"Freelancing" in WW2.

[James DeSouza]

Hello, I have been listening to some audiobooks of WW2 allied pilots and one thing that I have heard mentioned a couple of times is "freelancing", which seem, from the descriptions of it in those books, to be lone German fighters loitering in an area and attacking anything they see.  How common was this?  Why was it done?  It seems dangerous and inefficient.

[Mars Exulte]

I'd say not super common as military units fight as a unit typically, formation against formation, but hardly unheard of. Probably be most common after skirmishes when everyone gets scattered and individuals roam looking for easy meat. Dangerous... eh, kind of, but kind of not. A Lone fighter would be hard to spot compared to a gaggle of aircraft, so he'd be able to pick his fights a bit unless he got crept up on by another lone aircraft.

But yeah, definitely a thing, if you've got fuel and ammo, you'd look for a fight, regardless of whether you had separated from your unit.

[Dragon1-1]

AFAIK, this was called a "free hunt" by the Germans, and they specifically took off alone or in a small group. With little in terms of effective GCI, it was no less efficient than other kinds of missions, and it was probably safer, because if they saw the enemy first, they could engage or not. In WWII there were few radars, and most spotting was done visually, so a lone aircraft could dive on the target, fill it with high explosive shells (German fighters had great firepower by the end of the war) and disappear before anyone knew what was happening.

[Shibbyland]

https://airminded.org/2011/04/12/war-crimes-from-the-air/

This is an interesting article about some of the things German POWs admitted to each other in private (not knowing they were being recorded). Amongst other things, it describes the strafing of civilians.

In contrast, here's a documentary about P-47s operating in Italy during WW2. If you go to 25:53 (or thereabouts), the narrator talks as if he's the pilot and describes the strafing of random "targets" simply because there's ammo left. "Who's that in that field? No friend of mine" followed by gunfire. Now whether that's what the pilots in the footage were actually doing, I don't know (you know how journalists can be). 

In reading/watching various bits of air combat from numerous wars, I've seen several examples of what I can only describe as being akin to buck fever.

Finally, take the example of the 190th Fighter Squadron friendly fire incident in Afghanistan (2003). A couple of Air National guard pilots on their first combat mission, strafed a column of British troops, killing one and wounding five. We could talk all day about the human factors involved in the incident (but I won't). However, listening to the recording I got the impression of a couple of guys just desperate to shoot something, anything, desperate for a target and they made the picture fit what they wanted to see.

Obviously this doesn't mean every pilot, or pilots from a particular nation demonstrate blood lust or poor judgement. But just imagine yourself as a 19-25 year old being put in charge of a high performance machine of war. You're there to fight, in a conflict the scale of WW2, would you return to base with ammo remaining? Would you be able to exercise discipline and good judgement day after day despite increasing fatigue? Most of us will never know.

 

Edited March 17, 2023 by Shibbyland

[Dragon1-1]

I heard that Polish pilots in exile were particularly bad about this. Not because of being particularly hotheaded, but because as far as they were concerned, they were trying to hit "Germany". To them, it meant any and all Germans, if they were military, good, and if they were not, also good, they'd drop bombs on civilian infrastructure if they couldn't find military targets. They knew what was happening in Poland under German occupation, and were eager to pay back in kind. Other pilots from Slavic countries probably had the same sentiment.

As for Americans, I heard a quip that when a green aircraft passed overhead, the Germans ducked, because they figured it was the Brits. If a gray one flew by, the Allies ducked, because it was likely German. Now, when a silver plane passed over, everyone ducked, because that was an American plane and they usually shot at anything that moved. So, they at least had a reputation for being trigger-happy (and they still do).

[Mogster]

Reading Buckingham’s book about Market Garden at the moment. It’s a serious tome, plenty of primary source research and comparison which is nice.

None of the 3 airborne Market operations seem to have had much if any air support at all, even though at Arnhem in particular, although also Nijmegen, it could have made a serious difference. The concern from senior commanders seems to have been a lack of confidence in pilot target selection, especially in a likely fluid battle environment. The XXX corps Garden advance did have air support, at least initially, but they had been working closely with RAF 2nd TAF for months so a relationship already existed.