"Gabby" Gabreski was the top USAAF fighter ace over Europe during World War II and would go on to become an Ace of the Korean War (one of only 7 US pilots to become an Ace in two different wars) and a Colonel during his 26 years of military service. He was the son of Polish immigrants to Pennsylvania. Abandoning his second year at Notre-Dame University...
The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. Used by most Allied powers during World War II, it would see service throughout the war. It was the third most-produced of US aircraft of WW2, behind the P-51 and P-47 - with 13,738 examples produced. Its first combat...
Otto Kittel flew first in Yugoslavia and then on the Eastern Front from June 1941 at the very outset of Operation Barbarossa. He claimed his 100th aerial victory in September of 1943, his 150th in April of 1944 and his 200th in August the same year. He was shot down and killed in action in February 1945 over the Courland Pocket, his final tally 267...
The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft in the world. Though design work began well before the commencement of World War II, problems with development - from the engines to interference from the highest command levels mean that the aircraft did not reach operational status until mid-1944, too late to make the...
While the MiG-3 has the Sluggish trait, it is a serviceable frontline fighter with decent mobility conferred by the Great Dive trait, with an agility and firepower score equal to that of the early war Bf109's it's most likely to come into contact with. A squadron of these could easily support Yak-1s or I-16s without too much trouble. —description from the...
Welcome to the Western Desert! It’s November 1942, the Afrika Korps is in full retreat after the decisive battle of El Alamein. Ahead of the pursuing 8th Army the RAF’s Desert Airforce seek to pound the Axis forces from the air as they flee towards the Libyan-Tunisian border. A desperate struggle for air superiority rages as RAF Spitfires and Tomahawks...
Pokryshkin was a three-time recipient of the Hero of the Soviet Union decoration during wartime - for his exceptional air combat record of 53 solo kills and 6 shared ones (though these tallies are disputed nowadays). He was airborne on the first day of Operation Barbarossa, shooting down a Bf109 after being jumped on a recon mission, and would continue...
Shestakov graduated from military college in 1936 and immediately applied for service in Spain, joining a Republican fighter squadron, where he claimed eight solo victories and 31 shared victories in 90 sorties in his I-16. At the start of Operation Barbarossa, Shestakov found himself on the Odessa front, where his regiment mauled the German and Romanian...
Hero of the Soviet Union on 18 August 1945 Mariya Ivanovna Dolina enlisted as a volunteer in the 269th Fighter Regiment in 1941 and flew 200 combat special missions in an antiquated U-2 training aircraft carrying orders, mail and medical supplies for the hard-pressed Southern Front. In 1942 she graduated to flying the fast Pe-2 twin engine bomber with the...
Major Gregory “Pappy” Boyington (Medal of Honor, Navy Cross) learnt his deadly trade during a year’s tour in China as a member of the 1st American Volunteer Group (The Flying Tigers). Upon returning to the US, In 1943, he was charged to take a group of twenty-seven young men and form the new Marine Attack Squadron 214. VMA214 (Black Sheep) would earn its...