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A couple of pages excerpted from the Field Artillery Journal that gives a glimpse of what it was like to fly an L-4 Cub in Air Operations over the front lines and up to 5 - 10 miles deep behind the lines at an altitude of between 1000 - 2500 feet. Doesn't sound fun. Some things mentioned:
Flying at night under moonlight to avoid being detected by German fighters
Cub & crew combat casualties attributed to:
- direct machine gun fire
- small arms fire / pot shots
- German anti-aircraft
- American anti-aircraft / friendly fire
- a lot of ME-109 attacks....Cub wing smashed off in a collision with a 109, an engine shot off a Cub, both wings shot off a Cub. One evasion technique was to keep flying to the center of the ME-109's turning radius, descending toward your lines in the process. And I would add, probably start saying a little prayer.
A lot of neat stuff in these Journals. I'll post some additional Cub related stuff. If this is old news or boring, let me know.
Dave
Flying at night under moonlight to avoid being detected by German fighters
Cub & crew combat casualties attributed to:
- direct machine gun fire
- small arms fire / pot shots
- German anti-aircraft
- American anti-aircraft / friendly fire
- a lot of ME-109 attacks....Cub wing smashed off in a collision with a 109, an engine shot off a Cub, both wings shot off a Cub. One evasion technique was to keep flying to the center of the ME-109's turning radius, descending toward your lines in the process. And I would add, probably start saying a little prayer.
A lot of neat stuff in these Journals. I'll post some additional Cub related stuff. If this is old news or boring, let me know.
Dave
