RetroWarTHINK 009: P-39X, America's Most Successful Fighter--but FUGLY!
To our horror, the fighter in WW2 with the best kill/loss ration is.....
The sexy, sleek, elegant P-51 Mustang.
Nope.
The in-your-face, huge nose-engined F4U Corsair.
No. No. No.
Brace yourself!
Its the Brewster Buffalo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_F2A_Buffalo
The Finns were the most successful with their Buffalos, flying them in combat against early Soviet fighters with excellent results.[4] During the Continuation War of 1941–1944, the B-239s (de-navalized F2A-1) operated by the Finnish Air Force proved capable of engaging and destroying most types of Soviet fighter aircraft operating against Finland at that time and achieving in the first phase of that conflict 32 Soviet aircraft shot down for every B-239 lost,[5] and producing 36 Buffalo "aces".[6]
Many Finnish pilots racked up enormous scores by using basic tactics against Soviet aircraft. The default tactic was the four-plane "parvi" (swarm), with a pair flying lower as bait, and a higher pair to dive on enemy interceptors. The Soviet Air Force was never able to counteract this tactic. The top-scoring B-239 pilot was Hans Wind, with 39 kills.[36] Lt Hans Wind, with six other Buffalos of LeLv 24, intercepted some 60 Soviet aircraft near Kronstad. Two Soviet Pe-2 bombers, one Soviet Hawker Hurricane fighter, and 12 I-16s were claimed for the loss of just one B-239 (BW-378).[37] After evaluation of claims against actual Soviet losses, aircraft BW-364 was found to have been used to achieve 42½ kills in total by all pilots operating it, possibly making it the highest-scoring fighter airframe in the history of air warfare.[citation needed] The top scoring Finnish ace, Ilmari Juutilainen, scored 34 of his 94½ kills in B-239s, including 28 in BW-364.[38]
The initial Buffalo interception of the first Japanese air raid was led by Major Floyd B. Parks, whose 13-aircraft division did not fly in paired flights of mutually supporting aircraft. After attacking a formation of 30–40 Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers escorted by 36 Zeros, the marines, flying in two divisions of aircraft, downed several Japanese bombers before the escorting Zeros reacted; a furious dogfight developed. Thirteen out of 20 Buffalos were lost;[73] of the six Wildcats, only two remained flyable at the end of the mission. The losses included the marine air commander, Major Parks, who bailed out of his burning Buffalo, only to be strafed by Zeros after parachuting into the sea.[67]
The Finnish Air Force produced 36 Buffalo aces. The top three were Capt. Hans Wind, with 39 Buffalo air victories (out of 75), WO Eino Ilmari Juutilainen, with 34 (out of 94) and Capt. Jorma Karhunen, with 25.5 (out of 31.5). First Lt Lauri Nissinen also had victories in the type (22.5 out of 32.5).[6]
The non-Finnish Buffalo aces were: Geoff Fisken (RNZAF), with six air victories, and Doug Vanderfield (RAAF) with five individual kills, plus one shared. Alf Clare (RAAF) and Maurice Holder (RAF) had five victories each.[58][77]
Only 509 Buffaloes were produced, yet the type produced 40 aces. This may well be the highest ratio of aces per number of aircraft produced, of any production fighter plane.
****
What?
The WW2 U.S. fighter that destroyed the most enemy aircraft in air-to-air combats:
The P-39 AiraCobra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-39_Airacobra
The P-39 was used by the Soviet Air Force, and enabled individual Soviet pilots to collect the highest number of kills attributed to any U.S. fighter type flown by any air force in any conflict.[N 2] Other major users of the type included the Free French, the Royal Air Force, the United States Army Air Forces, and the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force.[5]
Designed by Bell Aircraft, it had an innovative layout, with the engine installed in the center fuselage, behind the pilot, and driving a tractor propeller with a long shaft. It was also the first fighter fitted with a tricycle undercarriage.[6] Although its mid-engine placement was innovative, the P-39 design was handicapped by the absence of an efficient turbo-supercharger, preventing it from performing high-altitude work. For this reason it was rejected by the RAF for use over western Europe but adopted by the USSR, where most air combat took place at medium and lower altitudes.
****
How can this reality be?
Other fighters were marginally more capable.
Note I said "marginal". This is they key. What are the margins of weaponry/equipment? can superior TTPE3 effort use them to achieve victory?
Human Effort Maximizes--or Minimizes What's There
Knowing America is indeed an urban-pampered, weak-willed nation of lying BS artists many abject HEDONISTS seeking pleasure level 7+ daily knowing if sent to war they will survive because they will be rotated out, we always argue and fight for the BEST WEAPONRY possible before the war using GIDO.
However, if you know YOU ARE NOT GOING HOME UNLESS YOU WIN, then you have the Finns and the Soviet Russians flying Brewster Buffalos and P-39s and GETTING MORE RESULTS than the less stoical, but better-equipped Americans. This is why there were dozens of German fighter aces with way over the mere 40 kills of USAAF top gun, Major Richard Bong--Hartmann had 352 plus victories. However, there are sooo many American BS artists concocting all sorts of excuses for doing nothing aka complacency, its difficult to get any pre-war, military excellence as the life's unsung heroic, work of genius 1LT Kelsey proves vis-a-vis our earlier, P-38X presentation.
https://1sttac.blogspot.com/2020/05/retrowarthink007-p-38-doesnt-look-right.html
The immoral and corrupt USMIL bureaucracy cynically used 1LT Kelsey's brilliance then refused to RESPECT and REWARD him by not even letting him retire as a Brigadier General. Disgraceful.
What a bunch of ZERO SUM snobfucks!
One of the "intellectual dust bins" as BlacktailFA calls them is the lie "American pilots are soooo much better trained" yadda yadda even though today the CHICOM pilots have more flight hours per month. The America-worshiping status quo retards will always invoke the supposedly superior FIDO effort of our pilots to deny systemic problems (that need GIDO to solve) will lead to our defeat like static air bases and aircraft with non-folding wings for ground mobility to evade PDM and TFS fires on the 720 degree Non-Linear Battlefield (NLB). Remember, despite all the Nazi, fascist stoical pilot effort, they STILL LOST THE WAR.
If 1LT Kelsey were in the FINNISH Air Force they'd have made statues of him and put him in charge of their post-war jet air force for maximum effect. As the French intelligence officer noted in Chapter 2 of Farewell, America the USA trods real talent & genius under foot out of petty envy. A rising tide lifts ALL boats--right-wing, immoral stoic snobs refuse to realize this in their us vs. them games.
1LT Kelsey Not there to Save-the-Day with the P-39 for American Service
You'll recall 1LT Kelsey was away in the U.K. creating ferry flights from CONUS to avoid losing aircraft in ships to German U-Boats and long-range maritime patrol bomber attacks when the stupid USAAC/USAAF bureaucracy went cheapskate and removed a turbo supercharger from the P-39 so it would have adequate high-altitude, GeoStrategic bomber escort performance.
Sadled then with low-altitude missions, even though highly successful in ground attack with its 37mm autocannon and twin .50 caliber heavy machine guns firing thru the nose, the P-39 even though we had an American Ace and others with air-to-air kills with it, was disliked and disparaged and has a bad reputation only the Brewster Buffalo exceeds.
Knowing the narcissistic vanity that has constantly driven the un-professional USMIL, I propose the REAL REASON the P-39 was disliked is the same the Buffalo was hated--THEY ARE BOTH FUCKING UGLY (UGLY). The Buffalo is fucking fat and stubby with a wide air-cooled engine. The P-39 has this FUGLY rounded vertical fin that makes the whole plane look old-fashioned and dated. Sort of like how the triangle tailed F-102 Delta Dagger looks so awful they tried to PAINT it away by coloring a straight line across where the fin should have stopped instead of continuing into a triangle. Yukkk.
Let's Re-Think the P-39X...
So give it the turbo supercharged needed for high-altitude work. Give it a squared-off vertical fin like the XP-39E had. Replace the non-jettisoning bad visibility cockpit with a 360 degree view, bubble canopy. You can still have a half-door for entry/exit--but make it an air deflector when hydraulically-opened for bail-outs. Fold the wings for ground mobility to avoid being destroyed-on-the-ground.
Basically...the P-39X becomes a...
P-51 Mustang--but with heavier armament.
Wow. Imagine that!
Airborne!
Glossary
FIDO: Fuck It, Drive On
GIDO: Get-It, Drive On
PDM: Precision Directed Munitions
TFS: Terrain Firepower Saturation
CONUS: CONtinental United States
TTPE3: Tactics, Techniques, Procedures, Equipment, Environment, Enemy
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