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RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:29 am
by watchtower
any idea when the last stuka of any kind was flown in anger? Would quite like to get my hand on one right now as my *Neighbour* is playing coldplay at about 129db and a JU87 would be a treat... wouldn't mind if the nice young chap was into Hawkwind or Beafheart!!![8D]

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:12 am
by RBWhite
watchtower

I did find that post WWII, the Czechoslovkian Air Force used them as trainers.

But my thoughts seem to say the end of WWII for the last use in combat, but I think Hungary and Romainia or Bulgaria fought each other for awhile. So I'll need to check those dated out.

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:14 am
by Greyshaft
Sarge,

I'm not flaming anyone (geez... how did I get into this discussion???) I'm just pointing out that the original fact was only of minor interest to me - enough to post it in this Forum but not enough to keep me following it up. Then an argument starts about whether it is a trivial fact or not and what is the definition of scholarship and I'm trying to hose the whole thing down by saying if the fact is important to anyone then thats OK by me - there's no point getting steamed about it one way or the other. Obviously my joke about "And that's a fact" wasn't as funny as I thought.

Thanks for the info RBWhite. I think the answer is that the Argentine Stuka is a counter for the "America in Flames" fantasy expansion for "World in Flames" and was never actually flown south of the equator. That's fine by me... one less aircraft history I have to write.

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:42 am
by watchtower
No problems here mate - to me it wasn't you trolling[:)] I just wanna talk Stukas - bet you do too!![8D]

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 5:06 am
by rhondabrwn
Well, I thought the trivia was fascinating... wouldn't have missed the other comments though. Glad that everyone kissed and made up though. [&o]

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 5:48 am
by ilovestrategy
Well, I thought it was a really cool piece of trivia [:)]

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:15 am
by SemperAugustus
Anyone know if von Rosen or any of the other Biafran pilots managed to shoot down anything in air to air combat?

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 11:28 am
by RBWhite
SemperAugustus

I don't know if this what your looking for:

Kwenu.com\biafra\biafran_babies

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:07 pm
by Raverdave
I thought it was a really interesting.

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:01 pm
by RBWhite
Greyshaft.

My pleasure

Just a few more tid bits.

In the summer of 1940 when the Stuka's got their asses handed to them in the Battle of Britain. The Stuka after that were sent to areas of negligible air operations.

They were now considered a second rate & obsolete war plane, Summer of 1940.

Most if not close to all were eventually replaced by the FW109.

Production ended in October 1944. (Strange bit of info)

5,709 were built.

It's greatest use was a tank buster on the Eastern Front the Ju 87D as demonstarted by Han Ulrich Rudel and his air crews.

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:24 pm
by Greyshaft
ORIGINAL: RBWhite
They were now considered a second rate & obsolete war plane, Summer of 1940.
I'd quibble over that point. The Stuka was still a first rate dive-bomber but the Battle of Britain showed that it could only function effectively where the Luftwaffe held air superiority. Stukas were certainly effective dive bombers in the front line in the Russian campaign until the Luftwaffe lost air superiority. After that point some were transitioned to tank busters.
Most if not close to all were eventually replaced by the FW109.
Not sure how you figure that. The Me109 is a fighter, and although some were configured as fighter bombers they were still primarily considered fighters. Potential replacements for the Stuka included the jet propelled Henschel 132 (do not confuse this with the Henschel 123 biplane!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henschel_Hs_132

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:38 pm
by RBWhite
I'm sorry, FW-190.

My fingers got ahead of my eyes

Henschel Hs 132 - Only three prototypes were under construction in March of 1945, they were almost completed when the war ended.

All three were captured by the Soviets

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 2:21 am
by SemperAugustus
Kwenu.com\biafra\biafran_babies
Link doesn't work for me...
I was trying to think of modern conflicts involving propeller planes, the only other one I could think of where both sides had aircraft was the Biafra war. The information I have read about doesn't give much info on the actual losses suffered by the Nigerian airforce.

http://www.brushfirewars.org/aircraft/m ... fran_1.htm

RE: Air to Air Combat trivia

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:52 pm
by RBWhite
SemperAugustus

Your site has pretty much the same info as the one I listed.

South Vietnam used props for awhile

Hard to think of any off hand, so many civil wars in Africa last 25 to 30 years, there has to be at least one or two more where props were used.