Bill Whisner 487th FS anomalies

[keith A]

I found a book in my attic that I bought years ago. "George Preddy - Top Mustang Ace" by Joe Noah and Samuel Sox (published 1991). In it it states Whisner was not officially credited with a victory on April 30, 1944 and that he was finally credited with on November 21, 1944, when he claimed six kills and a probable in 1978 at the time in 1944 this was reduced to five and two probables.

This would mean that at the end of WW2 he was credited this fourteen kills (one shared) rather than sixteen (one shared). Was this reflected in the period 1945-77?

Was the April 30 1944 kill awarded by the USAAF later? The book itself makes a great case for the claim being insubstantial and convincingly gives the revised tally assessment of 1978 as evidence.

Do not mistake me. Whisner was a cracking good fighter pilot, a favourite subject of mine and I am quibbling about stats but as always it's about the fine details. It reduces his victory tally by one...

[keith A]

Apologies for my editing. The phrase "he was finally credited with on November 21, 1944, when he claimed six kills and a probable in 1978 at the time in 1944 this was reduced to five and two probables." in English this is "he claimed six kills and a probable on November 21 1944, but this was reduced to five kills and two probables at the time until revised again in 1978 to his original claims".��

[RSwank]

It looks like the Aerial Victories are not currently available online at AFHRA:

https://www.afhra.af.mil/Information...ctory-Credits/

There are various lists on Jan J Safarik's Aces website. The US lists are here:
http://aces.safarikovi.org/usa.warti...y.credits.html

And his AAF WWII list by name is here:
http://aces.safarikovi.org/victories...ii-by.name.pdf

It appears that list shows 15.5 victories for Whisner.

It is not clear which "version"/"Date" of the list is being displayed.

[KM1957]

The Victory Credit Board awarded Whisner a total of 15.5-2-0 and USAF Study #85 credits him with 15.5 victories. The difference is the Board awarded a kill on April 30 and "only" 5 on November 21. Study #85 does not show the April 30 claim but awards 6 victories on November 21.

Kent

[keith A]

Thanks chaps.

[keith A]

Thanks chaps.

[keith A]

Just saw a newspaper clipping from November 1944 which states he had ten and a half victories including six on November 21 so his April 30, 1944 kill was being counted sort-of-officially by then.