Bulgarian Aces

[Flak Magnet]

As I compile my bios on aces of World War II I've come across I guess what would be considered an "editorial" decision regarding on who would qualify as an ace. I initially was using the figure of five confirmed air to air kills as the requirement as entry into this league of honor.
Now comes the Bulgarians. Initially I thought this was a no brainer. I came across Stoyan Iliev Stoyanov. The initial score I read was 14 from one source, so I started preparing the bio. Then I discovered that the Royal Bulgarian Air Force had a point system. If I remember what I read correctly it was three points for a confirmed kill, 2 points for a probable, and one point for a damaged aircraft.
In checking his individual claims, I found that Stoyanov had only four confirmed kills and one shared. Leaving him a bit short of the five required for entry.
So I thought I would check in with the learned experts on this forum. Just trying to get an opinion if you would consider the Bulgarian pilots as aces, or are they pilots falling into the honorable mention category?

Thanks,

Flak Magnet

[Franek Grabowski]

Various forces had a different approach to the ace title, some did not recognise it at all! Therefore it is entirely your decision, what approach to chose. I accept the approach of Christopher Shores, who recognises individual and shared kills as equal, and considers an ace a man with five aircraft destroyed.
PS It would be much more pleasant to discuss with a man with a real name.

[Dénes Bernád]

Mr. Magnet, I second Franek's opinion on both points.

Let me remind you that not only the Bulgarians, but the Rumanians too had a different system, awarding 'victories' (not points!) to the victor depending on the number of engines of the victim, for all 'kills' confirmed or not.

[Flak Magnet]

Thank you for the input. Admittedly I haven't had the opportunity to do much with the Rumanians yet. However, they are on my to do list. As far as establishing my own personal standard on what it would take to be considered an ace.....who am I to cross swords with Christopher Shores.

Thanks,

Billy

[Franek Grabowski]

Well, any duel is possible as long as you can stand up to the level.

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, guys

Just a thought - why not list pilots that had an interesting story and maybe stop focusing on this number of kills ace business?

I am sure there are several very interesting stories to tell especially about pilots from the lesser known air forces even if these guys weren't credited with x kills. And the picture would be less complete without their story??

And a lot of highly skilled wingmen seems to have scored very few kills while their flight leaders scored multiple times this limit...

Regards,
Andreas B

[Flak Magnet]

Hi Andreas,
I agree with the fact that many pilots who had not reached ace status have interesting and riveting accounts regarding there own contributions to the war effort, regardless of uniform, the task in front of me at present is bios on the aces alone. A pretty formidable project at that. But, time allotted on earth permitted, I might get to some of the accounts of other pilots.

Thanks,

Billy