Bombers on TV tonight

[turboNZ]

Who here saw the World's Greatest" tonight, featuring Bombers ?

Wasn't bad actually, great to see an old String-Bag flying

[Dave Homewood]

I missed the beginning, so missed the Stringbag. I saw from Tornado on. What else did I miss?

I disagree that the B17 is better than the Lancaster, should be other way round. Lanc carried twice as many bombs, less crew, and flew without fighter cover at night and by day. It could take as much punishment as a B17 too.

Was the Wellington mentioned? That was a phenomenally good bomber for its time.

Last week's one on fighetrs made me irate, and my mate. Rating the F117 Night Hawk in Top Ten Fighters was ridiculous. It's a bloody bomber! No guns, no missiles. NOT A FIGHTER.

And then, ranking the Spitfire lower than Mustang on the one premise that the Mustang could go further - but the Spitfire was a defensive interceptor fighter which extended itself by transforming into an offensive fighter. With long range tanks it could go well into enemy territory, something it was not designed for. Since the Mustang was designed as a long range fighter and only did that, it should be dropped down rather than being promoted. What about the P47 or Lightning too? They too could reach Germany. No mention...

And worst of all but typical was saying the Spitfire was the saviour of the Battle of Britain, and then leaving out the Hurricane all together. Did they do any research?

They put in the Sabre in the Top 10, which was inferior to the Mig 15 which wasn't mentioned. No mention of the ultimate piston fighters like Do335, Sea Furry or Bearcat, etc. Not even the F16 (thankfully).

No, these shows are your typical badly researched slapped together for cable TV style documentary. It was nice to see people interviewed like Kermit Weeks, Tom Clancy, Bud Anderson, etc. But these British shows are clearly made for a Yank audience, ie dumbed down so the US plane always wins. I didn't watch Top Ten diggers but assume it was an American one at No. 1.

Next week, I'll lay a bet, the M1 Abrams is the greatest tank in the world (or the Sherman)...