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Posted on Jul 31, 2014 in History News

Largest Air to Air Battles in Military History – Infographic

Largest Air to Air Battles in Military History – Infographic

By Armchair General

The 100th anniversary of the first air-to-air combat is fast approaching: On August 25, 1914, Russian pilot Pyotr Nesterov rammed his unarmed Moraine Saulnier Type G aircraft into an Austrian Albatross B, knocking both planes from the sky and killing both pilots. Nesterov may have been trying to use his landing gear to damage the Austrian aircraft and missed.

In recognition of the centennial of the Great War, when air-to-air duels became almost daily events, Norwich University sent us a media release with a link to their nifty infographic, “10 Largest Air to Air Battles in Military History.” It includes some of the “usual suspects”—Battle of Britain, Battle of the Philippine Sea, Black Thursday over Korea—but also some surprising entries, such as the only direct military confrontation between the US and the USSR in history. Click here to see 10 Largest Air to Air Battles in Military History.

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IMAGE ABOVE: Hurricane fighters of the RAF, mainstay of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain. National Archives, NARA0403097j

4 Comments

  1. Fascinating list. Utter failure of basic English composition.

  2. Nice list but no stats and doesn’t even list the wars involved = kinda lame

    • You need to scroll down and look at the infographic down below the list of dogfights. The specific war during which each dogfight took place would be self-evident from the date the dogfight occurred, and who the combatants were. Also, dogfights #5 and #6 specifically mention the war during which those dogfights occurred.

  3. Could you . Please start a new site in your magazines??? As a history teacher I would love to help any students by teaching them how our military bases got their names.