[Blenheim]

Hi Rob Romero,

The subject of accuracy in victory claims is a thorny one and, in my view, unlikely ever to be totally resolved in any meaningful sense, either on an individual basis or one more widely based. But there is certainly room for adjustment in some of the claims that we see listed in all sorts of sources and which apparently have been taken as “good” (I use this word in the sense of acceptable to all concerned at the time) by researchers and other interested parties.

We are all aware of the many reasons for a claim being made which is eventually revealed to be incorrect, even if it is allowed by the claimant’s authorities, and in many cases the claim was made in all good faith and in the belief by the pilot concerned that he had shot down the aircraft claimed. But all the good faith in the world cannot alter the simple fact that in the turmoil of a life or death combat, nobody can be absolutely certain that they have shot down a particular aircraft in every case. Very often detailed research will show which claims are true and which are not and even if this is not the case it can often be shown that an overall total is overstated. For instance, on 13th August 1940 eight pilots of 5./JG 77 claimed fifteen Blenheims shot down and these claims were confirmed. But there were only eleven Blenheims present in the action in the vicinity of Aalberg Airfield and although all were lost, it is possible, probable even, that some of them were shot down by flak. In this case it is extremely unlikely that anybody will ever be able to say which Bf 109 pilot shot down which Blenheim and which was a victim of the flak, but we can at least reduce the total claimed to a true figure. What we cannot do with any authority is say that such-and-such a pilot’s claims total should be reduced by one because the Blenheim he claimed on 13th August 1940 was shot down by flak, or by another pilot, but not by him. In other words we can correct the overall total for that battle but individual totals we cannot. No doubt there are many other instances where the same can be said although probably not as many where it will be as simple.

The idea, as is described by one of the correspondents in this thread, of assigning a percentage figure to a total of claims and hoping that this will allow you to arrive at a more acceptable figure in the case of a larger area such as a theatre or a large battle covering several days and hundreds of square miles is the coarsest of generalisations and like all such can never even approach a reasonable degree of accuracy but, in the event, is probably the only way in which to progress when considering large totals of claims such as for a whole theatre or a large and extended battle. The alternative would, I suspect, involve a research effort taking an unimaginable amount of time with no guarantee of success. However, this sort of detailed research is possible in connection with more limited areas as shown above.

Therefore, and this is merely a very sketchy thought which would require considerable development, and I am happy to discuss it with you, it seems to me that the way to go on this idea of yours (that I agree is very important from the point of view of historical researchers such as us) is to have a sort of central point, one person who might be regarded as a sort of “repository” of claims research, in whose person is gathered everything and anything in the way of research that can correct any of the possibly false claims which abound, and to whom other people can send the results of their research for collation into an overall database. (Was that or was that not one Hell of a sentence for the poor old English language?) Rob Romero, you have already said you are interested in producing a database of verifiable victories and would thus seem to be the obvious person to fill the role of “repository”, and perhaps, if we can collect enough people who each work at one area (be it one aircraft type, one fighter unit, one theatre or what have you) it might be possible for you to start to construct such a database. I am prepared to contribute whatever I find regarding Bristol Blenheims shot down, so there is a small start.

Those are my thoughts, anybody else have any ideas to offer? Please let’s hear them and, Rob Romero, now you’ve started this, let’s hear your thoughts on what I have offered above. I am of the opinion that what you have said, and the responses it has drawn, can only assist the cause of the researches we are all interested in, and I for one am prepared to help you with the database you mention, albeit in only a small way and concerning one type of aircraft.

All the best,

Blenheim

PS There are two threads on this subject. To which should we post?