"Dogfights: The Greatest Air Battles" on tonight!!

Fri Sep 15, 2006 3:16 pm

Tonight on the History Channel is a rerun of the 2 hour show "Dogfights". It covers great dogfights from WWl to Vietnam through interviews and CGI. Excellent show if you've never seen it. This will be my third time!!!!! Starts at 8:00 Pacific time....This show will also be shown again at 12:00 AM Eastern tonight.....

Sun Sep 17, 2006 9:58 am

Thanks for the heads up - I caught most of it because of your notice.

I've seen those episodes before, but I never get tired of seeing Bud Anderson's account of his 6th victory (IIRC) - that Me 109 pilot was a killer, and luckily for Bud, he had it "going on" that day. First time I saw it, I swore I'd paint the scene (when they were both going straight up with Bud hoping the Me jock would stall first

), and I hereby reaffirm that 'swear'! :lol:

Thx again,

Wade

Sun Sep 17, 2006 12:07 pm

LOL! Yeah, it's so good.... And from what I've seen of your work, you'd do it justice!!!!! Take care Wade....

Sun Sep 17, 2006 5:04 pm

Here's a scan of Anderson's Encounter Report for that day ... from the wonderful site, http://www.spitfireperformance.com/

Wade

Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:58 pm

The boys and I have seen this episode about 5 times now and it never gets old. I absolutely love the computer enhanced reenactments which are top quality.

If I had to pick the best I'd have to go with Rickenbacher....with Bud Anderson's story coming in a close second. Too bad they couldn't make this into a series with each episode featuring a different selection of dogfights from each major conflict!!!

John

Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:18 pm

I enjoyed that show also. The computer graphically created sequences are very good.

Overall a very good show - a few irritating quirks like the repeated film sequences of MiG-17s when they were showcasing the Korea F-86/MiG-15 battles.

Interesting to see the pre-Congressional downfall interviews of "Duke" Cunningham.

Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:22 pm

I enjoyed that show, but after hearing how much of a BSer with the facts Cunningham was (and I'm not talking about his criminal problems but him lying about his own stories) I'm now more than a little skeptical about his story on that show, especially the part about the airplane's tail blowing off.

JH

Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:42 pm

JohnH wrote:I enjoyed that show, but after hearing how much of a BSer with the facts Cunningham was (and I'm not talking about his criminal problems but him lying about his own stories) I'm now more than a little skeptical about his story on that show, especially the part about the airplane's tail blowing off.

JH

Best part is scholarly research indicates there never was a "Col. Tomb"! I've seen that several times over the years.

Shooting down five and making 'ace', the Vietnam US-equivilent of a WWII Don Gentile, Francis Gabreski or Robert S. Johnson, or Korean War Joe McConnell or Manuel Fernandez, something relatively few individuals will ever - ever - do wasn't enough; the guy had to embellish the facts with the "Tomb" crap.

Glad I never fell for the Cunningham-worship angle and kept my brushes away from depicting his victories.

Wade

Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:28 pm

Imagine my surprise when a guy at work, knowing I like warbirds, taped this show for me and brought it to me at work! I don't have history channel but immediately put two and two together as you guys had been talking about this show and I knew it was the same one...it was a great show....only question....did Anderson's P-51 only have 4 .50 cal guns at that time?

Mark

Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:42 pm

A quick check of Bud's site, one of the most comprehensive of it's type, shows that he flew a B-model at the time of this action (4 .50s).

Reading the 4th FG histories shows that the 4th, by way of comparison, got their first six-gun bubbletop D-models right before D-Day, June 6th. I'm sure the time period was near the same for Bud's 357th Fighter Group.

As you may know, Bud returned for a second tour, this time flying a D-model. In his talks he always mentions how he casually remarked one day to his ground crew how their kite would look nice in NMF, i.e., sans paint. He still chokes up when he recalls that he showed up the next morning for a mission and the crew was standing around with bleeding hands from staying up all night removing the paint - thus he flew OLD CROW (the bubbletop variety) as an OD/NG (or RAF DG/Ocean whatever - check the site!), then NMF bird.

Link to Bud's site and OLD CROW info:
http://cebudanderson.com/modelguide.htm

Wade

Sun Nov 26, 2006 10:26 am

I am really in love with this show. I'm making sure to burn them off on DVD so I can watch them repeatedly while I work on the registry

Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:24 pm

I just saw this for the first time on my Tivo. What a great show! This episode was on Hellcats. Can't wait to see the rest.

Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:33 pm

I'm not sure Cunningham created Col. Tomb. He may have been a creation of the Navy P.R. people. Duke certainly repeated it enough on his own.

As far as the accounts of the fight and the breakup of Showtime 100 they were confirmed by Willie Driscoll. Willie is well respected and I believe he is still a consultant with the Top Gun program. The Ace backseaters I've met don't seem to suffer from the same personality issues as the front seaters.

Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:34 pm

Mark, re Bud Andersons story, there also may have been a ghostwriter or editor, I know his book has some facts not right. For instance he writes about his flight in a Spitfire and the prop turning the opposite way from a Mustang, which of course is not true.The show I saw was on the Hellcat and it sounds like a pretty effective fighter down low. I just wish they wouldn't drag the story out so long. I wonder if Japanese ever had self sealing tanks?