OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Florida
Picture of the day: after conducting the Pride of the Southland in a stirring rendition of Rocky top a clearly emotional Butch Jones embraced his son and the rest of the team as they swayed to the Tennessee Waltz.
Coach Butch Jones gets it.
******
a/n: This marks the last of a trifecta of stories revolving around the US 8th Air Force and its epic battle against the Luftwaffe in the cold skies over Germany.
Last week we discussed the development of the P-51 fighter and hinted at its role in the final victory of the Allies in Europe during World War II. Today we will see just the impact they, and increased American production made.
As was noted before, the 8th Air Force called time out or a halftime, if you will, after the disastrous mission to Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943. This stand down on targets deep in Germany coincided with a general worsening of the weather over England and the continent with the onset of Fall and Winter.
Both sides made adjustments during this time. The Germans felt that their twin-engined Me-110, 210 and 410 Zerstörer fighters armed with heavy cannons and air-to-air rockets were the way to go. Therefore they beefed up these forces and pulled their single-engined fighters back into Germany proper to in order to meet either the RAF and the Americans or shift eastward to confront the Red Air Force as needed.
The Americans decided that unescorted missions deep into Germany were not working and a method had to be found to escort the bombers all the way to and from these targets. Fortunately, it was precisely at this moment that the P-51B Mustangs began to arrive in quantity. Unlike the larger P-47s that had made up the majority of the fighter force until then the P-51s had roughly 1,000 miles greater range. The 8th AF's long-range fighter was the P-38 which lacked the maneuverability of a single-engine plane.
On Sunday 20 February 1944 the Mighty 8th dispatched 834 B-17s and 272 B-24s to hit targets deep in Germany. The P-51s escorted them all the way. 13 B-17s were lost as were 8 B-24s. American fighters knocked down 74 of the feared Zerstörer fighters.
The pattern continued for the rest of the week. The sole exception was Thursday when heavy cloud cover over the continent forced the bombers to return to base.
By the end of Big Week the numbers were in and the result was a decisive American victory. Over 3000 bomber sorties had been flown (a sortie = one flight by one plane) some 200 heavies had gone down BUT the 8th now had many more planes than before. More importantly, over 200 Luftwaffe fighters had been shot down with the loss over well over one hundred pilots.
The mighty Luftwaffe had been gutted. It could still rise and strike hard but less and less frequently. On 6 March the 8th went to Berlin and in numbers.
Some 660 B-17s hit the German capital and the fierce nature of the air battle was reflected in the loss of 69 bombers. In return though, the Germans admit to the loss of over eighty fighters, nearly half of the number they sent up that day.
As Ed Jablonski put it, If the men in bombers did not see American fighters as often as they would have wished, the Luftwaffe saw them.
Luftwaffe commander Herman Goering put it more succinctly, during an interview after the war, Goering stated that when he saw American fighters over Berlin, I knew the jig was up.
On 7 May 1945 a delegation of high German officers arrived in Reims, France. They were there to sign instruments of unconditional surrender.
Dwight Eisenhower sent a wire to Churchill and Truman, The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945.
In many ways, the 8th Air Force and more specifically the P-51 fighter made that possible.
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Over the last few years it has been pointed out here that teams have to learn how to win big games. Team 120 appears to have cleared that hurdle, however, they still seem to get off the start line too slowly for this writer's comfort.
Make no mistake, though, this was a game to put in the archives alongside the Miracle in South Bend of 1979 and the 1982 Alabama victory.
The Butch Jones Era has now, officially, arrived.
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
Florida made the classic (and usually fatal) mistake of underestimating their opponent, Tim Priest pointed out that the Gators looked flat coming out of half-time and that the Florida defensive line got tired. Tennessee came out much more focused and blew the interlopers out of Neyland Stadium.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
After several failed efforts by the Vols inside the Florida 20 I thought I could either offer no comment here or go off on a 45,000-word profanity-laced rant.
The Vols quickly cured that issue in the second half and spared my loyal readers.
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Great Day, did they ever.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Dobbs still got rushed and hit far more than he should have but it seemed one hit in particular toward the end of the first half when a Florida defender really planted him and ended up with a helmet-to-helmet hit that was not called seemed to reset his ballistic computer and his passing accuracy improved greatly.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
In the first half it seemed it took the entire defense to bring down one average-sized Florida running back. In the second, the defense really stepped up in intensity and began to attack Florida instead of waiting on them to set the tone.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
Whatever Tennessee is paying their special teams coach is not enough.
7. Carry the fight to Florida and keep it there for sixty minutes.
Literally, Saturday's tilt was a tale of two halves. Tennessee only really showed up for about thirty or thirty-five minutes, but what a half-hour of game time it was!
I've said it before, but it bears repeating, coming out and totally dominating an SEC opponent the way Tennessee did in the second half against the Gators IS Tennessee football.
I hope to see a complete game from our beloved Vols before this season is out.
Brick by Brick, Baby!
MAXOMG
Suggested Reading:
Roger A. Freeman, The Mighty Eighth
Budd J. Peaslee, Heritage of Valor
Edward Yablonski, Airwar
Bill Yeide, Big Week
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