A natural inclination in looking back at historical events is asking what-if questions. Dogfights is no different and second guesses split-second decisions from the perspective of the surviving pilot and to a point ideas of the unlucky pilot. In “The Zero Killer” Japanese Warrant Officer Toshiyuki Sueda maneuvers his A6M Zero into an upward climb to shoot down his stalled enemy plane. He thinks it's the underpowered F4F Wildcat that can’t handle the ascent, but doesn’t know it is really the high-powered F6F Hellcat that can handle the ascent with relative ease, which Ensign Robert Duncan skillfully uses to shoot down the Japanese ace.
Many of these episodes create famous dogfights during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, but a surprising inclusion is a famous Middle East encounter during the 1967 Six Day War. The best episode is “Death Of The Japanese Navy” which details the largest naval battle in history at the Battle of Leyte Gulf where a small U.S. navy fleet inflicts heavy damage to a much larger Japanese navy led by their flagship Yamato in order to protect the Allied Pacific fleet.
The DVD set includes two extras. One is the feature-length pilot “Dogfights: Greatest Air Battles” which really should be the set’s centerpiece. The pilot includes a much appreciated World War I dogfight recreation of U.S. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker’s battle against seven German planes, which is fascinating because WWI pilots helped establish original dogfighting maneuvers and tactics while flying what now seem like primitive bi-wing planes but were really advanced for their time. The other extra is the featurette “Dogfights: The Planes” which details many of the planes on the show like the P-51 Mustang and the ME 109. The details include the history of the plane including its milestones and its famous pilots, armaments, and design elements.
The more interesting episodes involve the pre-missile jet fighters because, to a point, the missile age has taken the dogfighting out of the pilot and into the plane. Pre-missile jet fighter pilots had to rely more on their gut instincts because they needed to be closer to their enemy for kill shots rather than needing to be in missile range for computer locks. That’s not to take anything away from more modern fighter pilots but instead is praise to their predecessors whose experiences have laid the framework for basic standard combat tactics and techniques. Dogfights is more thrilling than Top Gun.
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