World War II was the first conflict to take aerial warfare to the next level. But instead of whipping around in advanced air superiority fighters like the Air Force of today, strategists of the time took the "more planes equals more damage" approach to combat. The result was intense, high-casualty dogfighting from a truly staggering amount of aircraft.
Here are 23 insane photos of WWII areal battles, and their consequences.
1
B-17 Flying Fortress “Miss Donna Mae II” drifted out of position and under another B-17 during a mission over Germany. One of the bombs from “Trudy” tore off the horizontal stabilizer and sent the plane into an unrecoverable spin. All 11 crewmen were KIA. May 19, 1944.
4
B-17s being escorted by P-47 fighters on their way to Germany, 1943.
5
WW2 pilots faced a number of dangers during dogfights one of them being mid-air collisions with other airplanes, as was the case with this unfortunate airman, 1942.
6
Ensign Ardon Rector Ives escaped from his burning Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat when his plane burst into flames after crash landing on the USS Lexington on February 25, 1945. Ardon Ives survived only to be KIA in a dogfight with Japanese fighters just a few weeks later on March 18, 1945, aged 23.
7
A desperate attack by a lone Japanese Ki-46 Dinah aircraft on an American B-29 bomber, 29th Bomb Group, 20th Air Force, formation somewhere over the Mariana Islands, 1945.
8
Gun camera footage from a Hawker Typhoon of No. 266 Squadron RAF flown by Flight-Sergeant D Erasmus, showing his shooting down a Focke Wulf Fw 190 which had just shot down 266's commanding officer.
9
P-47 Thunderbolt piloted by Captain Raymond M. Walsh of the 406th Fighter Group is silhouetted against the exploding ammunition truck he just strafed, France, 23 June 1944.
10
Fighter ace Francis 'Gabby' Gabreski in the cockpit of his P-47 Thunderbolt with his aerial victories emblazoned on the side. 1944.
11
Vapor trails from the dogfighting over St Paul's Cathedral in London during the Blitz, 1940.
12
American AA crew set in front of a sky covered in German and American contrails left from dogfights. Christmas day, 1944.
13
Pilots of No. 488 (NZ) Squadron scramble to their Brewster Buffalo fighter planes at Kallang airfield in Singapore, circa 1941. The Buffalo was outclassed by the Japanese Zero, but in some cases a skilled pilot could best the Zero in a dogfight.
14
A Bell P-39 Airacobra fires all of its weapons at night.
15
Hurricane line during the Battle of Britain.
16
Gun camera stills from a VF-17’s F6F Okinawa dogfight. This Betty was carrying a rocket-powered self-destruct stand-off bomb called a Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka. It is just visible under the Betty’s centerline.
18
A P-51D Mustang nicknamed “Floogie II” of the 357th Fighter Group escorts a damaged B-17 Flying Fortress of the 96th Bomb Group, flown by “Woody” Woodson during a mission.
19
A Japanese Kamikaze plane shot down as it attempted to attack a group of carriers, near the Marianas Islands in the Pacific, June 13th-17th, 1944.
20
Damage to the tail of a Corsair during a dogfight over Guadalcanal.
21
Japanese Kawanishi H6K ‘Mavis’ seaplane on fire after an attack by a PB4Y patrol bomber near Truk Lagoon; Caroline Islands, May 1944.
22
The plane you see in the photo, about to hit the ship from the starboard side, is the Mitsubishi A6M Zero plane used by a Japanese kamikaze pilot. The pilot was the only casualty, and was given a military salute by the crew.
23
A U.S. fighter plane is shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire in Kiska, Alaska, United States, June 13, 1942.
24
German Fw-190 in combat. Photograph taken by a gun camera installed on a U.S. P-47.
