No Shoot Downs In The 1920's By USA?
 

Gentlemen,

I know that in the decades 1910's,1930's-1990's that there were shoot downs of enemy planes by US military pilots. However there were no recorded incidents of any shoot downs of enemy planes in the 1920's by US aviators either in the US military or as pilots of fortune for another country. Not once as I recalled. Fellows is this right? I also knew that there were no shoot downs by US warplanes in the decade of 2000's.

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

Re: No Shoot Downs In The 1920's By USA?
 

One should go through the conflicts of 1920-1930 and see if there were air-to-air combats in any of them. A quite thorough list of aces and air victory claims of all conflicts can be found here: http://aces.safarikovi.org/

Looking the list the nearest thing to US air victory claims of 1920´s seem to be those claimed by Marion Hughes Aten in RAF service in 1919 against Russian Red Army air force. Details: http://www.americanfighteraces.org/ww1aces_russian.html

Re: No Shoot Downs In The 1920's By USA?
 

Marion Aten did not shoot down anything in the Russian Civil War. One of my projects is to get him removed from the list of American fighter aces. The claim that he shot down five planes appears in his book Last Train Over Rostov Bridge, co-written with Arthur Ormond. The book credits those victories in the April-May 1919 period. However the 47 Sqn Record Book does not note Aten joining the unit until August 1919 (the 19th I believe, from memory). This information was then picked up and included in Above the Trenches (Shores, Franks, Guest) and has propagated forward from there.

Aten also wrote a five-part biography of his time in Russia, that appeared in Liberty Magazine from Aug 31, 1935 to Sept 28, titled Flying Madmen, as told to H Bedford-Jones. As I remember, there is only one mention of air combat, where he states that he might have damaged one aircraft.

I am unaware of any claims by Americans in air combat between the end of the First World War, and the Spanish Civil War and the Sino-Japanese War.

Frank.
Historian, American Fighter Aces Association.

Re: No Shoot Downs In The 1920's By USA?
 

Thanks for that update Frank

He is now removed at least in my records...

B Rgds
Stig

Re: No Shoot Downs In The 1920's By USA?
 

See the book "Gone to Russia to Fight" which deals with RAF operations in Russia 1918-1920. It basicly says Last train over Rostov Bridge is semi-fiction at best.

Re: No Shoot Downs In The 1920's By USA?
 

Just out of interest, somewhat off topic and also on the other hand, no shoot downs perhaps by the US military, but US military being shot down or crash due to a conflict between the wars is a different matter.
True, the losses were not because of a dogfight with opposing airplanes.

Mexico (1919-1920, border skirmishes) and Nicaragua (1927, US intervention) are two examples.

Regards,

Leendert

Re: No Shoot Downs In The 1920's By USA?
 

There's a rather interesting work of fiction by Derek Robinson (of Goshawk Squadron fame) called "A splendid little war" which uses a number of sources to create an account of the Camel Flight in Russia.