Something of a media-inspired dramatisation I should think, but not inaccurate.
From what I've read over the last 40 years, no doubt there were a few BoB pilots who could shoot very well, a lot who were fairly ok and a few who were rubbish. Same pattern throughout the war, in all the airforces.
And the BoB pilots were not helped by the official training (Area attacks, tight formations, tactics, gun harmonisation policy, tiny 303 bullets etc etc).
And poor b******s like Geoff Wellum who'd never even seen a Spit before being posted to his squadron! What chance did they have of hitting anything? Staying alive would have been step one.
Dying on Combat Flight Sim a few times is scary enough thanks. All honour to the guys who had to do it for real.
But if the Me 109's had had drop tanks - now there's a scary thought.
Last edited by Sedbergh; 30th Oct 2007 at 14:43.