[flyXwire]

Ok, here's something to ponder about.

I watched my HC Dogfigths DVD set over the weekend and realized some pilots are just insane and very lucky. There was one segment where two P-38 Lightnings attacked 50 me109's. The most amazing part, and one that kept me wondering is how Gen. Robin Olds managed to survive that encounter, then went on to fight in Korea and Vietnam, and actually retired in 1973 and lived to tell his amazing stores. The odds of accomplishing that had to be roughly the same as winning the lotto, doesn't it?

[mustangdriver]

I always enjoy listening to "Bud" Anderson tell of his dog fighting in WWII. As well as the time his groundcrew stayed up all night to strip the paint off of the airplane so that he could fly in bare metal the next day.

[STARMAN 352ND]

Pappy Boyington and Bud Anderson.Pappy was so darn lucky he didn't get killed when he got shot down in 1944 and lived to tell the world his story of the VMF-214 Blacksheep....How much of his story
is true...who knows.
Bud Anderson was a real nice fighter pilot with alot of skills and a great crew he had...I can't get over how his crew took all the OD paint off over night ...That has to be 100% loyalty.
jp

[Cavtanker]

During WWII, my grandfather was part of a 4-aircraft weather recon flight over China. He said that their flight got disoriented and split up in pairs to find their home airbase. He and his wingman both had to perform deadstick landings as they ran out of fuel coming in.

[Armour Addict]

I think the story of Hans-Ulrich Rudel (THE Stuka pilot) is most impressive:

Rudel flew 2530 combat missions and successfully attacked many tanks, trains, ships and other ground targets, claiming a total of 2000 targets destroyed - including 519 tanks, a battleship, two cruisers and a destroyer. Neither cruiser sinking however is confirmed by Russian records; smaller warships may have been the actual targets. He also shot down 9 aircraft

AA

[bsmith13]

Two of my favorites are Major William Shomo and Major James Howard.

Shomo and his wingman (Lt Paul Lipscomb) had just arrived at their operational squadron, and took two photo-recce Mustangs up for a patrol. They encountered a japanese bomber accompanied by twelve japanese fighters. Shomo shot down seven, including the bomber, and his wingman got three. Upon returning to base, Lipscomb landed immediately, but Shomo performed a victory roll. It happened that General George Kenney was visiting, and saw the victory roll. Shomo approached the field again, and performed another victory roll. The third time he did this, General Kenney started getting angry, thinking that Shomo was mocking or abusing the time honored tradition of performing a victory roll to indicate a kill. He stormed out to the flight line and confronted Lipscomb: "What the hell does Shomo think he's doing?!"
Lipscomb responded "He shot down seven enemy airplanes, and I shot down three."
This took a minute to sink in, but after it had, General Kenney asked the obvious question..."Why didn't you do any victory rolls?"
"Well sir, to tell you the truth, I don't have that many hours in a Mustang, and I'm not sure what would happen if I tried a victory roll."

Major Howard racked up several kills in China as a Flying Tiger before joining the 9th Air Force in Europe. On one mission escorting the 8th Air Force, he singlehandedly attacked between 30 and 40 german aircraft.

[Ara1]

Commander Waldron and his boys of Torpedo 8.

RIP heroes.

[SkyBuffalo]

My favorite is still : Lt. Philip Rasmussen, Wheeler Field, ffice:smarttags" />lace>Oahulace>, December 7, 1941

Rasmussen, still in his Pajamas, jumped into a P-36 Hawk after a group of Aichi "Vals" decimated all the new P-40 Warhawks at Wheeler Field. Phillip, along with several others, jumped into the Hawks that had been missed and went after the Japs. Rasmussen shot up a "Val", then got jumped by a pair of Mistubishi Zeros. He got badly shot up but managed to escape by dodging into a cloud. He somehow got his battered P-36 Hawk back to Wheeler Field and barely made a landing. The flight crew later counted 500 holes in Rasmussen's poor ol' P-36! And he had landed it safely. Rasmussen had jumped out of his plane and asked for another one to go up again, but no more were available.

That's a lot of luck and hutzpah to have your first combat in yer PJs!

[djjeffhall]

BSmith13,
Hey there.

That story made me laugh out loud. I'd heard about Shomo and his wingmates success before, I'd even heard about the victory roll thing, but I had never heard what his wingmate said to the General. That is awesome, thanks.

[jim]

Originally Posted by mustangdriver

I always enjoy listening to "Bud" Anderson tell of his dog fighting in WWII. As well as the time his groundcrew stayed up all night to strip the paint off of the airplane so that he could fly in bare metal the next day.

I have that on video, "Bud" really chokes up telling that story. He is such a modest gentleman yet he is made of steel.

I think one thing that seems to be common among these pilots is that they all had a determination to do the job no matter what the odds or cost to themselves. They all had such a strong believe in what they were doing and the word failure didnt exist to them.

As to my favourite story, well I just cannot answer that one , there are so many. Let me think awhile.