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Re: Aces and overclaiming
I have been watching this thread with interest. Frankly I think the predilection with “absolute” numbers in terms of kills is wasteful.
Now that we are able to view large chunks of actual wartime records, I think we all realize there was a lot of overclaiming on all sides. In combat it is a sky full of turning and twisting, snap shots and high Gs. Mistakes are made and what seems so visually certain may not be. Add to that that planes that made it back to base with a high degree of damage, were not these lost to combat for a while? Someone might have claimed these and were they not “lost” for a period? Also, look at one example like the second Schwienfurt raid. In addition to the actual 60 bombers lost, another 30 were so damaged they were scrapped—“lost”. If some of those were from fighter attacks and were claimed by such, how does one justify not giving credit?
Frankly, if Marseille shot down 14 instead of 17 aircraft in one day, or 120 versus 158 in his career, does it really take away from his accomplishments? The same holds true with Sakai, Bong, J E Johnson, etc. They were great pilots, period.
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