Luftwaffe Myths

[Kildlawyrs]

I can only agree with John Vasco. Over claiming was indeed a problem on both sides. If one looks at the complexities of aerial combat it becomes abundantly clear why this this is so. The confused arena of a swirling fight coupled with the not insubstatial demands of flying the aircraft and all the time trying not to get shot down, would naturally make absolute confirmation difficult if not impossible many times. Also, it should be noted that it would be easy to have two (or more) aircraft attacking the same target and yet not be aware of each other's presence. It is not that the individual pilots were liars, far from it. Conditions simply were what they were.

I previously had mentioned Japanese ace Saburo Sakai. As an interesting aside, I met this gentleman back in the early 1990s. A warmer and more friendly individual would be harder imagine. He told me some rather interesting tales about aerial combat in general, as well as some philosphical ideas he had about the whole matter. For him, personal victories were of little consequence. Rather, what was important to him was being a good leader and bringing home his wing men unscathed (which he always did). Although he was officially credited with 64 victories, he himself believed the true number to be somewhere around 25. I bring this matter up, because air to air combat, whether in the European theatre or the the Pacific one, by force tended towards similarities.

Just a thought?