Interesting article about Top Gun

[Max2147]

Originally Posted by Bewolf

Well, that is only half the truth. During the battle for France, battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa and the following russian campaigns, the Balkan and Africa campaigns of 1941/42, over the arctic sea, wherever you look german pilots had to cross front lines on a very regular basis. Only within the Reichsdefense timespan was bailing out over friendly territory a given. You ppl mustn't forget the german airwar was not limited to 1943/44 defense of continental Europe from the US. That was a factor only within the last 2 years of the war.

But even when they were over enemy lines the Luftwaffe was generally not very far from friendly territory. It wasn't like the American bomber escort missions where they had hundreds of miles and a body of water between them and friendly territory.

Pretty much every one of the top German aces crashed or was shot down around a dozen times.