I immediately attacked the right-hand aircraft of the leading flight of
three. Again, metal panels broke off; the aircraft nosed over and dove
earthward, ablaze. The remaining English pilots were so startled that
none as much as attempted to get on my tail; rather, the entire
formation scattered and dove away."
-Adolf Galland, 104 total victories
Lesson Learned: The element of surprise can be psychologically
unbalancing to the victims of the attack, and can sometimes place even
a numerically superior enemy on the defensive. Also, when Galland
pulled up from his initial attack inside the enemy squadron, his
aggression in the face of overwhelming odds maintained and enhanced the
shock value of his initial attack. Had he tried to simply break off at
that point, it is much more likely that he would have been pursued.
Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.
"We attacked the enemy bombers in pairs, going in with great
bravado…But at first the attacks were all broken off much too early--as
those great 'barns' grew larger and larger our people were afraid of
colliding with them…The next time I went in I thought: get in much
closer, keep going, keep going. Then I opened up, starting with his
motors on the port wing. By the third such firing run the two port
engines were burning well and I had shot the starboard outer motor to
smithereens."
-Otto Stammberger, JG26
"To fight against twenty Russians that want to have a bite of one, or
also against Spitfires, is a joy. And one doesn't know that life is not
certain. But the curve into seventy Fortresses lets all the sins of
one's life pass before one's eyes. And when one has convinced oneself,
it is still more painful to force to it every pilot in the wing, down
to the last young newcomer."
-Hans Phillip, JG1
Lessons Learned: The B-17 is the most difficult aircraft to destroy in
EAW. These bombers can take a lot of punishment and still keep flying.
You have to get in close and hit hard to down them, and doing so puts
your own aircraft at considerable risk. Also, you must consider the
vulnerability of new and inexperienced replacement pilots when tackling
these hazardous missions, which come more frequently as the war
progresses.
"There were about 200 of us attacking the 200 bombers (B-17's)
but there was also the fighter escort above them. We were going for the
bombers. When we made our move, the P-47's began to dive on us and it
was a race to get to the bombers before getting intercepted. I was
already close and about 600 feet above and coming straight on; I opened
fire with the twenties at 500 yards. At 300 yards I opened fire with
the thirties.
It was a short burst, maybe ten shells from each cannon, but I saw the
bomber explode and begin to burn. I flashed over him at about 50 feet
and then did a chandelle. When I turned around I was about a thousand
feet above and behind them, and was suddenly mixed in with American
fighters… By now I had only three fighters with me--my lead
Schwarm--the others had split away in the attack. We flew south, ahead
for a few seconds, preparing for another strike at the bombers and
then, coming from above, I saw them…
There were ten P-47's and four of us and we were all turning as
hard as we could, as in a Lufbery. I was able to turn tighter and was
gaining. I pulled within 80 yards of the P-47 ahead of me and opened
fire. I hit him quickly and two of the others got one each…I called on
the radio for an emergency dive to get away and we all rolled over and
did a Split-S and dived with full throttle."
-Georg-Peter Eder, 78 total victories including 36 four-engine bombers.
Lesson Learned: A good leader has high situational awareness and
constantly evaluates the implications of the tactical situation. He
knows when to press an attack and when to disengage to fight another
day. You never want to push a bad situation, such as the odds Eder
encountered in this engagement. The victories his Schwarm achieved in
the latter part of this engagement were defensive, not offensive in
nature. They were orchestrated simply to stay alive and lessen the odds
against them until a suitable escape opportunity could be found.
"One of the secrets of some German fighter pilots was to fly with the
109 trimmed slightly to climb. The nose was held down by constant
forward pressure on the stick, and then when the pilot wanted to pull
up quickly, he pulled back and the nose came up more quickly and the
aircraft didn't mush."
-Kurt Buehligen
Lesson Learned: A good fighter pilot anticipates action, and takes
every possible step to gain an edge in advance of that action.
"If taken by surprise, I would do one or the other
automatically, depending on conditions. If I had time, and saw my
attacker coming in, I would wait to see how close he would come before
opening up. If he began firing at long range, I could always turn into
him. If he held his fire, I got ready for a real battle. Even against
good competition, you could always break away by using negative G's.
In a tight turning maneuver, the attacker must turn more tightly in
order to pull lead on his quarry. For a split second you pass under his
nose and below his line of sight, as he tries to line his guns up ahead
of you. It is precisely at that moment when he gets his gunnery angle
on you, that you push the nose forward, kick bottom rudder and are
gone. Your attacker cannot see you. He is intent on pulling lead and is
turning in the opposite direction, in an ever tighter circle, even as
you are diving and then turning the other way."
"As I said before, the use of the negative G is a last-ditch measure.
Frankly, I tried everything possible never to be placed in such a
position, because if your attacker had a good wingman, he could quickly
pick up that maneuver. This is why I avoided dogfights. They were long
and drawn-out affairs, requiring all your attention, allowing another
opponent to jump you. They were the longest and most difficult method
of getting a kill, the expensive and the most dangerous."
-Leading Experten Erich Hartmann (352 confirmed victories)
Lessons Learned: First, you can tell a lot about the skill of an enemy
pilot by observing his behavior closely. Second, when you are surprised
and placed on the defensive early in an engagement, go evasive early
instead of trying to maneuver for position. Avoid dogfights, go for
kills. Because if you aren't, be assured that the enemy is.
