Marseille's victory claim disputed

[Graham Boak]

Originally Posted by Nokose

From the interview I understood Mr. Golding to say that Marseille claimed 6 victories but his "Press agent" stated 10. There were 5 actual losses. Were there any forced landings that were recovered and thus not included as losses. I can see a pilot shooting down an aircraft and honestly claiming a victory but then later on its recovered and repaired. So in the unit records its showing up as only no loss or only a few losses.

If the force-landing was at its home base (or other friendly) it would be recorded as such, as shown above, but not as being shot-down in combat. A force-landing in the desert away from the base would be recorded as a loss to the unit: if the aircraft was later recovered (and repairable) it would be taken away to the repair MU and may or may not go back to the same unit later - probably not.