As an impressionable boy of 10 or 12, I lived not far from a little local strip where a guy had one of those old warbirds for a few years. This was in the 60's and being born in the 50's I naturally devoured anything in print about WWII since many of my relatives and neighbors had served and I was fascinated by their stories and the equipment I had seen.
I lived close enough that there was no doubt when he took off who was flying that day even if you couldn't see the plane. He would maneuver and do aerobatics over the area at several thousand feet and I remember one summer instance where all us kids were playing in a large open field and he was flying that day. I watched and listened to that horse of an engine as he climbed steeply, then rolled over and came at a screaming dive - and for the world it looked like he was diving right at us. At that moment, I guess because of the movies seen and stories read and heard, I experienced a bolt of icy fear shoot through the pit of my stomach instinctively that shook me - and I realized I had just had just a small glimpse of what it must have felt like to be on the ground and know that six .50 caliber machine guns were attached to that platform and headed in your direction at 500+ mph.
A formidable weapon, indeed, and an impressive aircraft. In this day of computer driven weaponry and satellite technology I am always humbled and in awe of what these brave men and women accomplished in WWII with what they had available to them at the time. I have sat in the cockpits of a few of those types of planes, and prowled the recesses of a couple of the great war ships and blessed ( or cursed, as it may be) with a vivid imagination I can only marvel at where this equipment went and what it did and the people that operated it. They saved the world in their day.
