Nevermind the Soviet voiceover.

Some gun camera footage from FW-190 attacks.

Some dramatic German Wochenschau Propaganda featuring the FW-190 in action.

The FW-190 was one of the primary German fighters during WWII and served on all fronts in many different combat roles.

The Airwar over Germany was a bloody mess - and the FW-190 was used to destroy American and British bombers. At that time airwar was almost close combat - at least compared to today’s long range missile and radar warfare.

Overall there is nothing romantic about the “good old days”, but at least the pilots had a chance to see their enemy they engaged.

This is one odd picture: the Russians have resumed their long-range bomber flights - which they stopped in the 1990’s because the country and their military was broke. Here you see a Tupolew Tu-95 followed by a hypermodern American F-22 Raptor. The first TU-95 flew 1953 (!!!) and the F-22 have just entered the service (2005).

Ten years in military technology is a long time, twenty years are a generation - but fifty years …

But don’t be fooled: the first mighty B-52 bombers entered American service 1955 - and they upgraded models are still killing people today. To anyone without modern missiles or AA guns such an ‘old’ machine is still deadly.

Before radar and heat seeking missiles air war was crude and rather brutal. Planes and balloons were first only used to observe ground movements.

Flying in these primitive machines was very cold and nauseating, because of the fumes.

Than pilots started to shoot at each others with their pistols, which started the aerial arms race.

Aerial bombardments started with hand grenades and even bricks. The first bombs were dropped by hand - usually by the observer - who often operated the second machine to the rear.

Many crews didn’t have parachutes in the beginning - but most of them would not have been able to jump anyway. Their planes didn’t offer any protection from enemy machine gun fire or burning engines or fuel, so they were often killed after a serious hit.

We humans do really stupid stuff to kill each other.