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A few years ago, I was restoring a 1943 American halftrack. I received a new old throwout bearing in its original box from the 40s. The bearing was wrapped in a 1943 November 11 Toledo Times front page newspaper. There was a large picture of Lt. Bong shaking hands with General MacArthur. I kept it
I am from WI and still visit regularly. Have been on base at Luke. I have seen his P-38 Marge in Oshkosh. It's impossible not to feel a connection. Much respect Mr Bong. RIP Sir.
YOU do , Major BONG, never touched that P-38 right ? the ONLY p-38 left that we KNOW Major BONG ever flew, is the P-38 at the SMITHSONIAN, the FLIGHT LOGBOOK in that AIRPLANE shows a Major, DICK BONG flew it on a war BOND tour.
Richard Bo g was a real American Hero. One of Wisconsins favorite sons. Thank you Mr Bong for your service. Im proud to have you as a Wisconsin Native!❤
Brutal armament arrangements: 4x .50 cal's and a 20mm cannon all packed in an area about the size of an average serving platter. Thanks for your service and sacrifice Captain Bong, Semper Fidelis.
The “Winchester” deer rifle shown at 5:18 is not a Winchester, but a Savage Model 1899 lever rifle. The Savage 99 was arguably the best lever rifle of the 20th century, and highly favored in the Northwoods where Dick Bong learned to shoot.
Most favored because they had a rotary magazine, and hence could utilize more aerodynamic bullet shapes as opposed to the tubular magazine Winchester with required a blunt-nosed round to keep from potentially setting the primer off on one of the rounds during a hard jarring, or recoil.
very interesting documentary about a plane i've heard about all my life-the p-38 lightning. my great grandfather succeeded wiley post as lockheed's top test pilot and had flown this plane numerous times before the end of his flight career in 1941, and advertised this beast of a plane with a camel's cigarette in hand. at 21 now, i hope to become half the pilot he was.
Richard and my grandfather were great friends, George Koehne JR. both flew throughout WW2, and both were test pilots after the war. the main difference was that my grandfather was a bomber pilot and Bong was a fighter pilot, but either way they were brothers from another mother!
How is it possible that they were both test pilots after the war? The narrator stated that Bong died o the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima Japan.
My Favorite Fighter of WW2, the P-38 was very underrated in the Aviation Historical books after the War ended, and that's a darned shame, for such a great fighter plane, that led us to Fighter Jet Development. 👍👍🤴👑
Greg "Pappy" Boington, was a legend in his own mind. Bong is the real thing, and he did it in a P-38 Lightning. Which was a great plane. May he rest in Peace, he done good.
there was NOTHING FAKE about PAPPY BOYINGTON ! I dont know where you get your INFO or lack of info, PAPPY had an ALCOHOL problem, but do NOT for one minute think he was a Fake.the Japanese wanted to kill him Badly he was responsible for hurting them Badly.
Say what you will about "Boington, he was a great fighter pilot. I doubt you flew in combat. What gives you the right to judge him so patheticly. I bet you are a bully and coward... Check Six!
I wonder what it is that makes some pilots the cream of the crop? A combo of intelligence, athleticism, hand eye coordination, calm under fire, adrenaline, fearlessness, complete trust of one’s own ability or what?
So I heard one of the most important skill is to be a good shot. Nearly every ace was a good shot before they were fighter pilots. I think it was Eric Brown RAF said it.
Love this history/story about the American ace of aces, but what about Tom Macguire..nut even a news reel? I haven't seen any coverage about this famous American ace.
When I was a kid our family was stationed at Misawa AB, Japan 🇯🇵 (1979-83). The movie theatre on base was named The Richard Bong Theater. Many years later while in AFJROTC I discovered who he was and remembered that movie theater. Not sure why the theater was named after him but the name always stuck with me because as a kid I always thought it was a “kinda funny” name. Evidently some Japanese construction workers found a cave beneath it where some remains of ancient Japanese were discovered.
I notice that the narration avoids stating losses at Ploesti. That would not have served the propaganda purpose of the film. Also Also boasts about the P-38's diving ability--actually a critical weakness when it led to compressibility that was ultimately addressed by adding dive flaps. And is that Uncle Ron on the narration? Still a pretty amazing bird all in all.
Correct. It is strictly a military award. The MOH is "Presented by the President of the US in the name of the US Congress". Also, the reverse of the Valor bar on the Army (Air Corps/Air Force recipients also received the same version up until 1965 when the US Air Force began issuing it's own version) MOH has "The Congress To" engraved on it, so that accounts for the screw ups I guess. The Navy's MOH has never mentioned Congress, despite being a year older than the Army's.
not sure if serious- some highly experienced instructor pilots had ancillary duty to evaluate student pilots being trained by school staff instructors. these "check" pilots would then pass or fail the student to proceed to the next level of instruction.
Top German Aces started fighting in the 1930s and tallied hundreds of kills. They also were not allowed to stop fighting due to few replacements. Just another reason Germany lost.
Daaa, how is serving as a test pilot flying new experimental aircraft a safe assignment??? Why didn't they have him serve as commander and lead trainer at of one of the large flight training schools and have him share his immense knowledge and experience with the next generation of new US pilots.
Hi, P38 suffered 3 inconvenients in ETO. The British supply system was faulty. They issued 8th air force fighters with 87 degrees octane fuel. That caused fouled spark plugs that not only froze the engine, but pilots for this reason had to apply full power to get back home,wich caused fuel shortage in mid flight. You're right also for cooling system. It took several weeks to technical officers to know the cause of engine seizing. Many a pilot had BOTH engines cutting out above occupied territories. On top of that, German Focke wulfs had better flaps and could out turn P38. Pilots were not stupid and refused horizontal dogs fighting with them, although difficult when necessary to help a winger in danger.
Failure is like onions they say. That was true of the P-38 in ETO. In many cases the things they did to prevent problems were making the problems worse. Excessive cooling was leading to bad fuel distribution so that some cylinders were so rich they fowled plugs while other cylinders were at the same time running lean and burning pistons. The normal fix for burned pistons is run richer and cooler and that made the problem worse. It was years before the problems were fully understood. Fuel was condensing out in the intercooler and not being delivered equally to the cylinders. They needed to close the intercooler flaps and raise temperature so the fuel would vaporize better and get to all the cylinders. Now with equal fuel getting to the cylinders they could lean the mixture and the plug fowling was largely eliminated and range was improved too. This was not fully understood until they had been withdrawn from European bomber escort and was a problem that was most troublesome on those cold high altitude escort missions. In addition their was the sonic compressability issues that caused many P-38 to dive out of control. Lockheed produced a modification to eliminate this and kits to fit it to the planes in England but guess what? They were shipped over by air in one plane and the RAF Western Approaches patrol aircraft mistook it for a German patrol plane and shot it down. Eighth Air Force ordered all the P-38 off of escort missions before replacement modification kits could be delivered.
@@keithstudly6071 All you say is right. I forgot to mention fouled spark plugs which was a consequence of these disfunctionning. What was also more than irritating was windscreen de-icing above 10000 ft that was not always working fine. I would have preferred the good fat, reliable P47.
My Dad was helping building the Bong Air Base ìn 1956 or maybe 57 somewhere around MILWAUKEE WHICH I learned ĺater that it was never finished Ŕ I P R Bong
Hi Eric In the picture of General Arnold and Col Bong the other pilot is Robert Johnson of the 56 th he was one of the Top Aces in the European Theater and the author of the Great book Thunderbolt
It's the height of lunacy to think that a test pilot's job is low-risk. Just the opposite, particularly with a very early jet plane. I realize it's all 20/20 hindisight now, but how could they do that to someone with such a distinguished war record? And what became of his beloved wife Marge? She had to have been crushed by his death, particularly so soon after they were married.
Pretty typical United States Army hero in that he was very modest but probably the best fighter pilot of the war on either side. This can be said because the United States is only in the war must have half the time that the Germans were. Yes and I know that some Germans has had a lot or kills however they were in the war a lot longer and flew against very very very inferior Russian aircraft for the most part. Japanese zero was far superior to anything the Russians had as far as dog fighting capability.
An incredible 40 aircraft - an ace - an unbelievable pilot - now lets see - which is bigger the incredible 40 that bong downed or the 352 that the Luftwaffe ace Eric Hartmann downed - the list of the finest is extensive with Barkhorn at 301, All at 275, Kittel at 267, Nowotny at 258, Bar at 220 all flying either the 109 or the 190. His answer as how he was successful seemed obvious until you consider the nerves it required - I do not fire until the enemy is so close that they occupy the entire vision of the front windscreen.
The germans didn't rotate their pilots, that's why most of them died and a huge amount of their kills were against relatively primitive soviet aircraft
@@kenneth9874 That, and the notzys were the grand-champions of inflating kill claims. A significant number of Marseilles' kills were made when there were no allied aircraft in the area.
He shot down 40 enemy airplanes, that's amazing. Erich Hartman of the Luftwaffe shot down 352 enemy airplanes, Piloting his BF 109 Messerschmitt, that's roughly 8 times more. I think that would make Erich the "ace of aces". Good work for Richard but lets give credit where credit is due to both pilot and machine.
The German pilot probably started when Poland was invaded and fought thru out the war. Bong didn't have his first combat flight until 1943. The German pilot probably got his kills against lesser planes and pilots early in the war. How did he do against British, Polish in British planes, Canadian and American pilots. American AAF brass, having almost unlimited planes and pilots knew of Bongs value back in the U.S. for morale that they did everything the could to keep him out of the sky. Who knows how many kills Bong would of had if he flew under the same conditions as Hartman.
Hartmann flew against mostly inferior pilots and planes, he flew in combat for at least two more years than Bong. And at least half of Hartman's claims are only questionably verified at best. Even those who flew with him stated he claimed twice what he actually did.
Isn't it just great to know that AA an American Co is spending all that money out of the country and buying foreign aircraft and not keeping the money they make here to support US companies.
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A few years ago, I was restoring a 1943 American halftrack. I received a new old throwout bearing in its original box from the 40s. The bearing was wrapped in a 1943 November 11 Toledo Times front page newspaper. There was a large picture of Lt. Bong shaking hands with General MacArthur. I kept it
Smart thing to do!
Look up George "Buzz" Beurling. The savior of Malta.
Wow !!! Thats pretty damn cool.
Priceless museum level clipping!
I am from WI and still visit regularly. Have been on base at Luke. I have seen his P-38 Marge in Oshkosh. It's impossible not to feel a connection. Much respect Mr Bong. RIP Sir.
YOU do , Major BONG, never touched that P-38 right ? the ONLY p-38 left that we KNOW Major BONG ever flew, is the P-38 at the SMITHSONIAN, the FLIGHT LOGBOOK in that AIRPLANE shows a Major, DICK BONG flew it on a war BOND tour.
Richard Bo g was a real American Hero. One of Wisconsins favorite sons. Thank you Mr Bong for your service. Im proud to have you as a Wisconsin Native!❤
Rumor has it that when he shot down an enemy aircraft he would boisterously holler “You just got SMOKED by The BONG!!!”
Richard Bong, has a bridge named after him, in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. He flew a lot of missions from Garbutt air field, in WW2.
Had a certain type of pot pipe named after him too.
@@Mrbfgray That's disrespectful....and, uh, kind of funny, too.😉
@@IncogNito-gg6uh NO disrespect but he had the nickname Bud.
When I first started reading, I thought how disrespectful.
But then I kept reading and found myself on the floor.
Wanting more.
Also, a bridge in Duluth, mn
A true American Hero, loved his story!""THANKS FOR SHARING!""
Thank you for watching!
Brutal armament arrangements: 4x .50 cal's and a 20mm cannon all packed in an area about the size of an average serving platter. Thanks for your service and sacrifice Captain Bong, Semper Fidelis.
Right on. Great ob. You could aim the 20 like a rifle in close. Devestating
My great Uncle had Richard Bong as a pilot student.
The “Winchester” deer rifle shown at 5:18 is not a Winchester, but a Savage Model 1899 lever rifle. The Savage 99 was arguably the best lever rifle of the 20th century, and highly favored in the Northwoods where Dick Bong learned to shoot.
Most favored because they had a rotary magazine, and hence could utilize more aerodynamic bullet shapes as opposed to the tubular magazine Winchester with required a blunt-nosed round to keep from potentially setting the primer off on one of the rounds during a hard jarring, or recoil.
Brilliant and very painful story, read the book about him Race of Aces. The conditions they had to endure in PNG were horrendous.
very interesting documentary about a plane i've heard about all my life-the p-38 lightning.
my great grandfather succeeded wiley post as lockheed's top test pilot and had flown this plane numerous times before the end of his flight career in 1941, and advertised this beast of a plane with a camel's cigarette in hand. at 21 now, i hope to become half the pilot he was.
YOUR Great Grandfather Was Tony LeVier ?
No doubt whatsoever, one of the best fighter pilots that ever lived. God bless you sir. Rip. ♥️🙏♥️🙏♥️🙏 🫡 🇺🇸
He has a bridge named after him that connects Duluth, MN and Superior, Wi. It's scary in snowy/icy weather.
Sounds like that bridge is one slick Bong…
Richard and my grandfather were great friends, George Koehne JR. both flew throughout WW2, and both were test pilots after the war. the main difference was that my grandfather was a bomber pilot and Bong was a fighter pilot, but either way they were brothers from another mother!
Yes, Brothers, God bless.
How is it possible that they were both test pilots after the war? The narrator stated that Bong died o
the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima Japan.
Has always been one of my fav airplanes, the sleek design and the Firepower. 🇺🇸
My Favorite Fighter of WW2, the P-38 was very underrated in the Aviation Historical books after the War ended, and that's a darned shame, for such a great fighter plane, that led us to Fighter Jet Development. 👍👍🤴👑
Great story. Tragic ending. Simply leaves you with a feeling that he was a man for the time. The exact time.
Without a doubt, Bong was definitely "the MAN."
The 38 was prob our best fighter. The best is always under appreciated
P51 is my favorite, but the P38 and Hellcat were bad ass as well!
The P38 was the only American fighter that was in service from the begining of the war to the end of the war. @RMTStudios
That's great man pulling A Tom Cruise 😅 When I was a kid I made a couple of models of the P38 just something about it.I loved
Thanks!
Thank you!
Greg "Pappy" Boington, was a legend in his own mind. Bong is the real thing, and he did it in a P-38 Lightning. Which was a great plane. May he rest in Peace, he done good.
Lol this is brilliant, I have to investigate this now 😂
there was NOTHING FAKE about PAPPY BOYINGTON ! I dont know where you get your INFO or lack of info, PAPPY had an ALCOHOL problem, but do NOT for one minute think he was a Fake.the Japanese wanted to kill him Badly he was responsible for hurting them Badly.
Say what you will about "Boington, he was a great fighter pilot. I doubt you flew in combat. What gives you the right to judge him so patheticly. I bet you are a bully and coward... Check Six!
I wonder what it is that makes some pilots the cream of the crop? A combo of intelligence, athleticism, hand eye coordination, calm under fire, adrenaline, fearlessness, complete trust of one’s own ability or what?
So I heard one of the most important skill is to be a good shot. Nearly every ace was a good shot before they were fighter pilots.
I think it was Eric Brown RAF said it.
Love this history/story about the American ace of aces, but what about Tom Macguire..nut even a news reel? I haven't seen any coverage about this famous American ace.
Wow a story of America's Albert Ball! I have known about this guy for years . He reminds me of Audie Murphy.
When I was a kid our family was stationed at Misawa AB, Japan 🇯🇵 (1979-83). The movie theatre on base was named The Richard Bong Theater. Many years later while in AFJROTC I discovered who he was and remembered that movie theater. Not sure why the theater was named after him but the name always stuck with me because as a kid I always thought it was a “kinda funny” name.
Evidently some Japanese construction workers found a cave beneath it where some remains of ancient Japanese were discovered.
Bong did NOT hunt with a Winchester as stated. The gun in the picture is a Savage 1899 in .300 Savage caliber.
This was my first model airplane when I was a kid!! Of course I crashed it, haha. Not a beginner's model, haha..I just loved the looks of it!:)
So sad left a widow so early, RIP Major Bong
Thanks to Burt Rutan for bringing the twin boom designs back.
RIP RICHARD BONG THE ABSOLUTE BEST PILOT OF WWII
Dick Bong. Respect. 🫡
"Bing" Bong ! Top Notch !
I notice that the narration avoids stating losses at Ploesti. That would not have served the propaganda purpose of the film. Also Also boasts about the P-38's diving ability--actually a critical weakness when it led to compressibility that was ultimately addressed by adding dive flaps. And is that Uncle Ron on the narration?
Still a pretty amazing bird all in all.
Dick Bong. You just know a man with that name is gonna be LEGENDARY.
Just south of Milwaukee Wis. on the way to Illinoise, there is a National Park Named Bong Park, Oh the hippies were happy about that !
Many of those park signs were stolen.
Amazing video. A wonderful story, R.I.P, sir.
🙈🙉🙊 😎 🇺🇸
An excellent video, EXCEPT there’s no congressional in the Medal of Honor!
You're right, but good luck convincing people to stop calling it that.
Correct. It is strictly a military award. The MOH is "Presented by the President of the US in the name of the US Congress". Also, the reverse of the Valor bar on the Army (Air Corps/Air Force recipients also received the same version up until 1965 when the US Air Force began issuing it's own version) MOH has "The Congress To" engraved on it, so that accounts for the screw ups I guess. The Navy's MOH has never mentioned Congress, despite being a year older than the Army's.
Well done, Sir.
The .45 was a 1911, not a revolver.
He was really good as a pilot.
I thoroughly enjoyed this! Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
Who was this Czech pilot on P 38 who trained with Bong?
not sure if serious- some highly experienced instructor pilots had ancillary duty to evaluate student pilots being trained by school staff instructors. these "check" pilots would then pass or fail the student to proceed to the next level of instruction.
Top German Aces started fighting in the 1930s and tallied hundreds of kills. They also were not allowed to stop fighting due to few replacements. Just another reason Germany lost.
They were better at inflating their scores than the allies, too.
There is a Richard Bong museum in Duluth, Minnesota.
Daaa, how is serving as a test pilot flying new experimental aircraft a safe assignment??? Why didn't they have him serve as commander and lead trainer at of one of the large flight training schools and have him share his immense knowledge and experience with the next generation of new US pilots.
I still refer to Richard bong as the "last real gunfighter"
this Bong had a LOT of hits
I was going to make a joke about good old Dick Bong, but I see I've been beaten to the punchline.
I salute you
Are: belly tanks: Lindbergh came thru the islands and taught the P38 pilots how to extend the range of their flights.
I didn't know the reason the P-38 was unfit for combat in Europe because of the cooling system freezing up.
Hi,
P38 suffered 3 inconvenients in ETO.
The British supply system was faulty.
They issued 8th air force fighters with 87 degrees octane fuel.
That caused fouled spark plugs that not only froze the engine, but pilots for this reason had to apply full power to get back home,wich caused fuel shortage in mid flight.
You're right also for cooling system.
It took several weeks to technical officers to know the cause of engine seizing.
Many a pilot had BOTH engines cutting out above occupied territories.
On top of that, German Focke wulfs had better flaps and could out turn P38.
Pilots were not stupid and refused horizontal dogs fighting with them, although difficult when necessary to help a winger in danger.
Failure is like onions they say. That was true of the P-38 in ETO. In many cases the things they did to prevent problems were making the problems worse. Excessive cooling was leading to bad fuel distribution so that some cylinders were so rich they fowled plugs while other cylinders were at the same time running lean and burning pistons. The normal fix for burned pistons is run richer and cooler and that made the problem worse. It was years before the problems were fully understood. Fuel was condensing out in the intercooler and not being delivered equally to the cylinders. They needed to close the intercooler flaps and raise temperature so the fuel would vaporize better and get to all the cylinders. Now with equal fuel getting to the cylinders they could lean the mixture and the plug fowling was largely eliminated and range was improved too. This was not fully understood until they had been withdrawn from European bomber escort and was a problem that was most troublesome on those cold high altitude escort missions. In addition their was the sonic compressability issues that caused many P-38 to dive out of control. Lockheed produced a modification to eliminate this and kits to fit it to the planes in England but guess what? They were shipped over by air in one plane and the RAF Western Approaches patrol aircraft mistook it for a German patrol plane and shot it down. Eighth Air Force ordered all the P-38 off of escort missions before replacement modification kits could be delivered.
@@keithstudly6071
All you say is right.
I forgot to mention fouled spark plugs which was a consequence of these disfunctionning.
What was also more than irritating was windscreen de-icing above 10000 ft that was not always working fine.
I would have preferred the good fat, reliable P47.
I guess Robin Olds didn't get the memo😂
I think it was mostly the turbo intercoolers in the wings of the early models. Later versions used redesigned intercoolers to the engine nacelles.
Ironic that there is a Mutsubishi ad on this You Tube.
🤔 😰
Wow, with a last name like like Bong you can definitely get some views. Richard was definitely a high flyer.
My Dad was helping building the Bong Air Base ìn 1956 or maybe 57 somewhere around MILWAUKEE WHICH I learned ĺater that it was never finished Ŕ I P R Bong
How did i not no of this guy im 67 And watch and research ww2
There is no such thing as a “congressional”Medal of Honor. It is the “Medal of Honor.”
Is the Bong named after him ?
Wise are the gods not to let men know their fate.
Boom and Zoom, that was how the P-38 fought. And yes they fought in Europe.
The Germans called it the fork-tailed devil.
Northrop Grumman may have the last one flying as its Stargazer rocket launching platform.
And, I always wondered, "what-if" he had flown P-47's, with the 56th FG of the 8th AF?
He lived longer in Pacific. Big diff taking on educate white men, then barbarian japs
Hi Eric
In the picture of General Arnold and Col Bong the other pilot is Robert Johnson of the 56 th he was one of the Top Aces in the European Theater and the author of the Great book Thunderbolt
It seems Dick Bong was safer in combat,than stateside.
Tragic.
It's the height of lunacy to think that a test pilot's job is low-risk. Just the opposite, particularly with a very early jet plane. I realize it's all 20/20 hindisight now, but how could they do that to someone with such a distinguished war record? And what became of his beloved wife Marge? She had to have been crushed by his death, particularly so soon after they were married.
Yaa hey dare where's my favorite bong? Up in smoke yet?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Love the p38 but think the steering wheel controls are super ugly and stupid... why no stick?
Pretty typical United States Army hero in that he was very modest but probably the best fighter pilot of the war on either side. This can be said because the United States is only in the war must have half the time that the Germans were. Yes and I know that some Germans has had a lot or kills however they were in the war a lot longer and flew against very very very inferior Russian aircraft for the most part. Japanese zero was far superior to anything the Russians had as far as dog fighting capability.
38' unique.... barrels shot straight in front of you, did not cross at some point you have to recognize and be limited by!
Richard "bing" Bong...
He was so tough because of defending his honor with the name of "Dick Bong"...
May I ask why you show Woodrow Wilson instead of Calvin Coolidge? Is there some hidden reason?
An incredible 40 aircraft - an ace - an unbelievable pilot - now lets see - which is bigger the incredible 40 that bong downed or the 352 that the Luftwaffe ace Eric Hartmann downed - the list of the finest is extensive with Barkhorn at 301, All at 275, Kittel at 267, Nowotny at 258, Bar at 220 all flying either the 109 or the 190. His answer as how he was successful seemed obvious until you consider the nerves it required - I do not fire until the enemy is so close that they occupy the entire vision of the front windscreen.
Oops, spotted the notzy!
The germans didn't rotate their pilots, that's why most of them died and a huge amount of their kills were against relatively primitive soviet aircraft
@@kenneth9874 That, and the notzys were the grand-champions of inflating kill claims. A significant number of Marseilles' kills were made when there were no allied aircraft in the area.
even Prokrishkin and Juutilainen had double the Kills that Bong had
@@Sturminfantrist in how much time?
I wanted so badly to say something obvious and stupid about this guy's name but I couldn't come up with anything for 'Richard'.
Tommy Chong was a fan on Bong, and he went to prison for it.
Funny girl!
I like to refer to him as Bud Bong.
Bud Bong was my grandpa's nic name and he is Dicks little brother.
This started with the Fokker G 9
"Won the Congressional Medal of Honor." You don't "WIN" the Congressional Medal of Honor!
Ok…
He shot down 40 enemy airplanes, that's amazing. Erich Hartman of the Luftwaffe shot down 352 enemy airplanes, Piloting his BF 109 Messerschmitt, that's roughly 8 times more. I think that would make Erich the "ace of aces". Good work for Richard but lets give credit where credit is due to both pilot and machine.
The German pilot probably started when Poland was invaded and fought thru out the war. Bong didn't have his first combat flight until 1943. The German pilot probably got his kills against lesser planes and pilots early in the war. How did he do against British, Polish in British planes, Canadian and American pilots. American AAF brass, having almost unlimited planes and pilots knew of Bongs value back in the U.S. for morale that they did everything the could to keep him out of the sky. Who knows how many kills Bong would of had if he flew under the same conditions as Hartman.
Ace of Aces among competing American pilots. The way nations counted aerial victories varied.
Hartmann flew against mostly inferior pilots and planes, he flew in combat for at least two more years than Bong. And at least half of Hartman's claims are only questionably verified at best. Even those who flew with him stated he claimed twice what he actually did.
Your kidding! There aint nobody named Bong!
It really was his name
Isn't it just great to know that AA an American Co is spending all that money out of the country and buying foreign aircraft and not keeping the money they make here to support US companies.
And what about his nickname Richard Wrong Way Bong who is credited with shooting down his own comrades
I can't find anything supporting this claim. Can you share a source?
???.... Where did you read this?
Not true.
How about your handle....idiot
Your full of shit