Forum Message | | Message text Tornade wrote:
its a simple fact that most of the greatest aces were shot down and/or killed by sheer chance...
whether it be a novice pilot...ground fire...defensive fire...or even mechanical failure at the wrong moment
Exactly, same applied to the Pacific. Most of the Japanese aces were eventually shot down, some with an amazing number of kills. Not all mind you, but most. Of course, being an American ace near the end of the wat was no big feat, they were mostly fighting against people that could barely take off.
In air combat, it only takes one minor mistake, or, even bad luck, to get shot down. Even Saburo Sakai who survived the war, one of the greatest Japanese aces (60 or so kills), made a mistake twice. Once, he mistook some American planes as a fighter (F4F), came up behind one not being concerned, and, found out it was a bomber with a rear gun, and, got blasted and lost an eye, and, BARELY made it back to base around 300 miles away with one eye! Before that (same battle), he had fought a famous American ace, James Sutherland. Sakai was extremely impressed by the flying skills of this ace (which he normally was not). At one point in the very well documented encounter, Sakai made an error and overshot Sutherland. He KNEW he was doomed, dead, point blank range. The skill of the American had impressed him, and, he had underestimated that. So, call it an error. By sheer luck, Sutherlands guns did not work. So, Sutherland got shot down. Still, the point is a top notch Japanese ace, clearly was better than virtually anyone, still, made a few errors, and, by luck, survived.
This skill was shown later in the war, with only ONE eye (VERY bad news for a fighter pilot!) he got jumped by close to a Dozen far superior F6F's (he was still flying the Zero), and, they could not shoot him down. American reports were very flattering of this pilot, and, of course, rightfully so. |
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