“Miss Shilling's Orifice” helped win the war (2020)
“At that moment (I must have been down to about a hundred yards), I hit his slipstream and my engine cut —stone dead.”<p>He didn&#x27;t need to describe his lower legs suddenly becoming strangely warm.<p>What isn&#x27;t mentioned is that before the band aid was discovered thanks to Ms Shilling and her ... (it was often called &#x27;er c**) a Spitfire would have to invert before diving to turn a neg. into a posi.  So, when your enemy pushes forwards on the stick whilst frantically wriggling left and right, you would have to spin 180 on your longitudinal axis to follow.  I&#x27;m sure many of the enemy would then fake to get you to spin and whilst you are fiddling around, slow down and get in behind you.<p>I can imagine: ME109 finds Spitfire on his tail.  He has two great options - better rate of climb and a pressurized fuel system which doesn&#x27;t cut out in neg. g.  The Spitfire has a better turning circle, so don&#x27;t go there.  I suspect that they would go for the fake dive - the Spit will have to invert to follow.  Now, I don&#x27;t know how long the early Spits can manage a dive before having to decide to invert or pull out, so that is a factor here.  When the 109 sees the Spit inverting in the rear view, pull back fairly hard, slow down a bit, probably with a left to right jiggle with the rudder to &quot;skid&quot; rather than messing with revs and propellor pitch (takes to long to play with the controls).  If done right the Spit will pass underneath your 109 and most importantly, be blind because he&#x27;s inverted.  Now you are behind him and you have a cannon plus a handful of pea shooters to deploy.<p>If the Spit is canny, he should see the fake dip and probably try to turn horizontally and turn the scrap into a turning game.  The Spit should win that because it has a better turning circle, in general.<p>Have an off day at the office in one of these things and you end up dead.  I can barely conceive of what it must have been like to operate like that, operation after operation, day after day, week on week, months turn to years.  There is no let up.