Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

Good morning twocee,

the main reason why aces usually overshadow bomber pilots is that the former's successes can be expressed in numbers.
Possible methods of assessing a bomber pilot's achievements are comparing number of missions flown or tonnage sunk. Hans-Georg Bättcher and Werner Baumbach are the top German bomber pilots by these criteria, respectively.
I wonder if it is possible to determine the top Allied bomber pilots...

Have a nice weekend,

Michael

Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

Were all SB2C aerial victories scored in the PTO (and not CBI) ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

Dear R Leonard,

who was the gunner of Allen Lee Lewis ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

The claim was shared among six Helldivers. The ACA report did not list the gunners. His other claims were while flying a Hellcat.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

Good morning Frank,

hope you had a good Xmas.
Currently, I'm working through Barrett Tillman's "Helldiver Units of World War 2" and I was wondering which Helldiver team had the highest combined score. These are the candidates:
LT Robert Brownwell Parker // VB-19 // 3.000 // 0.000 // 0.000
LT Allen Lee Lewis // VB-14 // 2.166 // 0.000 // 1.666
LTJG Samuel Thomas Elway // VB-14 // 2.000 // 0.000 // 0.000
LTJG Melvin Antoni Mor // VB-14 // 2.000 // 0.000 // 0.000
LTJG R E Lee Duncan Jr // VB-19 // 1.500 // 0.000 // 0.000
LTJG George Glumac // VB-19 // 1.000 // 0.000 // 0.000
LTJG Charles Forrest Fisher // VB-19 // 1.000 // 0.000 // 0.000
LT Robert Dean Niemeyer // VB-19 // 1.000 // 0.000 // 0.000
ENS William Hugh Harris Jr // VB-17 // 1.000 // 0.000 // 0.000

ARM3c Stanley E Wallace // VB-17 // 2.000 // 0.000 // 0.000
ARM3c Ernest Joseph Elias // VB-19 // 2.000 // 0.000 // 0.000
ARM2c Joseph Serensis Jr // VB-14 // 1.000 // 0.000 // 0.000
ARM1c John Abbott Puryear // VB-14 // 1.000 // 0.000 // 0.000


I would also like to include the Helldiver kills in this table:
https://www.warbirdsandairshows.com/...torieswwii.htm
Would you deem it justified to say that all Helldiver kills are PTO kills ?

I wish you a good Thursday,

Michael

Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

For Lewis, only 0.166/0/0.166 of his claims are on the Helldiver; the additional claims were while flying the Hellcat, although still with VB-14.

Elway's two victories are both on the Hellcat.

Same with Mor.

Duncan has one victory on the Helldiver; his gunner was Elias, who has 1.5.

Glumac has one; gunner unstated.

Fisher has one; his gunner was Hendrick with 0.5 shared with Elias.

Niemeyer has one; gunner unstated.

Harris has one in 1943; gunner unstated; plus he has 4 more on the F4U-1d with VBF-83 in 1945.

Wallace has 2, pilot unknown, in 1943.

Serensis has one; pilot unknown.

Puryear has one, pilot unknown, plus 2 shared damaged.

The 1943 claims are during a raid on Rabaul; all the other claims are in 1944, mostly in the Philippines.

The only land-based operator of the Helldiver was the French Navy in the 1950s in French Indo China, and it encountered no enemy aircraft.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

Good morning dear Frank,

thanks for your very interesting post !
I deduct that a team score of 3 was only achieved by Parker/Ross and maybe by Harris (if his gunner was Wallace).

I never saw a CBI claim by a Navy aircraft type. May it be that Navy aircraft by definition scored no CBI kills and that all Navy kills against the Japanese are PTO kills ?

I wish you a good New Year's Eve,
with best greetings from Switzerland,

Michael

Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

This topic is very interesting indeed!

Edward L. Hsiao

Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

The only CBI claims by Navy aircraft would include the carrier launched raids on Formosa and Hong Kong.

Re: SB2C aerial victories - Pilot names?
 

The only USN/USMC aircraft type claims outside the PTO that I know of are:

• 8xF6F in the MTO
• 2xF4F in the ETO
• 25xF4F in the MTO
• 5xPB4Y in the ETO
• 1xPBY in the ETO
• none in the CBI

Cheers,

Michael