Quote:
Originally Posted by Leo Etgen
Hi guys
Very interesting discussion regarding the claim accuracy of the various pilots in World War II. I am very glad that some facts have emerged regarding the accuracy of various German aces on the Eastern Front which helps us determine which pilots appear to have generally been more accurate than others. I am interested in the facts as best can be determined and if these seem to show that a certain pilot overclaimed, for whatever reason, then so be it. As an interesting demonstration of how the picture changes when one reads an account that draws on the loss lists of both sides, I recently read F4U Corsair versus A6M Zero-sen by Claringbould. One has always read accounts of how the F4U dominated the various Japanese fighters in aerial combat to the point that it racked up an eleven to one kill to loss ratio ... This may very well have been true when confronting barely trained pilots fit only for Kamikaze missions but the results of the air battles between the Corsair and the Zeke in 1943 and early 1944 over the southwest Pacific were generally quite equal, about one to one. This was a very different result than the idea that is so prevalent due to reading sources that only quote American pilots' accounts and take these at face value.
Horrido!
Leo
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Leo, I'm a huge fan of Claringbould, but I have not read THAT volume (though it sounds very interesting!); however I read the Unit History for VMF 214, by Gamble--I WAS surprised that, early on, they took pretty substantial losses in air to air combat (2000 hp Pratt and Whitney or not, more than a few pilots learned the hard way that a Zero could sometimes climb faster than an F4U). Now that Claringbould is turning his attention to include the air battles of the Solomons, I'm sure he's going to break everything down.