RAF & USAF: Разное

RIP fighter ace Alexander Vraciu. 29.01.2015
Vraciu's parents had immigrated from Romania at the turn of the century, settling in East Chicago, Indiana. His father, Alexandru Sr., was born in Poiana Sibiului, and his mother, Maria (née Tincu) was from Sebeș. After his birth, the family returned to Romania for a brief residence, as his parents hoped that the experience would rub off on him and that he would be immersed in the culture. Vraciu graduated from DePauw University in 1941 and enlisted as a naval aviator in the United States Navy Reserve. While at university, Vraciu was a member of the Delta Chi Fraternity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Vraciu

19 сбитых японских самолётов

 

P-47 Thunderbolt Walter Grabowski
511th Fighter Squadron, 405th Fighter Group.Ninth Air Force

воевал на европейском ТВД

 

A tired member of VF-17 pauses under the squadron scoreboard at Bougainville in February of 1944.
Доска достижений эскадрона

 

Capt Bob Johnson 56 fighter group в своём P-47D Thunderbolt

 

P-38F Lightning, pilot Capt Newbury and ground crew 1st Fighter Group, 27th Fighter Squadron „Dear John”

 

Pilot Maj Thomas McGuire, 431st Fighter Squadron, 475th Fighter Group, 5th AF, USAAF, P-38L-1-LO Lightning „PUDGY V”
Philippines 1944.
отмечено 38 сбитых японских самолётов

 

P-38 Lightning „Putt Putt Maru” . #100 s/n 44-25643, pilot Col Charles H.MacDonald, 475th Fighter Group
отмечено 24 сбитых японских самолётов

 

Всего у Макдональда 27.

 

как и у Боба Джонсона
Есть фото, где у погибшего МакГвайера отмечено 40 побед. Найду - заброшу. Интересно тем, что только 38 упоминаются. Вряд ли такой ас себе 2 победы приписал.
Грабовский мне вообще случайно подвернулся - он ведь в списках асов не числится - все победы это убитые на земле. Но количество отметок впечатляющее

 

Да, но Макдональду наверное было сложнее доехать до этой цифры на "лайтнинге", нежели Джонсону на "тандере"

 

Вообще то, Джонсон не по профилю воевал. Он вообще не был истребителем. А обошёл многих коллег на таких же машинах

 

Почему? Роберт Самюэль Джонсон самый что ни на есть истребитель, всю карьеру отлетал в 56й истребительной группе.

 

да, отлетал там. но его 2 недели тренировали для этого перед тем, как допустить. не знаю почему именно его привлекли из другого рода авиации и в чём была причина, но факт остался фактом. 27 самолётов Люфтваффе это по меркам ВВС КА дважды ГСС, между прочим или минимум одно награждение ГСС плюс доп орден Ленина

 

Да, хотел он быть бомбером и хотел доучиваться на пилота "Бостона", а почему его вместо этого в истребители отослали - кто знает... Сам он в интервью говорит, что скорее из-за нехватки кадров, зато они там первые в USAAF получили "тандерболты".

 

как и обещал, фото с отмеченными 40 победами машины Maj. Thomas B. McGuire Jr. Очевидно 2 победы ожидали подтверждения. А потом после гибели пилота скорее всего никто больше не заморачивался их подтверждением.

 

а эта машина находится в музее
Lt Col Gerald R Johnson
54th Pursuit Group на Аляске и 49th Fighter Group на Тихоокенском ТВД


Lockheed P-38L Lightning
S/N: 44-53186
Registration: N505MH
Evergreen Aviation Museum (McMinnville, Oregon)

отмечены 24 сбитых японских самолёта, хотя в официальных записях фигурируют 23 сбитых

 

Пока сюда заброшу голландские колониальные ист-индийские ВВС
NEIAF - Netherlands East Indies Air Force - was the air force of the dutch colonies in Asia before WWII.
It was completely destroyed by the japanese in the invasions of 1941-1942.
Was reorganized with new US equipment and continue the fight from Australia in 1944-1945.

In the first P-40 is interesting to read the plane's nickname, SNAFU (situation normal, all fuck-up)

 

по моему, это уже не "тигры" - вроде, у них не было совместного авиакрыла
Airmen of the 5th Fighter Group of the Chinese-American Composite Wing (Provisional)

 

в память недавно ушедшего из жизни аса 2 фотки из его боевой биографии
Alexander Vraciu of Fighting Squadron 6 in his F6F Hellcat 'Gadget' aboard USS Intrepid, 1944

 

15 тысяч боевых вылетов отмечается поеданием сладких бубликов
B-25 Mitchell crew of 310th Bomb Group, US 12th Air Force celebrating its 15,000th sortie with donuts, Corsica, France, Aug 1944
Очевидно, что это общее количество боевых вылетов 310-й группы, а на фото экипаж, совершивший юбилейный боевой вылет

 

семья канадского пилота-истребителя любезно предоставила фото из своего семейного фотоальбома
Canadian pilot James Henry Whalen posing with his Spitfire fighter, RAF Tangmere, West Sussex, England, United Kingdom, 1941

 

Вообще, американские историки и обозреватели войны в воздухе на Тихоокеанском ТВД отмечают трудности в подтверждениях побед для авиаторов. Так, например, считают, что Бонгу хоть и засчитано 40 сбитых японских самолётов, но на самом деле сбил он около 80.
Та же история и у Джеральда Джонсона, выше фото его машины в музее. Там отмечено 24, официально засчитано 22, а историки считают, что скорее всего он сбил вообще 43. И это не единичные случаи.

 

Known by her friends as "Jackie", Jacqueline Cochran flew in the MacRobertson Air Race in 1934. In 1937, she was the only woman to compete in the Bendix race and worked with Amelia Earhart to open the race to women. That year, she also set a new woman's national speed record. By 1938, she was considered the best female pilot in the US. She had won the Bendix and set a new transcontinental speed record as well as altitude records. Cochran was the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. She won five Harmon Trophies as the outstanding woman pilot in the world. Sometimes called the "Speed Queen", at the time of her death, no other pilot held more speed, distance or altitude records in aviation history than Cochran.

Before the US joined WWII, Cochran was part of "Wings for Britain", an organization that ferried American built aircraft to Britain, becoming the first woman to fly a bomber (a Lockheed Hudson V) across the Atlantic. In Britain, she volunteered her services to the Royal Air Force. For several months she worked for the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), recruiting qualified women pilots in the US and taking them to England where they joined the ATA.

In September 1940, Cochran wrote a letter to Lt. Col. Robert Olds, who was helping to organize the Air Corps Ferrying Command for the Air Corps at the time. In the letter, Cochran suggested that women pilots be employed to fly non-combat missions for the new command.

In spite of pilot shortages, Lt. General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold was the person who needed to be convinced that women pilots were the solution to his staffing problems. He knew that women were being used successfully in the ATA in England so Arnold suggested that Cochran take a group of qualified female pilots to see how the British were doing. He promised her that no decisions regarding women flying for the USAAF would be made until she returned.
While Cochran was in England, in September 1942, General Arnold authorized the formation of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) under the direction of Nancy Harkness Love. The WAFS began at Castle Air Base in Wilmington, Delaware, with a group of female pilots whose objective was to ferry military aircraft. Hearing about the WAFS, Cochran immediately returned from England. Cochran's experience in Britain with the ATA convinced her that women pilots could be trained to do much more than ferrying. Lobbying Arnold for expanded flying opportunities for female pilots, he sanctioned the creation of the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), headed by Cochran. In August 1943, the WAFS and the WFTD merged to create the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) with Cochran as director and Nancy Love as head of the ferrying division.

As director of the WASPs, Cochran supervised the training of hundreds of women pilots at the former Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. For her war efforts, she received the Distinguished Service Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
In 1948, Cochran joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve where she eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Postwar, Cochran began flying the new jet aircraft, going on to set numerous records; most conspicuously, she became the first woman pilot to "go supersonic".

Encouraged by then-Major Chuck Yeager, with whom Cochran shared a lifelong friendship, on May 18, 1953, at Rogers Dry Lake, California, Cochran flew a Canadair F-86 Sabre jet borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force at an average speed of 652.337 mph, becoming the first woman to break the sound barrier.
Cochran was also the first woman to land and take off from an aircraft carrier, the first woman to reach over Mach 1 in a Northrop T-38 Talon, the first woman to pilot a bomber across the North Atlantic (in 1941) and later to fly a jet aircraft on a transatlantic flight, the first pilot to make a blind (instrument) landing, the only woman ever to be president of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (1958–1961), the first woman to fly a fixed-wing, jet aircraft across the Atlantic, the first pilot to fly above 20,000 ft with an oxygen mask, and the first woman to enter the Bendix Transcontinental Race. She still holds more distance and speed records than any pilot living or dead, male or female.

Cochran died on August 9, 1980 at her home in Indio, California, age 74.

 

Второй сухопутный фронт в Европе открыт!
1 A-36A Apache aircraft 'Doodle', Sicily, Italy, 1943. This plane’s assigned pilot, R. Bryant, is at left.

2 A-36A Apache aircraft 'El Matador' pilot R. Bryant and crew chief Sergeant Dan Perry, Sicily, Italy, 1943

 

пилот-торпедоносец морской авиации США Джордж Буш старший - Президент США 1988-1992

1 in the cockpit of his TBF Avenger torpedo bomber, mid-1944

2 1942

3 Crew of USS Finback pulling downed airman Lieutenant (jg) George Bush from the water off Chichi Jima, Bonin Islands, 2 Sep 1944

4 после счастливого спасения George Bush and other rescued airmen with some of the officers and men of USS Finback, Sep 1944