![]() P51 loss rates started to climb when they went down to straf airfields, ground fire was a bigger danger than LW fighters. A bomb will destroy a tank if you hit it directly or very close to it but dive bombing a tank means flying straight at it and tanks usually had a lot of men with MGs around them. Rockets are hard to aim precisely, MGs and small calibre cannon cant destroy a tank. By June 1944, A-36As in Europe were replaced by Curtiss P-40s and Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. Despite establishing a "reputation for reliability and performance, "the one "Achilles' heel" of the A-36A (and the entire Mustang series) remained its vulnerable cooling system leading to many of the losses. German defenses in southern Italy included placing cables across hill tops to snare the attacking A-36As. ![]() The main reason for the attrition was the hazardous missions that placed the A-36A "on the deck" facing murderous ground fire. As fighting intensified in all theaters where the A-36A operated, the dive bomber began to suffer an alarming loss rate with 177 falling to enemy action. Russo from the 27th Fighter Bomber Group (ultimately, the only ace using the Allison-engined Mustang). That is impressive given that the weapon. Armys anti-tank arsenal through the mid-2030s. troops fire a German 88mm antiaircraft gun in the tank-killer mode. To be really pedantic, Tom Hanks and his group would not have come up against Tiger tanks either, as the story was set just a few days after D-Day itself, with the first Tigers arriving on the front in very late June / early July, having traveled from the south of France, and been involved in some brutality on the way, such as Oradour sur Glane.Īlthough a good movie overall, with the production team making great efforts at authenticity of equipment, action scenes etc, it was a movie, for entertainment and mass box-office returns, not a truly accurate documentary presentation.īesides dive bombing, the A-36A racked up aerial victories, totaling 84 enemy aircraft downed and creating an "ace", Lieutenant Michael T. The BGM-71 TOW ('Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missile will remain in the U.S. Theodor Busses Ninth Army, cobbled from untrained Luftwaffe ground units, sailors. ![]() ![]() But then, it was a movie trying to tell a partly-realistic story, whilst portraying a fairly authentic view of the action and battles of the time, employing the best available props and equipment the producers could obtain or manufacture. In reality, the aircraft used would more likely have been P-47's or Typhoons. ) for the visual effect required by the story line.Ī bit of a partial slip, historically, but much better than using Harvards (AT-6), as was the 'norm' in most war movies of the past ! Although not strictly accurate, the movie scene in question used the best available aircraft (Duxford based and, as Bill mentioned, in the colours of the 78th FG. ![]()
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