Вот нашел интересный сайт

http://www.daveswarbirds.com/cactus/cactus.htm

И интервью Фосса
http://www.microsoft.com/games/comba...icles_foss.asp


Вот отрывок Фосс о Вайлдкэте :
"Interviewer: I wanted to get your opinion on the Wildcat. What kind of plane was it like to fly for you? What are your impressions in landing it and fighting in it?

Joe Foss: I loved that Grumman F-4F Wildcat. I just loved it. It was like a brother to me. It was tough, and I would be able to destroy the enemy with it, and I couldn't blame it for the speed it didn't have, but I felt at home.

I felt protected in there because of the durability, and it was a part of my body. It was just like I was going around. I was so familiar with it that it could be falling upside down, I never had any fear of unusual positions.

Of course, that probably dates back to when I was instructing for the last months that I instructed. I was an aerobatic instructor. I instructed all the slow rolls and snap rolls and all of this stuff. And I'd fly six hours a day. My eyeballs would be crossed by when you get done after a day's work like that, you know.

You do it once and the student does it once, then you do it twice because he doesn't get it yet, and maybe you'll do a half of one to get 'er there. I felt like that old Grumman was a part of my body, and that's why I felt so safe, really. Because I figured I could outrun 'em, if need be. So I twirl over and go straight down, but I found out they could catch you that way too.

That time that I was shot down and I evidently peed 'em off, I shot this plane down and then the other guys that were with him, three other guys that were with him, three other guys, came after me, and they really filled me with lead. Followed me right over the field."

А вот к слову о Бетти (вопреки тем фактам которые я писал раньше )


"Interviewer: Can you tell me what it was like to intercept and attack the Betty?

Joe Foss: Well, the Betty was a tougher airplane to knock down than a Zero. They weren't the same class at all. It was a good airplane for what they used it for. It was fast, and you see they came in there and we were having a tough time getting up where they were. They cruise in there and of course if they nosed over, you never did catch them. They just left you back there sucking air. I had to give them a good rating, with the Betty. "

Как Фосс атаковал Бетти:
"Interviewer: Did you have a preferred method of attack?

Joe Foss: Just be as close to 90 degrees deflection as you could get, because there's the Betty going out, and I loved to come, just try to run into it. On an overhead how you do that, you cruise out here, turn over on your back and come by going the opposite direction.

The closer I could come to it, the better I liked. You didn't have to use your sights, see? You could just pour the lead into that baby, and for them to get a shot at you, it's a cold day, when you come in.

Or the other is a high side, where you come go on a 90-degree. I preferred that; any time I got near a bomber of any kind. "


А здесь интересно про трейсеры :
"Interviewer: How far out would you open up on them?

Joe Foss: Well, I would say about 350 yards. If I was as smart at the start of my wartime as I was when I finished my duty, why I would have gotten a lot more airplanes.

I think that the biggest problem was that I had at least, and I think a lot of others have the same thing, we shot out of range. The airplane looked bigger, and if you shot at a Zero out of range, on a deflection shot, he was gone. He just saw those tracers, see, we loaded one tracer, one armor piercing and two incendiary. Any way you wanted to load.

But having a tracer in there, I really shouldn't have had any tracers, because they scared away the airplanes. I always said, you throw snowballs at 'em, and they didn't hang around after that. "