AVSIM Special Feature Screenshot Tribute to FS2002 Part 3

Aircraft were used in combat for the first time during the first world war and there have been hundreds of books, movies, and even songs written about the exploits of those daring knights of the sky, but in truth, the airplane had little if any affect as to the eventual outcome of that great conflict. That simply would not be the case 20 years later and in the next world war.

I'm not going to revisit or rehash all the individual events of World War II here, as everything that has needed to be said or written has been done, but I will provide an insight into how the airplane affected the global disaster of World War II.

On September 1st, 1939 German troops and air forces crossed the border into Poland and a new kind of war started, a type of warfare called "Blitzkrieg" or "Lightning War". By using a combination of ground forces supported by bombers, dive-bombers, and fighters, Germany very quickly entered Warsaw and Poland was forced to surrender. Within days, Britain and France both declared war with Germany and World War II had begun.

The military leaders of most nations, in 1939, mistakenly believed that it was the strength of your Army and Navy that would most likely determine victory in a war, but unlike the last world war, World War II would begin and end, based almost entirely on the actions generated by the airplane.

The airplane had come a long way by the end of the 1930s, as Germany, Britain, Italy, and Japan each had developed several well designed fighters and light to medium bombers. Whereas the US aviation industry was more dedicated to developing civilian aircraft, but President Roosevelt fully knew, at some point in time, that America would eventually be drawn into the conflict. This knowledge put the President in the position of having to convince the US industrial complex into thinking combat aircraft and the development of those aircraft, regardless of America's neutrality. It wouldn't be until December 7th, 1941 that America and the American industries would be jolted into the realities of the world of that time.

Up until World War II, the general belief was held by most nations, as I've already stated, that it was a nation's Navy and the firepower of their Battleships that demonstrated a country's military might. This belief was so widely acknowledged, that by international agreement, at the end of WWI, each nation was limited to the number and size of the Battleships they could possess. No such limitation was applied to any nation's Aircraft Carriers, as these ships were thought to be of no consequence. Ironically, it was the Japanese Imperial Navy that first demonstrated the value of aircraft carriers and Naval airpower when they attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. Many of the Admirals (Japanese) believed that if they could knock out the American battleships moored there, the US would sue for peace—as most Japanese military leaders believed that America had no stomach for fighting a protracted war in the Pacific. Immediately following the Pearl Harbor attack, it was Admiral Yamamoto that stated, "...I fear that all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and leave him with a terrible resolve...!" Admiral Yamamoto did not survive to see his prophecy come true.

This belief that it was the battleship that dictated military power was of course false—and the best example of this false belief was what happened to the mighty German battleship "The Bismarck!" Sent to sea to destroy Allied shipping headed to England, the Bismarck first encountered the British Fleet in the North Sea. After only a few salvo exchanges, the British battleship HMS Hood was blown up and sunk (with only 3 survivors) with the remaining British ships breaking off contact. The Bismarck had received only minor damage, but it was losing fuel oil, so the decision was made to run for the German occupied French coast for repairs. The British fleet steamed at full speed in a vain attempt to catch the Bismarck, but it became obvious that the Bismarck would soon be under the protection of German air cover before the fleet could catch up with her. One British ship, the aircraft carrier HMS Arch Royal, was within range of the Bismarck, and with its Swordfish (WWI style aircraft that were open cockpit biplanes that carried a single torpedo each) sent several squadrons to make contact. The British fleet commanders had all but given up on catching the Bismarck, when the reports started coming through that the Bismarck was, for reasons unknown, steaming slowly in a Northwesterly direction, away from the French coast and German air cover and directly toward the British fleet. It seems that a single aircraft from the HMS Ark Royal (a Swordfish biplane) had scored a hit on the Bismarck's rudder with its torpedo and the Bismarck was unable to maneuver. Once the Bismarck was approached by the British fleet and after receiving over 400 hits from the British naval guns, the German crew scuttled the Bismarck and it slipped away and into history.

By 1940, the world was firmly at war (except for the USA, which would not enter World War II until the end of 1941) and though officially the USA was a neutral, aircraft war production started early to supply our friends with combat aircraft.

For FS2002 we have a broad choice of historic American WWII aircraft, including the B-25 and B-17, plus 3 of our most formidable fighter aircraft, the Chance Vought F4U Corsair, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, and the North American P-51D (the nickname "Mustang" was coined by the British RAF for the P-51). Shown here is the F4U of Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (top left), the P-38 of Lt. Com. Richard "Dick" Bong (America's highest scoring ace of WWII)(top right), and the P-51D Mustang "Glamorus Glennis" of Col. Charles "Chuck" Yeager (bottom left).

Because of the influence of CFS2, many excellent FS aircraft are available FS2002, aircraft from all nations at war in the years between 1940 and 1946. Japan had many outstanding designs, in addition to the famous "Zeros."

With names like Heinkel, Junkers, Focke-Wulfe, Donier, and Messerschmitt the German Luftwaffe contained many of the best aircraft of their types during the years of the war, and many of their ideas carried over onto many of the post-war designs of the allied aircraft.

The "Best Aircraft" of WWII?

As a lifelong student of history, particularly as it relates to aviation, I've listened to discussions about the aircraft used during World War II and usually the subject of "...which was the best fighter plane of WWII?" almost always comes up. First of all, there really is no answer to that question, other than to say that it was more often a case of how well trained and experienced the pilots were than which aircraft they were flying. The young British and American fighter pilots flying the RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes against the German Bf-110s and 109s, during the Battle of Britain in 1940, held their own and forced Hitler to cancel the planned invasion of the United Kingdom. Was the Spitfire or Hurricane better that the German 110s or 109s? Not really, in fact they (the Spitfires and Hurricanes) were inferior in many ways (mostly in speed and rate-of-climb) as compared to the German fighters, so what was the difference? If you man your fighter force with a group of well trained, experienced, and determined young men who are determined to defend their homeland, this can be a very effective weapon—as the British proved to the Germans during the spring and summer of 1940.

Allied Aircraft in Europe...

It was Field Marshal Hermann Goring, while peering across the English Channel at the barely visible White Cliffs of Dover, that asked his commanders of the German Luftwaffe "...what do you need to defeat this British RAF?" The single word answer was, "...Spitfires!" It was the sheer determination of these young (most only 18 to 22 years old) British, Polish, and American volunteer pilots that took to the air—sometimes as many as 4 or 5 times a day—that finally defeated the German Luftwaffe, causing Hilter to cancel his plans to invade England. When speaking of these brave young men, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill stated, "...never have so many, owed so much, to so few!"

By mid-1942, American bombers (Boeing B-17s & Consolidated B-24s) and American combat flight crews were arriving in England in large numbers. The designers of the B-17 & B-24 were confident that fighter escorts were not needed, because the B-17 & B-24 carried several high-rate-of-fire .50 caliber machine guns, and in theory this seemed a plausible assumption. The British Bomber Command regulated the use of the British Beaufighter, Sterling, Halifax, Mosquito, and Lancaster bombers to night operations only over Germany, where the American bombers and crews stayed with daylight bombing. Reality, as it often does, did not follow the theories that the American bomber designers had assumed and early on, the American bomber losses were appalling and if the losses continued, there soon would not be any bomber force left to fight. P-47 Thunderbolts were appearing in 1942, but their limited range didn't allow them to stay with the bombers all the way to Germany. In the meantime, new bomber formations were tried and the losses eased somewhat, particularly when the "box" formation was used (the box formation was to have 6 bombers fly in very close formation, with a bomber positioned like the 6 sides of a square box). The idea of the box formation was to utilize the tremendous defensive firepower of the 10 .50 caliber machine guns of each aircraft to defend the group as a whole.

By the spring of 1944, hundreds of British Halifax, Mosquito, and Lancaster bombers were night bombing German cities, almost at will; and then during the day it was the American B-24 and B-17s that repeated the British effort. Sometimes, as many as a thousand bombers would attack a single target. After the war, a British Officer in the Scottish Highlanders (special forces) was heard to comment (after seeing the totally destroyed cities of Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, among many many more), "...it was as if some huge giant come along and had kicked Germany to pieces!"

The British had two very effective short range defense fighters with the "Spitfire" (top and left-center) and the "Hurricane" (right-center and bottom).	Besides the Spitfires and Hurricanes, the RAF also had several light to medium bombers; the Beaufighter, Sterling, and Lancasters all made history by taking the war to Germany and to the German people.	American flighter and torpedo bombers came in all size and shapes and for FS2002 there are numerous choices.
Besides all the famous fighters of WWII from America, there were the bombers too, particularly the Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, both of which took part in the war over Europe. The Boeing B-29 was used almost exclusively over the Empire of Japan due to its extraordinary range (as compared to the B-24 or B-17).	Even though the F8F Bearcat entered service at too late a date to see any combat, it was still the fastest Navy propeller driven aircraft ever built (top). Boeing aircraft had designed the world's largest land based bomber aircraft, the B-29, during WWII and this aircraft could carry 7 tons of ordinance, had a pressurized fuselage, all with a range of just over 3,000 miles. The most famous of the B-29s is shown here (center left), the "Enola Gay."	The US Navy also had the Dauntless, the Avenger, Wildcats, and Corsairs. By searching the CFS2 dedicated sites, many excellent examples of these warbirds can be found that in most cases work fine in FS2002.

It wasn't until the arrivial of the North American P-51Bs & Cs (after they had the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine conversions) and later the D models, that supplied the American bombers with the first escort having sufficient range to fly all the way to Germany, which tipped the balance of airpower over Europe. The P-51 was roughly the same physical size as the Spitfire, but its takeoff maximum weight was nearly double due to the additional fuel it carried. The P-51 Mustang (the British, who are in a habit to do, are whom came up with the nickname of "Mustang") was fast, had a good rate of climb, and could hold its own against the best of the German fighters, but it was its range and the ability of the United States to supply them in ever increasing numbers that really was the turning point of the air war over Europe. Called "Little Friends" by the US bomber crews, the Mustangs reined supreme over the German Luftwaffe aircraft, most of which were grounded from lack of fuel or spare parts. As the number of German fighters that could be put into the air dwindled, the American fighter numbers increased; the day that Germany's Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goring saw P-51 Mustangs engaged in battle over Berlin, he then knew the war was lost.

The Mustangs returning to England rained havoc at the many ground targets they encountered during their flights back home. In the debate over what was the best fighter aircraft of world war II, the Mustang is certainly one to consider, but in the overall, the Mustang was simply the right aircraft, in the right place, at the right time.

Of all the American fighters of World War II, it was the P-51 Mustang that provided the defining edge needed over Western Europe. With its long range, high speed, and high altitude capability, the Mustangs provided the needed fighter escort coverage for the American bombers over Germany itself.

Very heavily armored Soviet Sturmoviks, flying wing-tip to wing-tip in groups of 6 to 8 aircraft would fly directly over the heads of the advancing Soviet Army to attack the forward armored units of the German Army. The concept of the American A-10 Warthog was based on these aircraft, as the IL2 Sturmovik was the original purpose-built heavy armor attack aircraft, as are the modern Warthog and even the Russian Hind24 Attack helicopter. With their fuselage skin made up of thick armor plate, Sturmoviks would arrive on the battlefield in groups of 6, 8, or even as many as 16 aircraft, flying wing tip to wing tip, 10 meters off the ground and as soon as they destroyed the German armor (tanks) and artillery, they would turn on the German infantry. If a German fighter pilot was brave enough to approach one, it really only could be done from the rear—but then the German pilot had to face the firepower of the Sturmovik's rear-gunner and his rapid fire machine gun.

German Aircraft

The German fighter warplanes, such as the Bf-109 and the FW-190s were tremendously effective fighters and in the hands of the well trained German fighter pilots were an equal match for anything the Allied Forces could put in the air, including the Mustangs. There were other great German fighters, such as the Me-262 Swallow (first combat jet fighter in history to enter service), which was easily 150 to 200 mph faster than anything in the Allied inventory, but they were deployed in too little numbers at too late a date to have any real affect to the eventual outcome of the air war over Europe. Despite the speed capability of the Me-262, many that took to the air were destroyed due to one major flaw, their ultra-slow acceleration rate. Allied fighters found that by following the low-on-fuel Me-262s back to their bases, they were easy pickin's for the straffing Mustangs and Thunderbolts when the 262s had slowed to landing speeds.

On the Eastern-European front, it was once again the Bf-109s, Bf-110s, and eventually the Folke-Wulf 190s that lead the German attacks against the out numbered and outclassed Soviet fighters, like the IL-16 and the American supplied lend-lease A-39 AirCobras. But it was to be a small and rather unique aircraft, the Soviet IL-2 Sturmovik, that would eventually turn the tide against the German invaders. The Sturmovik was an aircraft that formed an entirely new class of combat aircraft and there was nothing else, from any nation in World War II, to compare it to.

Unlike many of the combatants of WWII, Germany was not afraid to try new designs and to push the envelop beyond the imagination. From the Stuka dive-bombers to the roar of the world's first operational fighter jet (the Me-262) Germany had everything, even including a rocket powered fighter, the Me-163 Komet.

The Soviet air forces too had many successful designs from the earlist MiGs and the Yaks, but it was their IL2 Sturmoviks (top and bottom left) that turned the tide along the Eastern Front against the German invaders.

The Pacific Theater – Allied Aircraft

Out in the Pacific, it was Naval airpower that would pave the way to eventual victory by the United States against the Empire of Japan, but in the early stages of the war, Japan held the upper edge on aircraft superiority. The only deviation to the early victories of the Japanese was the 7 months (December 1941 thru July 4th, 1942) that the American Volunteer Group (AVG Flying Tigers) existed. Flying P-40 Curtiss Tomahawks as hired guns for the Chinese government and under the command of Col. Claire Chennault, the AVG racked up a very impressive record, despite overwhelming odds. In the 7 months of the AVG Flying Tigers, they scored 299 confirmed kills with an additional 153 probables; this compared to AVG air combat losses of four men and 12 P-40 aircraft. (Six more AVG pilots were shot down by anti-aircraft fire and killed, three were killed on the ground during Japanese bombing raids, and three were taken prisoner. In addition, 61 AVG aircraft were destroyed from enemy straffing or bombing while on the ground). No other fighter group, with any nation, had a record even remotely similar to the American AVG Flying Tigers of World War II. The Curtiss P-40, as a combat fighter aircraft, was quite inferior to the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M type Zero—but it was by superior tactics, the quality of skill demonstrated by the young American pilots, and the extraordinary leadership of Col. Chennault that made the difference. To give you a better understanding on just how impressive the Flying Tigers were, highly experienced RAF pilots, flying superior aircraft (Spitfires), that fought side-by-side with the AVG, scored 74 confirmed kills, 33 probables, with losses of 22 during the same period.

Between December 7th, 1941 and May of 1942, the Japanese Imperial Navy invaded island after island, Wake, Guam, and the Philippines all fell against the onslaught of Japanese Naval aircraft and Japanese Marines. President Roosevelt asked his military staff for some kind of victory, some show of force, to boast the American morale. A US Navy Submarine commander came up with the idea of launching a squadron of the new B-25B medium bombers from an aircraft carrier and then striking at the heart of Japan at Tokyo. Colonel James Doolittle was appointed the task of training the volunteer flight crews the skill of taking-off from a carrier deck with a land-based aircraft. The USS Hornet was to sail within 350 miles of the Japanese coast, launch their aircraft and then after the attack, the squadron of B-25Bs were to fly on to the Allied controlled section of China.

But on April 18th (1942) a Japanese fishing boat spotted the task force several hours before their arrival at the launch point. Adding extra fuel, the sixteen B-25B bombers launched in heavy seas, over 800 miles from the Japanese coast. This early launch meant that making the Chinese coastline would be at the very range limit for the Doolittle Raiders and in all likelihood, if they made the Chinese coast, it would be in Japanese held territory. After striking at Tokyo (each B-25B carried four 500 lb bombs) the Raiders went on and 15 made it to China and one to Vladivostok, Russia (where the crew was detained by the Soviets for the remainder of the War as their "guests"). Most of the crews survived crash landings after dark, on the Japanese-held Chinese mainland, and with the help of the Chinese people made it overland to Allied territory, but one entire crew was captured by the Japanese and returned to Japan. The captured crew members were put on trial as war criminals and were executed after they refused to reveal where their launch base was located. Japanese Naval experts had determined that it was impossible that these B-25B bombers could have come from an aircraft carrier so they must have launched from a secret land base somewhere. When President Roosevelt was asked by reporters where the bombers had launched from, he only answered that they came from our new secret base in Shangra-La, in reference to a mystical location from a popular movie of that time.

The Doolittle Raid did little physical damage to Tokyo, but the damage to the Japanese morale was immeasurable, as the Japanese people had been told that American bombers would never reach Japanese soil; and back home in America, the effect was just the opposite, as finally some good news came out of the war front in the Pacific. Two weeks later, all southern advances of the Japanese forces were halted during the first classic carrier battle of World War II at the Battle of the Coral Sea and then a few days after that, the Battle of Midway would begin.

Japanese Aircraft

As I've already stated, the Japanese had the edge in fighter aircraft from the beginning of the Pacific war, but as the war ran on into the later parts of 1942 and into 1943, their losses were mounting up. In May of 1942, the Battle of Midway occurred and it was the intent of the Japanese to attack and invade the small American held island of Midway to change the course of the Pacific war in one fell swoop. This single battle did just that, but not in the way the Japanese Imperial Naval forces had intended. After losing 4 of their front line carriers and the pilots/aircraft associated with those ships against the loss of a single carrier with the Americans (USS Yorktown), the Japanese Naval forces never again were capable of mounting an effective offensive against an American Naval target.

By 1944, at the battle of the Marianes (commonly known as the "Great Marianes Turkey Shoot"), the American Naval combat aircraft were superior to the Japanese aircraft in almost every way and the Japanese lost over 400 aircraft in a single day, to the American's loss of less than 30. Nearly all Japanese combat aircraft from WWII have been lost to history, but you can enjoy flying many of the famous WWII Japanese aircraft in FS2002.

At the beginning of World War II, many of the Japanese combat aircraft designs were formidable, but as the war progressed and with their lack of advancing their aircraft designs or capabilities, the Allies war machine drove over the Japanese Imperial Navy air forces with ease.

It's another story: The F4U Corsair

During the course of the Pacific War, the Japanese aircraft, once superior to anything the Americans had, lost their edge and this combined with the fact that as their losses mounted, so did the loss of their most experienced pilots. Meanwhile, the American Marine and Navy Air Forces we constantly receiving newer and better combat aircraft and in overwhelming numbers to boot. It was in 1943, when the Marine fighter groups received the first of the Chance Vought F4U bent-wing Corsairs, that the end of the war could be imagined. The F4U was intended as a Navy fighter and the bent-wing design was necessary because of its massive propeller at 14.5 feet in diameter (the prop diameter on a Bf-109 was only 9.2 feet for example). With a straight wing design, the landing gear would have been far too long to have had adequate strength for carrier landings; but by bending the wing into that distinctive gull-wing shape and mounting the gear at the bottom of the bend, the gear could be made short and very strong. Because of the high weight of its massive engine and propeller, the cockpit was mounted far back on the centerline of the fuselage, making carrier landings difficult due to the restricted forward view at low speeds and for this reason the US Navy would not approve it for carrier operations, at least not until the spring of 1945 after the British had shown the US how to land it.

Of all the fighter aircraft of all the nations involved in World War II, it was the F4U bent-wing Corsair that put up the best kill to loss ratio of 2,200 enemy aircraft shot down to a loss of 179 aircraft. Does this combat record mean that the F4U was the best fighter of World War II? No, it doesn't, because as impressive as those numbers are, the F4U was an advanced design heavily armored aircraft that was capable of 400 mph+ and most of the pilots that flew it had years of combat experience. The US Corsair pilot was often pitted against a Japanese combat aircraft that was three or more years old in its design and was flown by a young Japanese pilot with little or no combat experience.

Airpower concludes the war...

In June of 1944, an American Naval Task Force entered the waters surrounding Tinian Island in the Marianas Island chain and on the 19th, the greatest carrier battle of the Pacific Theatre of War would begin. Commonly referred to as "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot", the Japanese Imperial Navy sent 430 of their carrier based aircraft (over 2/3rds of their remaining naval aircraft in the world) against the invading American Naval forces and of these, 407 were shot down by US Marine and US Navy combat planes. The total US losses during this battle, 29! American combat aircraft also sank the last two remaining aircraft carriers in the Japanese Navy. By the end of the day, June the 19th, 1944 the Japanese Naval Air Forces ceased to exist.

One year later, on the early morning of August 6th, 1945 three Boeing B-29s of the 509th Composite Bombing Group would leave the North Field on Tinian Island. The lead bomber, flown by Col. Paul Tibbets, with the name "Enola Gay" hastily painted on its nose, dropped a single bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on August the 9th, another B-29 (Bock's Car) dropped a similar bomb on Nagasaki. Within days of these two bombings, the Emperor of Japan spoke to his people and said they would have to endure the unendurable and surrender to the Allied Armed Forces. Over the last 50+ years, many have debated rather it was really necessary for the United States to have used these weapons against an obviously defeated country, but those debates are with the knowledge of uninformed 20/20 hindsight. In consideration of the times, the American military and civilian leadership knew that of their many options, use of the bombs was required to shock the Japanese military leaders into surrendering, with the least amount of casualties—and thus ending World War II.

With the end of World War II, the importance of aircraft in the of making war, was firmly established and it had only been a little over 10 years since the fighter aircraft had gone from a biplane, barely able to achieve 200 mph, to a whole myriad of aircraft types, including 600 mph jets. In addition, the Atomic Age was born and this would fuel the Cold War for the next 40 years.

On August 6th, 1945 a single B-29, the "Enola Gay" piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima; 3 days later another B-29, "Bock's Car" dropped a second atomic weapon on the Japanese coastal city of Nagasaki. The "Enola Gay" is currently undergoing restoration for display at the new National Air & Space Museum, the Udvar-Hazy Center, scheduled to open in December, 2003.

For Flight Simulator, virtually every aircraft type from the war years has been developed by the 3rd party designers—though many were actually intended for CFS2, they still found their way onto the hard drives of those of us that enjoy flying warbirds.