High Lights of WW2 docs

[Zak33]

have been going thorugh the stuff Deck posted in the sticky about Tactics.

What a superb collection

Get this lot....(the text is reference to not getting into turn fights if poss)

In a turning fight La-5 will get on Me-109’s tail after three or four circles
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LaGG-3 fighter is a heavy and sluggish plane with poor acceleration. LaGG-3 will lose a great deal of altitude in a dive without adding significant airspeed, especially when compared to a Me-109....LaGG-3 in a turning fight will bleed off speed very rapidly however and since it accelerates so poorly, it will have difficulty switching to vertical. It is most important to start a fight with altitude advantage in a LaGG-3 and to avoid losing it at all costs.
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MiG-3 is a good high-altitude fighter. The higher is the better for a MiG-3 pilot
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I-153 fighter should use the same tactics as the I-16. Chaika is incredibly maneuverable; a cautious pilot can be invulnerable to the clumsy Me-109. I-153 can always outturn any opponent, and meet attack from any angle with a full frontal assault. Very often an I-153 will be firing at a Me-109 which is unable to turn at it....I-16s and I-153 have also been using the so-called “bee hive” tactic in battle. This tactic calls for all I-16 and I-153 fighters to hold in one unorganized group and maneuver in different directions all at the same time, usually horizontally. In this “mass” I-16s and I-153s are much less vulnerable to enemy attacks as any enemy attack on any one fighter will be met by strong fire from several other friendly planes
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KittyHawk (P40) and Aerocobra(P39) should fight using the Yak-1 and La-5 tactics, i.e. fighting vertically and striving for altitude advantage, etc.
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FW-190 will commit to the fight even if our battle formation is not broken, preferring left turning fights!!!!!!! (wtf) There has been cases of such turning fights lasting quite a long time, with multiple planes from both sides involved in each engagement!!!!
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Captured FW-190 pilots are familiar with specifics of all our planes, and consider Yak-1, Yak-9 and La-5 to be superior to theirs.....Yak-1, Yak-7 and La-5 fighting an FW-190 have all the factors necessary to win. Our fighters are almost as fast as the FW-190, turn and climb better and have formidable firepower !!!!!

[Zak33]

ref flying as a team....

As we’ve stated many times before, altitude advantage has the utmost importance in a dogfight. How do you gain such advantage? The seemingly right answer is to fly as high as possible. However, it is not correct in many cases. When your plane is too high above you can easily miss low flying enemy planes.



Based on our experience, a formation that makes the most sense is a stacked up echelon. Squadron can fly in such formation with up to three groups of fighters in different altitudes. Upper echelon should fly higher than any enemy fighters expected in the area. Enemy fighters will be threatened by attack from the higher echelon, whereas our fighters from the lower altitudes will be covered by their higher squad mates.