|
The Machines of Destiny
|
|
 |
Air power was arguably the greatest single military innovation of the first half of the 20th century, and it came of age in WWII. The dreams of visionaries like Billy Mitchell, Giuliano Douhet, and others were realized in the massive air battles of the war. But strategic and tactical air power came to dictate the conditions of the battlefield in ways that could not have been visualized 25, years earlier. Without air superiority, land and sea campaigns were doomed to failure, no matter how heavily supported otherwise.
The fighter planes were the lynchpin of this new type of warfare. Fighters wrested air superiority from the enemy, making the other activities of modern warfare possible. Fighters denied the enemy access to the airspace over the battle, attacked ground forces, and protected the strategic bombers that knocked out factories. These are the fighters that changed the face of history.
The bombers changed warfare forever. From the tactical expertise of planes like the dive-bombing Ju-88, to strategic heavyweights like the Flying Fortress, these planes reshaped military doctrine from the chivalric idealism of the 19th century to the brutally efficient thinking of the 20th. For good or ill, the wars of the 20th century would not be army against army, but people against people, with no really designated front or rear, no area of relative safety.
Flown by ordinary men from every occupation in their various countries, they sculpted the world we live in today. Welcome to the machines of destiny!
The North American P-51B Mustang - United States
The North American P-51D Mustang - United States
The Lockheed P-38J Lightning - United States
The Lockheed P-38L Lightning - United States
The Hawker Hurricane IIA - Great Britain
The Hawker Hurricane IIC - Great Britain
The Supermarine Spitfire XIV - Great Britain
The Supermarine Spitfire IX - Great Britain
The Lavochkin La-5 - Russia
The Lavochkin La-7 - Russia
The Yakovlev Yak-3 - Russia
The Yakovlev Yak-9 -Russia
The Messerschmitt Bf-109G-6 - Germany
The Messerschmitt Bf-109K-4 - Germany
The Focke-Wulfe Fw-190A-8 - Germany
The Focke-Wulfe Fw-190D-9 - Germany
Avro Lancaster Mk I -Great Britain
Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress - United States
Junkers Ju88A-4 - Germany
Petlyakov Pe-8 - Russia
PzKpfw V Panther - Germany
PzKpfw VI Tiger - Germany
KV-1 K. Voroschilov - Russia
T-34 - Russia
SU-100 -Russia
|
|
