[rof120]

Yesterday I corrected a typing error I made - sorry, I apologise:

The calculated total of French fighter victories is 1,414 including 424 won by one single fighter pilot each.

This is 30 % for "alone" (individual) victories (not shared, not collective).

Unfortunately I made that typing error and wrote 24.9 % - don't ask me why - probably tiredness.

As I mentioned above (in the preceding post) the estimated total of 1,414 real victories (one enemy aircraft destroyed for one victory) most probably is about 70 % higher than the actual number of about 830. This does not change the percentage (30 %) of "alone victories", though. Without the French system of "collective victories" - one full victory credited to every pilot having taken part in the fight, even to 12, 15 or 16 pilots - for example with the German way of crediting every victory to one pilot only, this percentage would probably have reached at least 50 % for those pilots who were instrumental in destroying the E/A would have been credited with one full victory, their comrades with none. The total number of destroyed E/A would have been hardly different. When one pilot only would not quite have achieved a victory one or several others would have finished the job (in this case it would have been a shared victory with shares of 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc. which didn't exist in the 1940 Armée de l'Air, not a "collective victory" credited to 2 to 16 pilots).

As interesting and fascinating such thoughts and figures may be let us not forget that real fighting took place with numerous airmen killed or badly wounded on both sides with corresponding, horrifying suffering, not to mention many widows and orphans. The French Air Force alone had 736 men (flying personel) killed in combat or in accidents including from September, 1939 to May 9, 1940, the Luftwaffe 3,278 (found in Peter Cornwell's big book TBOFTN - victims of all enemies of Germany: Dutch, Belgian, British, AA and AAA, and mainly French fighters). A large part of the German AC which were shot down were bombers or twin-engined recce AC with 4 or 5 crew members each. This explains the high figure for German human losses.