Fighter Combat

228 SECTION TACTICS, TWOVERSUS-ONEpilot with considerable time to hammer the leader before having to worryabout the second threat. Time "2" also presents an ideal escape situationin which the attacker can reverse and dive away, out the six o'clock of bothbogeys (track to time "3").It is well if you are against odds never to stay long after one machine.Lt. Colonel W. A. "Billy" Bishop, RAFFigures 5-6 and 5-7 illustrated the half-split, one of the most effectivecounters offered by double attack and loose deuce doctrines against suchan attack. Figure 5-13 shows one technique the attacker can use in responseto the half-split defensive maneuver. Here the initial setup isidentical to that of Figure 5-12. Once again the attack is detected at time"1," and the target bogey breaks into the attack. Again the attacker shouldput a missile in the air at this point, since he has obviously been seen andno longer needs to worry about the missile smoke giving away his location.Even if it is fired for effect at this point, a weapon in the air gives theattacker a great psychological advantage, assuming of course that hisweapons load allows such an expenditure. A target under missile attackalso is likely to dissipate much more energy in its defensive maneuver,making it less of a threat later on.The pilot of the southern bogey (the leader in this case], determiningthat he is not immediately threatened, extends to gain separation from hiswingman. Rather than pressing for a gun pass on the original target orbreaking away toward the second bogey as in Figure 5-12, the attackereases into a lag position on the northern bogey while keeping an eye on theFigure 5-13. Countering a Defensive Half-Split