Folks,

Dux:

I don't recall either. I'm planning on re-reading J Johnson's book sometime this year so I'll be on the look out for that passage. This being before the advent of IFF signals; I do recall several instances where it has been written that American pilots had problems identifying friendly RAF fighters. Wasn't this the reason for painting those oh so fashionable invasion stripes on Allied planes on the 6th of June?

I recently found my copy of Galland's book "The First and the Last" and I want to read that again as well.

Gents,

JRT,

The RAF used a clockwork IFF device during the BoB which was codenamed 'Pipsqueak'. Info on the web including some interesting transcripts of messages.

Given the low level nature of allied aircraft operations at D-Day and the almost indifferent attitude to aircraft recognition by ground and surface vessel personnel, such identification markings must have prevented many instances of friendly fire from those who preferred to shoot first and ID later.
Navy gunners were particularly trigger-happy. It was an unwise pilot who approached ships in a manner which could be construed as suspicious or potentially aggressive.

Despite those stripes, there must have been many losses from friendly fire - above or below.

Folks,

Dux:

I think that the US came up with something in 1937 and the Brits developed their own system independently. The Brits shared their MkI design info with the US but that was already obsolete at that time.

When the skies were crowded with planes most early IFF devises failed to be able to distinguish friend from foe. Nothing seems to have been highly reliable until the 1980s. What was dubbed the MKIII seems to have been used throughout the war with a better system the MkIV held in reserve in case the MKIII was ever compromised. I read that the MKIV was used a few times late in the Pacific war.

I have my own quite basic brand of IFF. I take a squirt at a likely enemy aircraft and then I listen closely to my RT/headphones to see if the cursing is in German or English....

Folks,

It is my good fortune that in doing some moving about of stored cardboard boxes in the attic I chanced to open an especially heavy one to find it filled with some of my books. Here are the titles I found in just that one box:

"The First and the Last" Adolph Galland
"The Big Show" Pierre Closterman
"Into the Teeth of the Tiger" Donald Lopez (Flying Tigers Memoir)
"The Balloon Buster" Norman S. Hall (Frank Luke bio)
"The Sky Beyond" Sir Gordon Taylor (WWI Fighter Pilot and aviation pioneer)
"Reach for the Sky" Paul Brickhill" (Douglas Bader biography)
"Full Circle" J. E. Johnson
"I Flew for the Fuhrer" Heinz Knoke
"Fly for Your Life" Larry Forrester (Robert Stafford Tuck biography)
"The Blond Knight of Germany" Toliver & Constable (Erich Hartmann biography)
"Fork-Tailed Devil" Martin Cadin (The P-38 Lightening design and development)
"The Last of the Bush Pilots" Harmon Helmericks
"Weekend Pilot" Frank Kingston Smith

There were a good many other interesting titles but these were the books found written on the subject of aviation or combat aviation. I made sure there were no more such boxes languishing up there. Admittedly our bookcases and shelves are already groaning under the weight of many, many books and there is precious little space left for any more but these titles are some of the best ever written. Most of them I have read several times and I plan to read them all again this year.

JRT,

I seem to remember reading six out of that little lot. One in particular I would like to re-read is Stanford-Tuck's 'Fly For Your Life'. I once owned the hardback version and made the cardinal error of lending it out. I don't do that sort of thing now...

I have loads of stuff, baggage from the past which I can't bring myself to throw or give away.
My oldest are The Observers Book of Aircraft 1953 and a couple of Aeromodeller Annuals for 1955 and 1956.

Incidentally, I was poring over the plans list for Quiet and Electric Flying magazine the other day. Very impressive. Many of them are for glow-fuel also and well worth a look. I can't see SWMBO tolerating the massive Gloster Javelin hanging from the ceiling somehow. Take a look at their website! I think it also comes under Traplet Publications

Folks,

Dux:

You find out what you really value once you have to move it a few times. I still have the wife....

I have quite a few modeling books and old magazines that I seldom look at but cannot seem to part with. Speaking of magazines; do you recall that writer chap that visited the forum several years back? He was writing an article about flight sims and their enthusiasts for a UK magazine. I recall that he wanted to quote something that I had written on the forum and I agreed with the proviso that he past a copy of his article or send me a copy of the magazine.

I remember typing about always setting my sound system to a setting that was just below lethal before flying BoB or something like that and he wanted to quote that for some odd reason. As I have seen neither the magazine nor the copy of that article posted here I wonder if the thing was ever published? Did you see anything of it?

I will take a look at Traplet Publications tonight and I thank you for posting the info. I fear I may be out of the model building business until my grandson shows an interest. Everything I had worked so hard on and kept from itchy fingers over the years was damaged in the move here. I can fix it all of course but it has a debilitating effect and there is not the space for displaying the larger models that I like to build. They now reside in the attic. All my larger models are Glow-Plug engine types. I still have all my engines and they are in good running order.

Someday soon we may fly again. I always wanted to build a large flying model of the Hindenburg for some reason. Yes, that's a bit odd and yet it is the truth. I did build a rather large scale plastic model of the doomed airship and that sits on a bookshelf behind me.

JRT,

I didn't see that article you mention. I could paper my walls with pub promises...it was in a pub wasn't it?

I was up at the local flying club site a few days ago - in fact, I've been hanging about there several times over the previous week or two. The models ranged from just a few feet in span to some sports jobs that are more like six or seven feet or more. The other day they had a Me109, FW190, helicopters, something like a Vought or Vultee WWII scale type, Yak aerobatics, Mig 15, Ki61 Tony and stuff in the vans they had yet to unload. Most had retracts and flaps.

Gents,

Seems we are heading for half a million views! Get ready for another big session down at the Prince and Polecat!

Folks,

Dux:

499 plus...carry the two add the circumference of the ring in the bathtub, plus the hex value of the color of Dux's nose... why I think you are right about that.

Whoodathunkit? Half a million views on HWH is amazing to me. It seems like only shy of nine years ago that SNAFU started this happy thread.... What's that? You say is WAS nine years ago. Well then...

I hope old SNAFU is still out there somewhere...lurking in the virtual shadows and grinning like the Cheshire Cat. If so, I'm sure that he is proud of his creation and the dedication you Dux and so many others have shown over these almost nine years(it will be precisely nine years on April 24).

Before we know it we will have been posting a full decade. That is truly mazing. Congratulations SNAFU, Dux, MG, C51 and may I offer a sincere thank you to all you dedicated readers whomever you are and wherever you may be.

Folks,

I managed to get into the deadly skies over Mother Russia last night. Yes I know this isn't the IL2 forum Dux. Since most of us have both why not tell what happened?

I flew a BF 109 F against some pesky MiG3s last night. I have read that some pilots disliked the F variations of the 109. I found it modeled in IL2 1946 to be a stable gun platform. Some hold that the MiG 3 was the best Soviet fighter of the war.

When they first appeared with their in-line engines (I think all previous Russian planes sported radial engines) they were a nasty surprise to the Germans. One or two Russian pilots racked up a respectable number of kills while the Germans were still in shock and their reports were being analyzed in Berlin. Then Uncle Joe, for reasons know only to himself, pulled the MiGs ration card and sent all their in-line engines to the IL2s. A radial engine was then fitted to a MiG 3 but it proved to be as big a failure as the in-line engine had been a success.

I dunno about the Mig being the best, the La7 was a very good plane. In fact, I find them devilishly hard to hit and bring down flying either the F or G variations of the 109. They have a very good rate of climb. Still, all things considered and in spite of having said that, IMHO on paper at least the 109 should have been slightly superior.

I had some initial luck against the MiG3s last night. My wingman and I found ourselves hard pressed by 4 MiG3s. The first two made an ineffective diving pass on us and alerted I was ready for their companions as they also came down and began a firing pass to go over us. I lifted my nose risking a stall and fired my canonen right into the face of the first MiG which exploded. His wingman ran right into both the explosion and my shells and he too was hit. Belching black smoke he passed over me. I split-sed and fell upon him. It was an easy kill.

In another battle with 2 LA7s one led me on a merry chase that ended in a rolling scissors and another victory for me. As his crate traveled on into the ground without him the Ruskie pilot bailed and I saw his olive green chute blossom as I passed him he was on my left. I have not been so close to a chute in IL2 before.

Tonight I plan to get back into a BoB scenario. The only problem with playing late at night is that I must turn the sound volume down quite low or risk waking even the sound sleepers. This reduces the immersiveness of the game considerably but it is acceptable. It is acceptable because the alternative would be leaving the sound turned up just shy of lethal the way I prefer it and risk imbuing the terrible wrath of an awakened SWMNBN.