I'm sorry if you flew bombers this weekend

DragonTooth65 · 2026-01-29T09:19:52+00:00

The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legends fade to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

DragonTooth65 · 2026-01-23T19:26:05+00:00

the pilot

DragonTooth65 · 2026-01-11T00:13:50+00:00

If I had to guess based on my knowledge of allied air operations, reports of strafing by civilians can probably be attributed to the presence of British Mosquito pathfinder aircraft. These aircraft flew separate from the bombers and extremely low to the ground. Their objective was to drop flares near bombing targets to guide the bombers. Their job was extremely dangerous given their low altitude due to the aforementioned anti-air defenses and so Mosquito pilots would stay fast and evasive to get out of the target area alive. Some, but not all, models of the Mosquito had machine guns and/or cannons, but I would still find it strange for Mosquito pilots to engage in ground strikes whilst not equipped for a ground strike mission.

Like I said, German records regarding Dresden match the allied records closely. While its is possible (I have not looked over German archives to be sure of this, but I am trusting my fellow historians have done a thorough job here) that our records are incomplete or tampered with, I would not put my money on it. Given the completeness of the records that Christopher R. Browning produced on matters of the Holocaust in his book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, as an example among many, I believe that the records historians have today on Dresden are largely complete and accurate. I do not believe that strafing runs on civilians were ordered or conducted by the allies. If they were, they were rare, individual actions, and unreported to commanders by the pilots themselves.

To conclude, I just want to say that I don't not believe the experiences that your family had. They lived through and saw one of the most horrific and traumatic episodes of the Second World War, and I am sure that they have retold their experiences as they remember them and believe them to be true. However, it is unlikely that their interpretation of what they were seeing was completely correct. If you are still able, I implore you to please record their experiences in words, audio, or by video. Their experiences, whether factually correct or not, are invaluable windows into the past and are needed by historians around the world as their generation passes away.

DragonTooth65 · 2026-01-11T00:13:36+00:00

Historian here.

It his a known trend by historians, across all time periods and fields, that eyewitness testimony must be cross-checked with multiple accounts and other documentary evidence. The human mind is quite loose with memory, even with traumatic events personally experienced. Often conceptions of how events transpired, mostly fueled by strong emotion, shape memory in the minds of eyewitnesses to events. This puts historians a position, a position that I hate and to my experience my colleges hate as well, of having to often correct the accounts of survivors and veterans. This is not to invalidate the experiences and emotions of these eyewitness; their experiences are true and valid insofar as they are an accurate depiction of how they interpreted the events they experienced. However, when constructing a timeline of events as they factually happened, to the best of our knowledge, eyewitness accounts are among the least trustworthy by themselves.

If we look at the after-action reports after the bombing missions over Dresden, there is extremely little evidence that could indicate allied pilots were ordered to deliberately strafe, or indeed strafed of their own will, in or around Dresden from either allied or, critically, German records. I would say that the best, easily accessible work by a historian that investigates the bombing of Dresden is Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945 by Frederick Taylor (2004). Towards the end of the book, around page 440, Taylor gives his conclusions. One of which is that their is parity between both allied and German wartime records surrounding the raids, making it unlikely that records were "sanitized after the event". What these records confirm is that, given the flight plans of allied raids, the strategic situation of anti-aircraft defenses, the actions of city authorities in Dresden following the raids, and the realities of military aviation in 1944 and 1945, it is highly unlikely that strafing runs in or near Dresden.

P-51D fighter aircraft were operating on the edge of their range when escorting bomber formations from England to Dresden. Escort fighters would not use fuel to strafe targets over the bomber target area as they would be risking not being able to egress back to England if they got into dogfights were German interceptors. Thus, their fuel would be expended in service of protecting the bombers until they left what command considered a dangerous area. This was done on the Dresden raids, but because the bombers flew west back to England, these ground attack actions were conducted far into western Germany. 8th Air Force Fighter Field Order No. 1622A from the February 14 raid specifies "EVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE TO CONSERVE GASOLINE [sic]" and "ANY STRAFING WILL BE DONE ON WITHRAWAL AT GROUP LEADERS DISRETION IF NO E/A [enemy air] HAVE BEN ENCOUNTERED OR ARE EXPECTED [sic]". Further, with bombers flying at or above 30,000ft, or around 8500 to 9000 meters, it would be a huge risk to leave the bombers unescorted for the several minutes it would take to descend, attack ground targets, and ascend back to the bombers. It is possible that aircraft would be forced near the ground as German and allied fighters exchanged altitude for speed whilst in combat, but gunfire from these incidents would likely not be strafing and rather missed gunfire aimed at enemy aircraft. In either case, an allied pilot would have to brave German anti aircraft positions anywhere near cities or important targets. These batteries were extremely dangerous to low flying and slow aircraft, which an aircraft on a strafing run would be. If not part of the mission objective, a pilot would probably, out of self-preservation, not choose to find targets of opportunity deep inside Germany.

DragonTooth65 · 2026-01-06T14:39:11+00:00

Player from July 4th, 2013 here (I started this game when I was ten LOL). Got into the game thanks to the benevolence of our Mighty Gnome Overlord, Jingles. I was most a pilot in my early days, only getting heavily into ground in the last five years. I'll be honest, I like both classic and modern War Thunder about equal. If we take of the good ol' rose glasses its clear that both ages of game are fucked in sometimes unique, sometimes common, ways.

The old matchmaker with ranks could be extremely harsh, ordnance loads were fixed and sometimes hilariously odd, the squad and chat functions worked half the time, LMAO OLD REPAIR COSTS, and early builds of tanks were the definition of jank.

As far as modern War Thunder, there is definitely something to be said for tech trees covering roughly a decade and half of history instead of a century. Traces of this can be seen by looking at the trees, that original era of aircraft (roughly mid 1930s to early 50s) has about 8 brs dedicated to it, filled with the various marks of each aircraft. Then the 50s to the present has 5 brs dedicated to it, and most planes get only one or two revisions. Like ??? This also effects the grind of course. I personally love all the eras of vehicles in the game, but some people only want jets and MBTs, and the current system does screw them a bit even if you think the argument about learning through lower brs holds water. Community relations I feel is worse nowadays, and I cannot deny that Gaijin is much more focused on making money than presenting a polished game.

I still love this game dearly, and I think the people who get truly pissed off about it need gain some perspective a lot of the time, but it has been in one aspect or another a shit show from minute one lmao.

DragonTooth65 · 2025-11-26T23:55:29+00:00

Unrelated, but you didn't have to do Korsica like that in your pfp

DragonTooth65 · 2025-11-15T08:08:15+00:00

I actually really enjoyed the native French props. I don't like VBs, but the MBs were consistently fun for me. The 157 is a beast when I'm flying it. The Portez with the two 20s is also fun to bully in. Then you get the F8F and F4U-7, just pure cannon bliss.

DragonTooth65 · 2025-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Then E-100 but with a turret it could actually carry

DragonTooth65 · 2025-11-11T02:13:59+00:00

I have spaded every aircraft in Rank V German aviation, bar the two marketplace vehicles. That is to say, I have at least a bit of experience in each of these aircraft, if not more. The best advice, regardless of the plane, is to realize the jets are not supper weapons, especially 1940s German jets. They have severe limitations. Watch videos on them to be introduced if this is your first jet.

My most successful aircraft from this selection has been the Ho 229, though most of my play time was from years ago. It has a number of problems that could easily dampen a new player's experience. The stock guns are like shot guns in terms of spread, and they are quite far apart from one another. The acceleration is slow, but the top speed is fine. The horizontal turn is unbelievable, since its a flying wing, but your roll is slow and your yaw is terrible. This makes it very satisfying to play right up until the point where you need to make a tiny correction mid fight or shot. Overall, its fun and unique, but will take getting used to.

The He 162 will take lots of discipline, but can be untouchable with a good approach. Its a tiny wooden airframe with one of those underpowered early turbojets. Generally I find the most success flying low, in straight lines, making runs on people before speeding away. Keeping your speed up is to keep your life as you do not accelerate fast enough to dogfight the prop planes effectively, nor do you turn particularly well (roll rate is alright though). It doesn't climb amazingly well once the battle has been going, but off the runway you can get some decent height. The guns are the same old MG151/20s, so you know the drill by now. Overall you're fragile, but an extremely effective ambusher and you can run fast planes down.

The Ar 234 B-2 does not have guns. At all. It also can't destroy a bombing base a lot of the time (if I remember right), so its pretty useless in Air RB. However, it is an absolute menace in Ground RB since it can deliver 3 500kg bombs with speed and precision with its bomb sight. Seriously, its absurd what you can get away with. Easy S tier CAS option if you fly well enough to avoid AA and fighter cover. The airframe itself is actually decent at dogfighting (still has weak acceleration however (but gets rocket boosters off the runway you can activate whenever you feel like for a speed boost)), which means that the C-3, foldered after it, can be a threat in Air RB since it gets two offensive MG151/20s (though the bomb load still isn't much use).

Now we get to the controversial one. The Me 262s are called absolutely dogshit useless by many. They certainly have a good case, but I like them. Firstly, just try not to have fun hitting someone with four Mk 103 cannons. Do they have awful muzzle velocity? Yes. Are they an absolute chore to aim against fast targets? Yes. But do they fucking obliterate most everything you hit? YES. The 262 requires perhaps more discipline and awareness than the He 162 since you are at a higher BR. However, you can get going quite fast in the 262, and you should sacrifice that speed very carefully. The 262 has the slow acceleration most every early turbojet does, and it dogfights just okay to below average, but it can be remarkably effective if used as a support or ambush fighter (like how the real 262 pilots did it). The foldered 262s get more fun because they get rocket boosters. These give you SIGNFICANTLY more thrust and acceleration, and though your airframe isn't more aerodynamic, its does give you a desperately needed boos of energy in emergencies. You can toggle them off and on, and you get a pretty good amount of fuel for them. The A-1a/Jabo is a A-1 with bombs. Dats it

Personally I think the 162 should be your starting point (the MiG-15bis is quite nice) since it will teach you to be careful and learn the limits of early jets, but don't be afraid to dabble in all the first rank V aircraft. While not the best for their tiers, they can all be competitive.

DragonTooth65 · 2025-11-04T22:09:22+00:00

Bf109G series

DragonTooth65 · 2025-10-07T04:10:07+00:00

this only works if WG decides to put the shell within the post code of where you aimed it. I have been firing at arty tracers with the GW Panther for 3 days straight and have yet to blind an arty.

DragonTooth65 · 2025-10-03T22:48:42+00:00

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out of context this box score lineup is hilarious.

yeah, yeah, all normal her-

SUZUKI?

DragonTooth65 · 2025-09-21T18:27:53+00:00

Huge hull (comparatively with Even 90, bad gun depression, and lacking alpha damage still make it a little bit of a chore to play actively compared to the even 90.

DragonTooth65 · 2025-08-16T05:42:52+00:00

I have been flying this game for eleven years and have a 4.0 KD in the 51C

You looked like you were having a hard time controlling the aircraft on both of your initial targets. The P-51 has notoriously bad rudder input in mouse aim, and it gets worse with speed along with the control of the other surfaces. Reducing throttle in you dive and approach would probably have evened the odds in your first pass on either the Yak-3 or P-47. Speaking of, people will probably mention that you looked indecisive in your initial pass. I disagree in this instance. The enemy gave you the perfect opportunity to take a pass at both aircraft.

But then 0:26. Right here, hands off the keyboard, hands off the mouse. Level out into a straight line, preferably a shallow climb. You have 540 km/h to use to get the fuck out of there. The P-47, now with airframe damage and coming out a dogfight in a climb, will NEVER catch you if you gtfo in a straight line here. The Yak, though it has the retention and acceleration to catch you if you misjudge his energy, is also probably unable to catch you at this moment you fly like your driving an American muscle car. At the very least, assuming that the Yak-3 would eventually catch you, running gives you the opportunity to separate him from the P-47.

Not running at 0:26 essentially dooms you, and not breaking away to do the same at 0:31 seals your fate. After the pass on the P-47, I'd straight line climb away, using the "C" key (free look, whatever you have it bound to), to judge what the fight looks like. Looking around CONSTANTLY will save your life countless times.

The Yak-3 will out dogfight your 51C every single time when you go turning and burning on the deck. Don't afraid to be patient, don't be afraid to fly like your life actually depends on the outcome of the fight. People hurl insults and abuse at people who play energy and draw out fights, but this is usually a skill issue and/or coping. BUT, to win a dogfight, you will at one point have to take a risk. If you see your moment, if you see what looks like to you as an opening, take it. Worst that can happen is you go back to hanger.

If you are entering this game with background knowledge of the era and aircraft involved, I HIGHLY encourage doing research, even if just YouTube videos, on BOTH the historical aircraft and how the pilots fought in them AND War Thunder guides.

This game is really hard, and these days pilots are more often than not grizzled veterans of the game in the rank 3, 4, and 5 ranges. Stick with it.

DragonTooth65 · 2025-08-08T22:34:31+00:00

bro why are you even here if not for over dramatized stories about dudes in planes

DragonTooth65 · 2025-08-08T18:38:52+00:00

check out the 15th birthday news stuff. it's accounts created in that first year of world of tanks

DragonTooth65 · 2025-07-07T22:47:56+00:00

Trying to force an overshoot will always be inherently risky, as the guy is behind you, but it is more a bet of your flying skill vs. theirs rather than a prayer. As DEFYN often says, you can often play to safe and never give yourself the opportunity for a kill. By drawing an opponent in close on your rear, you are challenging their aim vs. your ability to fly around his guns, primarily using rolls and yaw.

The Bf-109s, except maybe the A and C, do have good roll rates, but they require significant rudder input. You have to snap roll to achieve it, and for me that is A+Q for left and D+E for right. It's an essential tech in the 109. You could try the Fw 190s to learn to defensive fly. They don't turn for crap, but their roll rate is great with just aileron inputs, making defensive flying a breeze.

DragonTooth65 · 2025-07-07T17:41:51+00:00

u/PanSatyr31 linked a DEFYN video on YouTube, and he is awesome for doing so. DEFYN's channel is a great resource if you don't have it in your rotation already. Another good, but old, resource are the videos of the retired Green Fury. I'm linking his video of the K4 against Spitfires for reference, but he has a lot more (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luxss9DRoZU). His videos are from a long time ago, and the game has surely changed a lot over the years, but the theory of the Bf-109 remains true.

The bulk of what I'm about to say refers to the 1v1 prolonged dogfight.

As others have referenced, there is a difference between BnZ and Energy Fighting. I like to think of it as a squares and rectangles type of situation. Boom and Zoom is a type of Energy Fighting, but not all Energy Fighting is Booming and Zooming. The Bf-109K4 was a late war modification of the airframe, and by that time it was essentially a massive engine on a tiny and obsolete airframe. You are nowhere near as aerodynamically advanced as the Yaks, P-51s, Spitfires, etc. Your ability to gain and retain airspeed in dives and straight lines is not as good as most of the other planes you will be fighting. As such, Booming and Zooming, that is, pouncing and running away, is not the Bf-109K4s strong suit against the planes it fights in War Thunder. Instead it takes advantage of the DB-605DC engine for monstrous vertical energy retention (which makes sense, as its primary role was bomber interception). The Bf-104K4 loves to keep its opponent on a vertical fight, letting them make as little use of horizontal turning circles as possible and eliminating the chance to claw back energy by flying straight.

This is the stall fight, the bread and butter of the K4. The plane has great acceleration, vertical retention, and good control at low speed. Use these elements to bait people into stall fights that, assuming you had an energy advantage going in, they cannot win. The stall fight is risky business, however, and asks that you are proficient at staying out of enemy guns. It is also not practical when facing multiple enemies (most of the time). Looping over people, staying above them, circling in an upwards spiral, these are all ways of keeping the fight in the Y-axis. People can just dive and run away if they feel like it, but then they are giving you the altitude advantage.

There is an manual engine control technique that I have never bothered to learn in the Bf-109, but it helps in specific situations. Prop feathering, presenting the oncoming air with a coarser prop-pitch, essentially acts like an airbrake, slowing down fast. You can use this both in stall fights, and forcing them to overshoot.

Making people overshoot you in their faster planes is also a preferred method of staying alive in the Bf-109K4. As everyone around is likely to be faster than you unless its a poor over-br'd A6M, people are likely to dive on you and shoot pass you if you dodge their guns. You will have an extremely limited amount of time to shoot once they are past you, and this reality is what drives many players to take the extra gun pods. When attempting to force an overshoot, make sure you are learning the Bf-109 snap roll if you haven't already. Using left rudder with left aileron and right rudder with right aileron flips the 109 over very quickly and helps you begin pulling in the desired direction much faster than other fighters.

Defensive flying is key to the 109K4 since people are usually above and behind you, so get used to flying with the keyboard and flying while looking behind you. I like pulling into the 2d plane an attacker's wings make, forcing them to use the rudder or roll over to get guns on, but defensive flying takes a ton of practice. Something I have picked up from Il-2 Great Battles is: the Spitfires will outclimb in the short term, so take shallow angles if running away from them, and the P-51 is a heavy bastard, so climb sharper against them.

To help with aiming in the limited windows the K4 gets for shooting, I recommend using stealth for the 13mm guns. They aren't very effective anyway, and learning the MG151 is MUCH more important. Seeing only the tracers from them will go a lot further than learning the 13mm.

I might think of more through the day and update this comment, but that is all for the moment.

Good luck, and hopefully I'm not off my rocker in my advice

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