Barnorama All Fun In The Barn
These 24 incredible photos capture the heart-pounding intensity of WWII dogfights, showcasing the bravery and skill of the pilots who took to the skies.
B-17 Flying Fortress “Miss Donna Mae II” drifted out of position and under another B-17 during a mission over Germany. One of the bombs from “Trudy” tore off the horizontal stabilizer and sent the plane into an unrecoverable spin. All 11 crewmen were KIA. May 19, 1944.
B-17s being escorted by P-47 fighters on their way to Germany, 1943.
WW2 pilots faced a number of dangers during dogfights one of them being mid-air collisions with other airplanes, as was the case with this unfortunate airman, 1942.
Ensign Ardon Rector Ives escaped from his burning Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat when his plane burst into flames after crash landing on the USS Lexington on February 25, 1945. Ardon Ives survived only to be KIA in a dogfight with Japanese fighters just a few weeks later on March 18, 1945, aged 23.
A desperate attack by a lone Japanese Ki-46 Dinah aircraft on an American B-29 bomber, 29th Bomb Group, 20th Air Force, formation somewhere over the Mariana Islands, 1945.
Gun camera footage from a Hawker Typhoon of No. 266 Squadron RAF flown by Flight-Sergeant D Erasmus, showing his shooting down a Focke Wulf Fw 190 which had just shot down 266’s commanding officer.
P-47 Thunderbolt piloted by Captain Raymond M. Walsh of the 406th Fighter Group is silhouetted against the exploding ammunition truck he just strafed, France, 23 June 1944.
Fighter ace Francis ‘Gabby’ Gabreski in the cockpit of his P-47 Thunderbolt with his aerial victories emblazoned on the side. 1944.
Vapor trails from the dogfighting over St Paul’s Cathedral in London during the Blitz, 1940.
American AA crew set in front of a sky covered in German and American contrails left from dogfights. Christmas day, 1944.
Pilots of No. 488 (NZ) Squadron scramble to their Brewster Buffalo fighter planes at Kallang airfield in Singapore, circa 1941. The Buffalo was outclassed by the Japanese Zero, but in some cases a skilled pilot could best the Zero in a dogfight.
A Bell P-39 Airacobra fires all of its weapons at night.
Hurricane line during the Battle of Britain.
Gun camera stills from a VF-17’s F6F Okinawa dogfight. This Betty was carrying a rocket-powered self-destruct stand-off bomb called a Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka. It is just visible under the Betty’s centerline.
A P-51D Mustang nicknamed “Floogie II” of the 357th Fighter Group escorts a damaged B-17 Flying Fortress of the 96th Bomb Group, flown by “Woody” Woodson during a mission.
