[Shamrock]

Rear gunner (on your own cut off from your crew) on a Lancaster, Halifax, Stirling, Wellington. Seeing your 4 .303 Browning 'popgun' tracers falling off with a German nightfighter hosing 20MM & 30MM cannon fire at you.

Tempest or Typhoon pilot ground low level strafing over Europe with 37MM and quad twenties plus everything else coming up at you!

[Cruver Collecter]

How about being that Philipino fighter pilot scrambling off of Batangas Field in the first part of December in 1941. The enemy force closing in on your airfield consists of Japanese Mitsubishi G3M2s of the 1st Kokutai with their escort of Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeros. Not to worry, you are climbing out to meet your opponents in your P-26A with its two .30 caliber machine guns and a powerful 525hp Pratt&Whitney R-1340-27 air cooled radial engine. With no armor and no self sealing fuel tanks, maybe it might be a good time to be worried. With no canopy frame work to impede your view, you will definitely see all that is about to transpire. Picture from ww2aircraft.net

[flyXwire]

The daring exploits of the Filipino fighter pilots particularly that of Capt.Jesus Villamor really earned him legendary status among the next generation of pilots in the Philippine Airforce.

Originally Posted by Cruver Collecter

How about being that Philipino fighter pilot scrambling off of Batangas Field in the first part of December in 1941. The enemy force closing in on your airfield consists of Japanese Mitsubishi G3M2s of the 1st Kokutai with their escort of Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeros. Not to worry, you are climbing out to meet your opponents in your P-26A with its two .30 caliber machine guns and a powerful 525hp Pratt&Whitney R-1340-27 air cooled radial engine. With no armor and no self sealing fuel tanks, maybe it might be a good time to be worried. With no canopy frame work to impede your view, you will definitely see all that is about to transpire.

[Cruver Collecter]

Originally Posted by flyXwire

The daring exploits of the Filipino fighter pilots particularly that of Capt.Jesus Villamor really earned him legendary status among the next generation of pilots in the Philippine Airforce.

December 12th 1941 he bagged a Mitsubishi G3M2 in a P-26A. The return fire must have been murderous, but he still brought the enemy bomber down.

[flyXwire]

Originally Posted by Cruver Collecter

December 12th 1941 he bagged a Mitsubishi G3M2 in a P-26A. The return fire must have been murderous, but he still brought the enemy bomber down.

Yeah, despite the overwhelming odds against superior forces and technology, his daring coupled with pure "guts and aggressiveness" enabled him to be successful in that attack.He's my hero!

[Hurriup!]

Originally Posted by Rush104

Here's one that would make my list- being a crewman on one of the B-25's involved in the Doolittle Raid...

Or to be one of the crew on a B-24 involved in the Ploesti oil field raid

[SkyBuffalo]

I'll go with the Polish PZL P.11. Thier pilots got the pleasure of welcoming the Luftwaffe's BF-109s, Stukas and BF-110s to Poland in September of 1939. Despite being totally outflown and outgunned, they still took out 126 German aircraft during the blitzkreig into Poland.

[Old Crow]

Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) against the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Midway.

[bsmith13]

Army P-39s and P-400s at Guadalcanal and New Guinea.

[planenutsfrog]

RAF's Fairey Battle crews and French Navy's Loire-Nieuport LN 410 pilots in 1940.