Oh it happend all right. Most ME262's were shot down when they were trying to land. The P51 could out turn them, and kinda keep up in a dive, but they were just downright faster.

They would have had the ME262 in numbers in 1943 if it wasn't for Hitler, they first say combat in 1944.

Hitler was also the reason they lacked the A bomb. If proper effort was put into it, well it would have been a close race with us.

The Germans were pretty advanced in aircraft design, heck our space program was started and run by German engineers and scientists. The Germans had some of the best if not the best military equipment right up until the end of the war. Just not in the numbers needed. There equipment was first rate by anyones measure at the time. IMHO Part of the reason WW2 is still talked about the way it is, is that fact that the enemy was such a formidable one. Really we havn't had a war against such an ememy since than; that could stand toe to toe with us and sometimes best us on the field. The Germans and Japanese were able to match and check some of our best efforts and formations.

All the wars faught since have been against less technicaly able foes.

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