battle of britian questions ....fyi

[loverboy1]

did pilots of that era ...if hit bad and couldnt bail out have any method of taking there lives with little pain ...ie ,,,, pills, capulses ...


i know in ww1- they used a gun to head ,,,appears from films ... what did the brits and alike have at there disposal



2.

the ballons they used , how high did they know to put em , and where they a good value deterent


3.

i got the move of bob ... i see they doused the planes with gasoline beofre a attack on the ground , my question might seem dumb , but why , since they likely get blown up anyway .. from bombing raids

tks

joshua

[chriseponymous]

I think they would of wanted to make sure the aircraft were destroyed so the Germans didnt get their hands on them. It would of been an advantage to them to have a flyable Hurricane. By having a "play about" in one the Germans would be able to discover what it was good at and more importantly not so good at. I think most pilots on both sides would of destroyed their aircraft if they had made a crash landing on enemy soil.

[loverboy1]

thank you for replying :


joshua

[Pat Pattle]

Hi Joshua,

There's a good site about the Ballons here:

http://www.bbrclub.org/Site%20Directory.htm

LW Pilots were credited with half a kill if they shot a balloon down.
(The ETO balloon models burn very well!)

I've read that they accounted for more allied losses than LW during the war and late-on it there were so many it closed much of the air-space to flying in the south east.

http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr332/Pat_Pattle/grab_022.jpg

[Capt. Winters]

Hi LB,

The choice to take your own life with a gun was purely that of the pilot in question. in WWII they were still issued side arms and should a pilot feel he may need to take this action then there was no official policy stopping him from carrying his sidearm aloft.

having read some very fine books about the men who did finally escape their planes after horrible burns etc, they all pretty much said that to give up just never entered their mind.

the main differance between WWI pilots and that of WWII pilots is:

In WWI if your plane cought fire then there was very little that could be done about it, and with out a parachute the desicion usually came down to:
1) do I go down with the plane,
2) do I jump to my death (or possibly a miraculas escape)
3) or do I shoot myself and get it over with quickly.

whereas in WWII the pilot had the option to try and get out of his burning/crippled plane and use his parachute, so goingg back to the books and what they said, most guys fought as hard as they could clinging to whatever life was left to get out of their burning or crippled planes. to hope against hope one might say..

as for balloons, they were valuable in the fact that they restricted the approach and heights at which bombers could attack industrial and military targets. so much so that the germans tried cable cutting devises on some of there He111's and Dorniers. they werent meant to destroy planes, that was an unfortunent side effect of flyingh into one of them.

regards Rob.

[phrog_phixer]

Speaking of the subject, does anyone have the texture files for the Groundcrew He 111H? I noticed they don't seem to exist, either in my installs or at Reg's site. The files in question are gc_cable_fender_t.dds and gc_cable_fender_s.dds

[phrog_phixer]

Oops, that would be the GC He 111H-8, cable fender files only....

[Capt. Winters]

Hi Phrog_phixer,

I have those textures mate, if you PM me your email I'll send them over to you.

regards Rob.

[Squiffy]

Trench warefare in the skies? Silly little bleeders.

:icon_lol: