Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: adrian@cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Us Fighter Designations Message-ID: <1990Aug31.031209.25301@cbnews.att.com> Date: 31 Aug 90 03:12:09 GMT References: <1990Aug10.010748.29824@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug22.025006.15437@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug28.030941.22149@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: Computer Science, Heriot-Watt U., Scotland Lines: 35 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Adrian Hurt In article <1990Aug28.030941.22149@cbnews.att.com> attcan!ron@uunet.UU.NET (Ron Joma) writes: > >In article <1990Aug22.025006.15437@cbnews.att.com>, adrian@cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt) writes: >> >> >> In the "633 Squadron" books, mention is made several times of German fighters >> having their guns angled up by about 2 degrees. The idea was to force pilots >> to fly under their targets, primarily bombers with less defensive firepower >> underneath than above. Of course, the "633 Squadron" series is fiction, but >> does anyone know if the Germans really did do this? >> > >There is mention of this technique being used by the Luftwaffe night fighters, >the so called schragge musik, literally jazz music, where the gun was pointed >up about 20 degrees, being mounted behind the pilot on ME 110's. I have heard of this system. I believe that some Ju 88 night fighters had it also; and the Japanese also did it with some of their twin-engined fighters. This was not what I meant, though. The book "633 Squadron", and one of its sequels, mentioned that FW 190's had their guns angled up by about 2 degrees (not 20) to force the pilot to fly below the bomber. It was mentioned when someone was being chased through a Norwegian fjord by such a fighter; he flew really low over a waterfall, the German pilot was concentrating too much on his target and not on where he was going, and flew into the waterfall. "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott Adrian Hurt | JANET: adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian | ARPA: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk