Text 10252, 60 rader
Skriven 2007-01-16 19:35:23 av Wesley Struebing (13672.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: Suspension of disbelief - an open debate
====================================================
On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:37:18 GMT, Jeffrey MacHott
<Raguleader@netzero.net> wrote:

>Wesley Struebing wrote:
>> On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 05:12:54 GMT, Jeffrey MacHott
>> <Raguleader@netzero.net> wrote:
>> 
>> <snip>
>>>>> Well, true, it only bugged me because I happened to know about it, but I 
>>>>> still can't figure out how the character himself was supposed to have 
>>>>> come across that information, unless he spent some time after the Battle 
>>>>> of Britain fighting for the Chinese Imperial Air Force with Claire 
>>>>> Chennault (actually given everything else the characters did in the 
>>>>> movie, this explanation actually does make sense within the film's 
>>>>> internal context). <<
>>>> Well see, as a layman, I'd have just assumed (if someone had explained to
me 
>>>> that it was pretty unusual knowledge for him to have) that, as a pilot,
he'd 
>>>> be interested in the planes of other countries' armed forces.  No?
>>>>
>>>> Amy
>>> Yes, but generally speaking, none of the American pilots KNEW about the 
>>> performance of the Japanese planes.  That's why the first 6 months of 
>>> the war was so unpleasant, it wasn't that the Americans couldn't ever 
>>> get fighters up to fight the Japanese, it's that they always tried to 
>>> turn to stay with the enemy in a fight, which was not the P-40's 
>>> strongsuit, so they were getting shot out of the sky like flies.  It 
>>> wasn't until the Battle of Midway that they developed a suitable 
>>> strategy for dogfighting the Japanese beyond high-speed diving 
>>> hit-and-run attacks (the "Thatch Weave", which American pilots continued 
>>> to use against MiGs as late as the Vietnam War.  Think of the move Wedge 
>>> did to help Luke during Star Wars).
>> 
>> OK, with "generally speaking", but Americans DID know about the Zero.
>> They fought them in Burma and for the Chinese (check out Claire L.
>> Chennault).  Of course they weren't fighting "for America", but many
>> of the tactics they evolved stood us in good stead after Pearl Harbor
>> until our fighters improved.
>
>Well, like I said in a previous message (that no doubt probably won't be 
>posted for 20 minutes so nobody's read it yet), the Flying Tigers didn't 
>start operating in China until late in December of 1940, after the US 
>had declared war on Japan.  IIRC, the preferred tactics for American 
>pilots throughout the war was a combination of Chennault's hit-and-dive 
>tactics and John Thatch's weaving maneuver where one pilot baits a more 
>agile enemy plane into his buddy's gunsights.

Umm, Pearl Harbor was Dec. 7, 1941...(we did not declare war on Japan
before then)  Our pilots were flying in Burma before 1941...

--

Wes Struebing

I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America,
and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples,
promising liberty and justice for all.
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