Looking at Re, I think about that one American ace who got basically all his kills going head-to-head (as in, both fighters flying directly at one another, like they were jousting or something) with enemy pilots, as he "couldn't aim that well", even going so far as to just fly through the flaming debris of enemy aircraft.

... Says something about the differences in durability and firepower between Japanese and American aircraft when the raving lunatic who goes for ramming tactics not only lives, but gets the highest kill count.

That same pilot died avoiding a squirrel on a country road.

Steak said:

That same pilot died avoiding a squirrel on a country road.

Should have just ran the squirrel over; he deviated from his experience and paid for it. As for the squirrel, well I bet it was a Axis squirrel.

(What's Re going on about?)

NWSiaCB said:

Looking at Re, I think about that one American ace who got basically all his kills going head-to-head (as in, both fighters flying directly at one another, like they were jousting or something) with enemy pilots, as he "couldn't aim that well", even going so far as to just fly through the flaming debris of enemy aircraft.

... Says something about the differences in durability and firepower between Japanese and American aircraft when the raving lunatic who goes for ramming tactics not only lives, but gets the highest kill count.

Mostly it says that shooting another airplane with nothing besides ring and bead on a piece of glass is actually really hard. Eric Hartman is supposed to have said something to the effect of "Get close, when he fills the entire windscreen then you can't possibly miss." regarding his approach to engaging enemy aircraft. In this respect the US Navy was actually somewhat ahead of the curve as it focused an unusual amount of attention on gunnery, particularly deflection shooting, compared to many other air arms. It seems kind of dumb in hindsight, but skill at shooting was often seen as a sort of secondary thing during training and selection for pilots. Time and again though you find that guys that had some experience in it before hand, particularly in stuff like game bird hunting, where the guys that scored better regardless of their nominal skill at actually handling the airplane (or guys whose training focused some attention on it of course).

This focus is often credited as one of the reasons why, despite the hype it got, the Zero never actually managed to trade better then even verses the Navy and Marines at any point and had maybe a scant few months where it bettered the Air Force before they pulled their heads out of their asses and adopted the tactics pioneered in China at which point they started crushing them. (It's often ignored that well into 1943 most Air Force fighter units in the area where still flying P-40s and yet were handily driving the Japanese back regardless. The P-40, as somewhat unfairly maligned as it often is, was still a better fighter then the Zero even in 1941.)

Steak said:

That same pilot died avoiding a squirrel on a country road.

Who's that? I can't find any mention of this via google.

It was a joke. Irony is funny.

Steak said:

It was a joke. Irony is funny.

No, really, I have no idea who NWSiaCB is talking about and while I keep thinking Bong, he didn't do head ons and ended up crashing a P-80.

Yes, Erich Hartmann definitely used the same sorts of tactics. (And crashed 14 Me-109s due to damage from flying through the debris of his opponents.)

I'm looking, but can't find the reference again. I'm thinking it was a Hellcat pilot, so I was looking at McCampbell, but can't find much about how he actually fought outside of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.