I just finished reading the cover story in this months FSM. (Planes of WWII Aces!) The Question or Questions I had are.
1.) How can you shoot down or have 10.3, 16.25, 17.75 Planes or Victories?
2.) To be an Ace you have to have 5 of the above mentioned, do these have to be fighters or can they be bombers, or both and is there a different classification for each?
3.) What Status did the guys that were gunners on the bombers get for shooting a certain number of fighters down, and was there a specific number for them?
I can answer #1. Sometimes there were more than one plane shooting at the same one so the “kill” is split. Two pilots geting half a kill! Fairly certain there were no distinction between getting a bomber or fighter to attain Ace status other than from your peers who got all fighters.
Allies used what what they called shared victories. The luftwaffe confirmed kill method was more strict. Shared kill would be if you put rounds into a emeny fighter and I put rounds into him too and he goes down we would each be credited with 1/2 a kill. Some of the luftwaffe aces were really giving the allies a but kicking. they also had very distintive aircraft. Some confussion as to rather this was an order or just a policy among the pilots but if they saw them they would send 4,8 or in one case 10 allied fighters after them. It was the only way to keep them off the bombers and still have a chance of shooting him down. when they did shoot them down the ones involved all shared the kill. By wars end the luftwaffe had 2 types of pilots cadets with no training and very experienced well trained aces that just wouldn’t stay down. As you would guess the cadets were nothing more that gun fodder most of th time and the aces or experten were nearly impossible to shoot down one on one.
The allies 5 kills made you an ace in the luftwaffe 5 kills was a good start. you didn’t even qualify for a medal at 5. experten started at 20 kills.
As far as the bomber gunners I have no idea, but i’m sure someone no here does.
Ya,the 20 kills part was at the beginning. It got harder as the war went on. The ante for the Knight’s Cross,and the additional awards(swords,oak leaves,diamonds) got a lot higher.
On the gunners,I think they received as much credit for kills as the fighter pilots.
Bud Fortier flew P-47’s and P-51’s over Europe from 43 to 45.
I certainly enjoyed the article in FSM. What a great way to pay tribute to the best fighter pilots in the world. I just hope that the Gentilemen Aces don’t get burried in models sent to them for signing.
Of course, you gotta remember that American pilots (bomber crews at least, probably the fighter boys, too) served tours of duty, returning home after a set number of missions/sorties/whatevers. Luftwaffe pilots flew until they were shot down or captured. That’s why many Luftwaffe aces have such ungodly high kill scores in addition to the US “shared kill” policy.
And a lot of them had flown for the COndor Legion in '37-'38 and then fought in Poland in '39 and then the Russians. None of these are forces could put were technologically matched for the Luftwaffe. And, America entered the war in late '41 when Germany had been at war for 2 years.