There is an old manual on USAF dog fighting tactics written by Frederick Blesse after the Korean War. It's pretty interesting: <a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/delimitedoptions/files/docs/NGNG.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/delimitedoptions/files/do...</a>
I read the article carefully, but I still can’t figure out how Royce Williams managed this feat. It seems like a situation out of a movie in which the bad guys miss when they fire, but the good guy always hits when he fires. He should have lost a dogfight against only one MIG, since the MIG was the superior aircraft. Was he just unbelievably lucky?
Obviously this account didn’t make it, but if you enjoy hearing about air combat actions, I can highly recommend the series “Dogfights” from the history channel.<p>It gets really in depth about what’s going on, the encounters, the tactics, the technology. For me it was edge of your seat TV.<p>I think History put many of these on YouTube.<p>My only lament is that I can’t seem to find the pilot episode (or, rather, the show they did that eventually turned into a series).<p>That show had a great account of Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s action in Vietnam. The only Naval Ace of the Vietnam War, he, too, shot down 3 aircraft in a single engagement. That awarded him the Navy Cross.<p>He became a disgraced congressman convicted of fraud and corruption. That may be why we can’t find that show anymore. But it was a compelling account, broadcast before the scandal.<p>Anyway, if this topic is interesting, I highly recommend “Dogfights”.
Retired naval aviator Ward Carroll interviewed Royce Williams and got a firsthand account of the engagement.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/7tqHWH1bYb0" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/7tqHWH1bYb0</a>
The article states that the Russians released information that corrected the record from 3 to 4 kills. I would love to see actual military reports from both sides of the encounter.
Why did the Soviet pilots open fire? Are there any records that give more information as to their motives? Surely the Soviet brass wanted to avoid direct confrontation with the Americans as well!
At first, a direct interview of the said pilot shows no shotdown of four aircrafts.<p>direct source: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SImG_7g-Lvg">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SImG_7g-Lvg</a>