Situational Awareness WW2 - Sthn vs Nthn hemisphere
Something I've long wondered.
During WW2, you had young lads from Australia and New Zealand shipped north to fly and fight in Europe.
And similar young lads shipped South to fly and fight in the Pacific below the equator.
How disorientating would it have been to have to fly and fight when the sun is in the wrong half of the sky?!
You've grown up with the sun in the North, suddenly it's in the South - you're flying a high performance fighter or light bomber and your life depends on situational awareness.
Or vice versa.
I have a very strong bump of direction, referenced to solar position and light - and always find when north of the equator I have to consciously remind myself that south is where the sun is.
It must have been potentially very disorientating at times, even with maps and compass.
Finished Rowland White's excellent book Mosquito - and thinking of those young kiwi guys at 50 feet, moving at over 300 knots with a couple of thousand horsepower under their left hand...!