It's time for another WW2 quiz!

Well you got one of the two... The polish planes were slower and had a lower ceiling. The german pilots tends to overshoot them. The solution was to drop their landing gear when diving at them to act as an air brake.

 

The Germans pioneered "the schwarm" tactical fighter formation comprised of 4 aircraft made up of 2 pairs...developed by Eric Molders.

Fighter tactics became the VIC vs. the Schwarm

The Vic is a formation echeloned left and right from the lead aircraft, while the Schwarm...was 2 pairs.

 

Correction...Werner Molders not Eric Molders



3-aircraft Vic



To make it clear, I am not a fighter pilot by trade...but I play one online...

Carry on.

 

It's a quiz... Did you have a question for us? This doesn't seem to be related to anything...

 

Q. At the start of WW2, during the polish campaign, german fighter pilots encountered a problem when dogfighting polish fighter airplane. What was that problem and what was the solution to that problem

A. Fighter tactics employed by the Luftwaffe...including the 2 pair approach to counter the vic formation...
the German response was more complex than "they lowered their gear to increase drag and lower speed."

I believe I responded to the question.

Many of the basic fighter maneuvers employed by and pioneered by... the Luftwaffe... are still practiced today.

The immelmann turn, the sandwich, the decoy, up and under attack, the break, the scissors...
to name a few.

 

Still it wasn't the answer even if it's a well research one. The answer in that specific case was to use their landing gear. Most of the polish airforce was destroyed on the ground anyway and only a few dogfights between the PZL-11 and BF-109/110 happened.

The schwarm formation was more effective against the franco-british in 1940 and during the BoB. Both of those airforce used the VIC.

 

What is your source?
At the beginning of the campaign in Poland, the Germans pulled most, if not all, of their Bf-109D variants and used the Bf-109E. I know the F variants had air brakes...

I've been looking for the typical Vle and Vlo speeds of the Bf-109, and can't find much online. The Vle is the maximum speed at which the landing gear can be extended , and Vlo is the maximum speed at which the landing gear may be operated...sometimes they are the same or slightly different. The pilot would have to be careful when deploying the landing gear to slow down his aircraft....lowering them while going too fast and they could damage the gear...air brakes would make more sense to me to utilize...but I can't confirm if the E variant had them.

I'm not saying lowering the gear wouldn't be an effective tactic to slow down the aircraft...but I'm not finding a source this
was used on a regular basis. Remember the Soviets had the I-16 monoplanes and I-15 biplane fighters...which weren't particularly fast either compared to the 109....yet the 109Fs had no problem decimating the Soviet inventory of these.

Superior speed is often the decisive factor in a dogfight so German pilots held the initiative and could decide if they wanted to chase their opponents, could attack them from above and behind and then gain altitude for an eventual new attack. Also, various maneuvers like a barrel roll can be used to slow down your movement relative to a slower bandit.
Lowering your gear while in a combat situation seems rather extreme....it changes the aircraft's handling characteristics...I'm not saying it would not be effective however...just there are alternatives to slow down an aircraft when chasing a slower foe.

 

Here's the Bf-109G...a model of it anyway...but detailed enough to clearly the see the air brakes at the wing root

Now here's the Bf-109E which would have seen a lot of action in the Polish campaign....



No air brakes...

So it's very plausible, the German pilots did indeed drop their gear to create enough drag to stay at a slower Polish aircraft's six o'clock and not over-shoot. You just have to be careful not to damage the gear in the process by exceeding Vle speed....

With the incorporation of air brakes on later 109 variants, this tactic might have fallen by the wayside.

So, interesting stuff....

 

As a good platform as a boom 'n zoom fighter why wouldn't they just boom 'n zoom?

 

Two kind of related questions ...

What famous civilian pilot scored a kill, as a civilian, in a P-38?

When former Supreme Court Justice Stevens worked as a Navy cryptographer, what message of particular importance did he decode?

 

Lindbergh

 

Lindbergh is the correct answer. He was working as a civilian adviser in 1944. Being he was the expert in getting the most mpg out of an airplane, he showed them how to extend a P-38's range by running it at low RPM on auto-lean.

The message which Justice Stevens decoded was the Yamamoto trip itinerary, leading to the Yamamoto shootdown, by P-38's. As that was in 1943, Lindbergh's range extension strategy did not figure into it.

 

What was the main carbine of the Heer?

 

Good questions- a nice diversion form our usual- thanks

 

Sorry for the late reply... That technique was mention in two book that I have (presently in storage). Both are from the late 70's early 80's. One is about famous warplanes of WW1 and 2 from a french editor, either Hachette or Elsevier. The other one is a WW2 encyclopedia from Larousse, the dictionary publisher. The first one is really nice because instead of photo it use war time painting for it's illustrations.

 

Because the PZL-11 was more maneuverable and agile than the german planes. Its wide gull wing design meant that it was as maneuverable as a biplane and was able to out turn the german planes. In proportion to the size of their air forces, the PZL ended up shooting down as many german planes than PZL. The german used a bit of propaganda in keeping this under wrap by reissuing plane identification number from plane that were shot down over poland. They were also able, as the victor, to repair some of their downed plane.

Added: Also the open cockpit gave them a better view of the action which is a big plus in a dogfight.

 

What was the most unusual device used to make german soldiers surrender by an american G.I.

 

My question, "What was the main carbine of the Heer?" hasn't been answered yet.

 

Mauser k98k

- - - Updated - - -

Beside since ino one found the answer to mine i thought i had the next one.

 

Lucky Strikes Green.

It was the first thing German soldiers asked for after surrendering to American soldiers.

 

Actually no...

The most unusual device USED to make german surrender was a mine detector.
A US soldier assigned to a de-mining squad in belgium came up to an abandonned farm house in belgium and thought he heard some noise from inside. He used his mine detector to push open the window but his detector got tangled so he giggled it to free it up. This was the kitchen windows and the mine/metal detector was whistling really loud because of the pots and pan and other metalic stuff in there. While he was doing this, 18 german soldier came out with their arms up. Once interrogated later, they said they believe it was a new secret weapon...