[deleted] t1_irg5zut wrote
Slight digression.
In 1944 a B26 crashed in a field near to where I currently live. All 5 crew died on impact. It is believed they mistook the field for a lake. The idea behind this is that there had been some heavy rain, leaving the field waterlogged. All the crew had removed their boots, which apparently was standard procedure for ditching in water. Their bodies were returned to America and there is a plaque in the field.
Raincoats_George t1_irga2sk wrote
There aren't a lot of things that id want to do in ww2 but being a pilot or in a plane would be so low on that list. So many guys died because of simple mistakes, malfunctions, or contact with the enemy.
danteheehaw t1_irh19tc wrote
The pacific theater was especially bad for pilots, at least at the start. The US started the war with late WWI era fighters in the pacific thinking that they were good enough to handle those "copycat" Japanese who were not intelligent enough to innovate.
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Oh boy were they wrong.
Mitthrawnuruo t1_irh8iyx wrote
The Japanese may not have been great at being innovative, but that didn’t make them dumb.
Before the First World War they very carefully sent military experts to study every military in the world.
And then modeled the Navy after the British, and the Army after the Germans…which is telling, since most of the west considered the French the premier Army in the world before WWI.
And the Germany army that showed up was easily one of the top three armies mankind as every organized, in - long history of war.
ItsallaboutProg t1_irkipn9 wrote
The French got their ass kicked by Germany 40 years earlier, and the British had the only standing professional army at the time, though it was small. Out of the 5 European powers the Germans were the rising country at the time. It was a pretty logical decision.
ATLtinyrick t1_irrifkd wrote
What model of aircraft are you referring to? Even at Pearl Harbor, the US primarily was flying the SBD Dauntless… which was introduced in 1940. I don’t think any nation were flying First World War vintage aircraft in the Second World War
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