Thomas Dobney of the WWII RAF received his wings at the age of 15 and flew Whitney bombers for over 20 missions into Germany before being sprung. Honourably discharged, and rejoined when of legal age.
Re fighter scores on the Eastern, compared to Western fronts. Interview by Pat Malone with Eric Brown.
“Erich Hartmann was interesting – he was the Luftwaffe’s top scorer with 352 victories.
I quizzed him on how he got them and he was very open. The tactical naivete of the Russians was unbelievable, he said. ‘We were mainly operating against the Ilyushin 2, the Sturmovik,’ he said. ‘They would get themselves into huge formations, like the B17s, and they thought they defend themselves – but the B17 had huge firepower, ten guns on every ship. The Sturmovik had one .3 peashooter in the back. I didn’t mind them firing at me because the .3 did nothing against the 109. I waited until the aircraft filled my windscreen – not my gunsight, my windscreen – and I could get five or six in a sortie. They never even took evasive action, and half the pilots were women.’
“I asked him how he thought he’d have fared on the western front. ‘I know how I’d have fared, because I was sent there for a month,’ he said. ‘I was scared out of my wits and I never had a single kill.’”