How'd You Do?

As we told you yesterday, our good friend, aviation and aerospace writer Ron Edwards passed this along to us recently. We thought you'd enjoy a little brain-teaser. So, as promised, here are the answers to yesterday's pop quiz.

Question: Which branch of the American military had a higher combat death rate in World War II, The Air Corps or the Marine Corps?

Answer: More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions your chance of being killed was 71%.

Question: What German bomber was capable of reaching New York City from Occupied Europe?

Answer: German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it reportedly wasn't worth the effort.

Question: During the Second World War, it was common practice for gun crews to load every fifth round on fighters with tracer bullets. Was this a good idea or a bad idea? Why?

Answer: It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every fifth round with a tracer to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.

Question: Who was Japan's greatest SURVIVING fighter ace at the end of World War II? What was the name of his book, written in 1957?

Answer: Saburo Saki was veteran of 200 missions and 64 confirmed victories racked up in China, New Guinea and the Solomons. Most famous for his time with the famed Tainan-Ku flying the A6M Zero, Sakai is the kind of pilot of which legends are made. Samurai!  was written by Martin Caidin from Saburo Sakai's own memoirs and journalist Fred Saito's extensive interviews with the World War II fighter pilot.

Question: Approximately how many enemy aircraft was Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa credited for destroying? How did he die?

Answer: Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese Ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.

If you like this little feature, drop us an email. And if you have suggestions for a pop quiz, we'd love to see them. Please drop us an email with questions and answers (five is a very good number) and give us complete information on where to research and find verification. A MINIMUM of two sources of verification are required.

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