My humble, yet firm, conviction is that Spitfire is generally far superior to the 109: ok, it’s slower in climbs, dives and level flight, then what? I’m confident that any good Spit pilot will shoot down any good 109 pilot 90% of the times in a 1vs1 engagement, if both start with the same energy.
The 109 is a great energy fighter, but like the 190 or the P-47, it strictly needs an energy advantage to deploy all its potential over an opponent: without it, I think it’s just an average aircraft. The Spit, instead, is very good in every situation and has an edge on every enemy, unless it enters a combat with an energy disadvantage.
Now, this is true for all the cases, except when it comes to Spit Mk.I vs. 109E4!:o
The Mk.I suffers so much negative Gs that a 109 can just push forward the stick, then split-S and disappear under the Spit’s now before the latter is able to roll over and follow, which summed to the gap in diving speed means that the 109 can always easily escape relatively unharmed even if under fire… Because Spit’s 8 Brownings are not powerful enough to inflict a fatal blow in the very short time the 109 remains inside the aiming reticle, unless the distande is very close to the convergence one! On the other hand, 109E4 has a much bigger firepower and just 2 20mm rounds can cut off the wing of a Spitfire, as happend several times during the SEOW…
So, 109E4 has usually the upper hand and what remains to the Spit Mk.I is its better turning ability, but even this one is only evident at low speed, let’s say under 350 km/h!!! At higher speeds, the 109 can turn with the Spit or even inside it, and this is what commonly happens in combat when, with an enemy at 6, the Spit pilot split-Ses and then tries to out-turn the 109: the German easily follows the dive and then, at high speed (normally around 400 km/h), is able to keep the turn and fire deflection shots to the Brit, which usually results in the destruction of the latter.
So Puff, if that’s what happend to you yesterday, take it easy! It has happend to all of us several times, and if you consider that normally Axis pilots master their planes better than we do (cause they fly only 2 models) and somehow seem to use better team tactics (what you said, in fact: you take position behind one, and after 5 secs an other 109 is behind you…:o), you should realize that you don’t have to stress too much for that!
In the end, IT IS JUST A GAME!
EDIT: obviously I wrote while you were posting your last comment, Puff! Didn’t know about your speed and all the other info you added… Anyway, I agree with you on everything except stressing so much for just one mission!
What should I say, then? I crashed on take-off cause I didn’t see the 2D trees (invisible from ground level) in front of me at the end of the airfield…:mad: That’s less realistic than anything else!!!
)