On Sat, 11 Jul 2020 23:16:18 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

snip

And did they never shoot at each other when approaching each other
with a closing speed of ~600+ mph? ;-(

Its not the preferred option - any approach where you can shoot them and
they can't shoot back would seem preferable!

Yeah, getting an enemy to cooperate though ... ;-)

I would imagine a fighter to fighter dogfight to be fairly chaotic, no
matter how well they might have rehearsed in the training room or
practiced in the sky.

All about you trying to gain advantage over them (and their wing men)
whilst they are (all) trying to do the same to you and yours?

So that's often down to trying to leverage any advantage you can get
to start with (attacking them from above or from out of the sun) and
then whatever advantage each plane might have against each other
(speed / manoeuvrability) etc.

After that I'm guessing much of the rest (once the chaos starts) is a
mix of luck and skill.

Luck being the one that doesn't have several fighters on your tail and
the skill to (try to) not be in the wrong place at the wrong time (and
end up with several fighters on your tail).

I'm also sure many 'good / experienced' and novice pilots died trying
to defend their comrades, either to effect or in vain. ;-(

Watching the video ... I get that much of it is stopping munitions
getting where they could be used against us and it is (was) a 'them'
or 'us' things, but I feel sorry for say an engine driver who was
probably just that, doing his job and being a 'sitting duck'.

Blowing up a munitions train was fair game (and you probably wouldn't
need to hit the loco specifically), strafing down the length of a
troop carrier possibly less so, but shooting up any car that moved,
assuming 'intelligence wasn't as good as it is (supposed to be) now
days?

All's fair in love and war ... ?

Cheers, T i m