Ace in a day

[alex crawford]

Hi,

I'm very interested in the pilots who claimed 5 or more victories in one day to achieve the status ace in a day.

From Aces High by Chris Shores I have found the following pilots who achieved this momentous task.

Nicholas Gresham Cooke 10 264 Sqn 29/05/40
Charles Harold Dyson 7 33 Sqn 11/12/40
M T St J Pattle 7 33 Sqn 19/04/41
Leslie Redford Clisby 6 1 Sqn 12/05/40
Albert Gerald Lewis 6 249 Sqn 27/09/40
Michael Hugh Young 6 264 Sqn 29/05/40
John Watson Allan 5 256 Sqn 15-16/10/43
Richard Joseph Audet 5 411 Sqn 29/12/42
Adrian Hope Boyd 5 145 Sqn 08/08/40
Clive Robertson Caldwell 5 250 Sqn 05/12/41
Brian J G Carbury 5 306 Sqn 31/08/40
Frank Reginald Carey 5 3 Sqn 10/05/40
Frank Reginald Carey 5 3 Sqn 13/05/40
Richard John Cork 5 880 Sqn 12/08/40
Richard Nigel Cullen 5 80 Sqn 28/02/41
Alwyn Berriman Downing 5 600 Sqn 30/04/43
Gerald Richmond Edge 5 605 Sqn 25/05/40
Antoni Glowacki 5 501 Sqn 24/08/40
Ronald Fairfax Hamlyn 5 610 Sqn 24/08/40
Albert Gerald Lewis 5 85 Sqn 19/5/40
James A F MaLachlan 5 261 Sqn 19/01/41
John K U B McGrath 5 601 Sqn 13/08/40
Archibald A McKellar 5 605 Sqn 07/10/40
M T St J Pattle 5 33 Sqn 14/04/41
Charles Curnow Scherf 5 418 Sqn 16/05/43

Thought I'd carry out some further research into Allied pilots claiming 5 or more in a single day. So how many other Allied pilots achieved this feat.

My spacing doesn't seem to have worked. The columns should be pilot, claims, Sqn, date.

Alex

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Alex, are you interested only in RAF pilots or in any Allied force ?

And will you consider shared kills or not ? French pilots became aces once they had five kills, shared or not as they were counted the same in French records.

[alex crawford]

Hi Laurent,

I'll consider shared kills and pilots of any Allied Air Force, but they must be air-to-air. 4 pilots on my list had shared claims, plus a couple had 1-2 unconfirmed. But pilots must have made 5 or more kills in one day.

Alex

[Nick Beale]

And are you just looking for officially accredited kills or do you want to establish what aircraft the other side actually lost?

Claims and losses have an annoying habit of not always matching up!

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Here are three French "aces in one day"

8 June 1940
Cne Robert Willame of GC I/2 shot down 3 Me109 and 3 Ju87 over France (a Ju87 shared with another pilot and a Me109 shared with two other pilots)

15 June 1940
Pierre Le Gloan of GC III/6 claimed 4 CR42 (two shared with another pilot) and a BR20 over Southern France.

8 November 1942
George Blanck of GC III/3 shot down 2 Albacores and 3 shared C-47 during the Torch landings (the C-47s were shared with 3 other pilots).

I believe there were no others. I was guessing I will find one in Normandie-Niemen on the Eastern Front but if several pilots claimed 4 victories in one day, none reached the 5-kills mark as far as I have found.

And for a partial list for American pilots, see the following link (only for P-51 pilot):
http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51...ceinaday.shtml
A "complete" list is available here:
http://math.fce.vutbr.cz/safarik/ACE...1/usa-top.html
But I doubt that all USN/USMC ace-in-a-day are in the list.
And you will find the story of the last American ace in a day here:
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/perdomo/perdomo.htm

Antoni Glowacki that you have in your list is according to my sources the only Polish ace in a day.

A list of Soviet "ace-in-a-day" is available here:
http://math.fce.vutbr.cz/safarik/ACE.../sssr-top.html

[alex crawford]

Hi Laurent,

Thanks for the French and American details. This gives me a starting off point for further detailed research.

Nick

What I would like to do is establish the official score and then try and tie this in with actual losses. From experience I know that this is not as easy as it sounds.

If anyone can help with further details of these claims then that would be appreciated. I only came up with this idea today and I think it wil make a very interesting project.

What I have found out is that of the 25 claims by RAF pilots, 3 of which claimed this feat twice, 16 of them flew Hurricanes and 17 occured in 1940, 4 in 1941, 1 in 1942 and 3 in 1943. I guess there was a lack of targets in 1944 and '45.

Alex

[Dénes Bernád]

If you're also interested in Axis pilots, there were many so-called 'ace-in-a-day', obviously mainly Luftwaffe pilots, but including at least one Rumanian, too.

[Sabredog]

Alex,
According to the American Fighter Aces Assoc., there were the following number of aces in a day in WW II. 55 Navy, 10 Marine and 40 USAAF. Don't imagine all of them would qualify under your listing (ie some with ground kills). Might try contacting: The American Fighter Aces Association 4636 Falcon Circle Drive Mesa, AZ 85205

Regards,
Hugh

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo Alex,

While I do not have it I seem to recall a book published about 10 years ago specifically dealing with the American 'aces-in-a-day'. I believe the author was William Hess. I cannot recall or find the exact title at this time.
Perhaps someone else can provide more details ?

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.

[Frank Olynyk]

William N Hess: America's Aces in a Day. 1996, Voyageur Press.

The American Fighter Aces Association is no longer located at the Champlin Fighter Museum. It has moved (along with Doug Champlin's fighter collection) to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Frank.