Hello BaronMyBuns,
you wrote:
"Something occurred to me while I was watching. When the large group of enemy planes is encountered, the pilot switches easily from one target to the next, never really sticking with one target for too long. And it works out really well for him. "
"The
Dogfight
George A. Vaughn, a veteran of
many aerial battles, was the secondranking
American ace to survive the
war. He scored seven victories while
he was attached to the Royal Flying
Corps and six more with the American
Expeditionary Forces.
Most people seem to think a dogfight
is just two airplanes going round and
round and round for minutes and
minutes at a time until one shoots
the other down. As a rule, it didn't
work out that way because there
were so many in the sky that you
jumped from one to the other, and
two or three of them shot at you, not
just one. You shot at four or fiveanybody
you could get your sights on
-and then another one. It was usually
just two or three bursts, and
then maybe you were on another fellow
or maybe somebody was on you
by this time. That's the way it was.
The atmosphere was more or less
a sporting one in those days. I suppose
it was the last time that there
would really be such a thing as, you
might say, hand-to-hand combat in
the air. Although we flew in formation,
when the actual combat came it
\vas strictly a one-man proposition.
Everybody was by himself
..."
That is what it was like in the earlier part of the war. In late 1917 and 18 there were squadron tactics which were pretty similar on both sides, but you will not see it in phase 2.
I would prefer to stay glued to the back of an enemy, and it certainly works in Phase 2. No enemy will really harass you when you stay glued to an enemy's tail - but that is not how it really would have been - and not how it hopefully will be in phase 3.
In reality i would try to survive
.
In phase 2 i go for one enemy during the first encounter. In phase 2 he will then go down and circle close to the ground. I will try to keep my altitude and get for the enemy that is next to me altitude-wise. Often i will not have to go for another, because the whole flight leaves the stage to circle low above the ground, eventually crashing. I can then pick one somewhere below me and strafe him in a dive, instantly gaining height and looking around. Not very sporty, or realistic.
In phase 2 you have to keep firing at one plane, because you will mostly have to empty your whole magazine into it to really shoot it down. You do not have to though. With time at your hands just keep circling above and just watch them crash. You will certainly not raise your score that way ..
Greetings,
Catfish