[Nick Beale]

I'd noticed that some of the top scorers baled out many times. I suspect that one secret of a long career was realising quickly that your machine was probably past saving and getting out.

As for experience levels, I can remember from researching Air War Italy 1944-45 a couple of cases where RAF pilots shot down Axis ones on what the ORB noted was either the Squadron's or the individual's first ever encounter with enemy aircraft in the air. That seems to point to the quality of Allied training.