Dogfights

[Zguy28]

Has anybody seen this show on History Channel?

http://www.history.com/minisites/dogfights/

Its on Friday's at 9PM.

I love this show. It breaks down specific dogfights from WWII, Korea, Vietnam etc. and interviews the pilots.

And its not sponsored by the Atlanta Falcons either.

[SKINS@THEGOALLINE]

I saw the episode which featured Randy "Duke" Cunningham's exploits during the Vietnam War, he was one heckuva pilot. He unfortunately became one corrupt politician.

[USS Redskins]

AWESOME Show..... They also had a great Naval battle episode a few weeks back where a small American destroyer took on a Japanese Battleship twice its size and won!

[AsburySkinsFan]

Yeah I've seen the show several times, they do a great job illustrating the encounters. And as one who wanted to be a fighter pilot in High School I still like to see how these fights happen, even if I don't ever want another one of them to happen. I'm just looking for one that covers some of Chuck Yeager's victories.

[Zguy28]

Yeah I've seen the show several times, they do a great job illustrating the encounters. And as one who wanted to be a fighter pilot in High School I still like to see how these fights happen, even if I don't ever want another one of them to happen. I'm just looking for one that covers some of Chuck Yeager's victories.

I haven't seen all of them, so I don't know if they have one about Yeager, who I think was awesome. But I think Pappy Boyington has one up on him, he used to fly over the Japanese bases and taunt them over the radio to come up and fight. That's one scrappy dude.

[Zguy28]

AWESOME Show..... They also had a great Naval battle episode a few weeks back where a small American destroyer took on a Japanese Battleship twice its size and won!

Did you see the one about the Destroyer taking on the kamikaze attacks?

This Destroyer took six hits from kamikazes and still survived. :yikes:

[DOOG]

this thing with VICK has gotten way out of control! :logo:

[JMS]

AWESOME Show..... They also had a great Naval battle episode a few weeks back where a small American destroyer took on a Japanese Battleship twice its size and won!

Won is a bit strong. Turned the Japanese back would be more accurate. The destroyers got pumelled. Hallsey's Seventh Fleet lost an escort carrier and three destroyers (totaling 660 men) to Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's battleships and cruisers didn't loose any ships to the overmatched destroyers.

You are correct, the superior Japanese fleet was turned back by the portion of Halsey's fleet left to secure the beach landings at Leyte.

I love that show dogfights. The Arab Israeli pilots in the 67 war. The pacific aces. were all excellent. I also enjoy Warlords and "Congressional medal of honor winners".

[Air Force Cane]

the story about 45 Japanese kamikazes trying to sink the US destroyer in 1945 was freaking amazing!!

[JMS]

I haven't seen all of them, so I don't know if they have one about Yeager, who I think was awesome. But I think Pappy Boyington has one up on him, he used to fly over the Japanese bases and taunt them over the radio to come up and fight. That's one scrappy dude.

Both Yeager and Boyington were excellent. I highly recommend both of their biographies.

Yeager was one of the few pilots in Europe to be shot down and continue to fly. Eisenhower himself made the decision after Yeager walked out of France over the pyrenees mountains with a fellow pilot on his back. Yeager was credited with 11.5 victories in WWII including five victories in a single mission. Yeager is also credited for shooting down a German jet which had a several hundred mile per hour speed advantage over his mustang.

Boyington, what can you say. The dude was a drunk. He resigned his commission in the Marines in order to become a mercenary for the Chinese to pay off his gambling debts (flying tigers). He described the countries he visited during the war by the quality of their whores and the alcohol they invibed. Dude was also the top ace in the Pacific for a time, and won the congressional medal of honor for engaging 20 Japanese fighters in defense of a bomber over Rabaul. Boyington was shot down and assumed dead in that battle. He won the CMH and said in his autobiography that they never would have given it to him if they knew he was alive, such were the number of his enemies among his superiors. Boyington is credited with 28 victories during the war. ( 2 in Rabaul in his last mission before being shot down ).

After WWII, Boyington a career military flier and a highly decorated ace and CMH winner was bounced out of the military within a few months of the surrender of japan, 1 August 1947.

Life magazine did a famous reunion of the famous black sheep squadron after the war at the Waldorf Austoria. The magazine paid for the party. Looked like quite a bash. Pictures of Boyington sleeping it off in a sink made national headlines.

Anyway. Boyington was quite a colorful character. An excellent leader and a fierce fighter. Yeager and Boyington couldn't have been more different, but they were both colorful guys to read about.

[JMS]

the story about 45 Japanese kamikazes trying to sink the US destroyer in 1945 was freaking amazing!!

I thought the show about the 10 Japanese fighters trying to shoot down the lone American bomber in an 80 minute running battle was pretty amazing. The American pilot hands being all shot up but still managing to maneuver his ship. That was amazing.

[Air Force Cane]

speaking of WW II, check out this video of General Patton:

[Zguy28]

I saw the episode which featured Randy "Duke" Cunningham's exploits during the Vietnam War, he was one heckuva pilot. He unfortunately became one corrupt politician.

I saw that one too. Duke kept trying to climb out and the Mig pilot kept countering him again and again.

I think he hit the brakes finally and faked the Mig out and got on his six.

Sayonara.

[JMS]

I saw that one too. Duke kept trying to climb out and the Mig pilot kept countering him again and again.

I think he hit the brakes finally and faked the Mig out and got on his six.

Sayonara.

It seemed to me that the Mig 17 pilot paniced and tried to run. The Phantom was a faster plane and thus once the Mig tried to break off and run for home, he was a sitting duck. Col. Nguyen Toon, I believe was clamed to have been the NVC pilot.

(*) Toon has since the war believed to have been a fabrication or fictitional pilot who did not fly for N. Vietnam. N. Vietnam's top ace of the war was Nguyen Van Coc who had 9 claimed victories seven of which were confirmed by the United States.

( 2 F-4Ds, 1 F-4B, 2 F-105Fs, 1 F-105D and 1 F-102A )

[Zguy28]

It seemed to me that the Mig 17 pilot paniced and tried to run. The Phantom was a faster plane and thus once the Mig tried to break off and run for home, he was a sitting duck. Col. Nguyen Toon, I believe was clamed to have been the NVC pilot.

(*) Toon has since the war believed to have been a fabrication or fictitional pilot who did not fly for N. Vietnam. N. Vietnam's top ace of the war was Nguyen Van Coc who had 9 claimed victories seven of which were confirmed by the United States.

( 2 F-4Ds, 1 F-4B, 2 F-105Fs, 1 F-105D and 1 F-102A )

I'm sure you're right. Bear in mind that when I watched it, I was also alone with my three children who are under 6. So my attention was divided. :laugh:

[JMS]

I'm sure you're right. Bear in mind that when I watched it, I was also alone with my three children who are under 6. So my attention was divided. :laugh:

I've got two. A 20 year old and one who just turned 4. It's pretty distracting when they get into arguments too...:laugh:

I just love hearing discussing the airmen of the past. I just got back from vacation last weekend. My wife's great aunt is dating a former WWII pilot. I must have sat with this guy for four days shooting the ****. The guy was non stop stories, didn't repeat himself once.

He had dropped out of high school to go into the service when the Arkansas national guard was activated. He said most folks in his high school were in the reserves during the depression cause it was decent money. This was before pearl harbor and the Arkansas national guard and Illinois national guard after being activated; flipped a coin to see where they would be deployed. Arkansas lost and was deployed to the aleutians. Illinois won and were deployed to the Philippians. The Illinois national guard were front and center when the Japanese invaded early December. Within 4 months of deployment they were on the Bataan death march.

Hal the guy I was talking to was an enlisted guy with the army in the Aleutians. He said he applied for every opportunity for training or promotion to get off that rock. Foul weather Hal said. During the battle of Midway the Japanese actually tried to invade the Aleutians. Hal said 5 days after they had repulsed the Japanese he was taken off the island for pilots training. Hal had applied for 18 different transfers and the pilot training was just the first to come up. The guy ended up flying in Europe, the Pacific, Korea, and Vietnam retiring in 1979. Never did get a degree. Went to college at the age of 67 for computer science but ended up not pursuing the degree.

Guy was a big Eddie Rickenbacker fan and had even meet him a few times. Anyway great stories.