Me's vs Spits over North Africa: Who were those guys?

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Originally Posted by Graham Boak

Another point that should be made, is how JG.27's successes were heavily dependent upon a few star pilots that were cossetted by their fellows to an extent unknown in the Allied forces. This lead to morale collapse when the aces were lost (witness after Marseille's death), and a lack of experience in depth. The "ordinary" feldwebel in JG 27 was probably very ordinary indeed.

The pilots in Loomis's story are likely to be very identifiable indeed, when the actual incident is convincingly established.

I don't think JG 27 was different from any German fighter unit at the time. The German combat made and victory award system both gave more "victories" to aces than pilots with a weak score. Most units had a few star scoring most of the victories of the unit, while new pilots learned their skill by flying wingmen and begin to score victories months after arriving in the unit... and begin to really score and become aces when they became Rotte-leaders or even Scharm-leaders, if they survive until then.