Werner M

[patchz]

[color=#000000]Werner M

[expat]

[color=#000000] He died in the crash of an airplane in which he was a passenger.

The irony was probably not lost on him in those last few seconds!

Matt

[H]

[color=#003300]I'm currently sanitizing and prepping old family photos for transport (many from the early 1900s, plus those of my own). Ever had dates pop out at you from this sort of a post?

26 February -- M

[Hagar]

[quote]M

[H]

Have you ever wondered why the Luftwaffe fighter pilots in WWII claimed so many more victories than the top-scoring allied aces?

This doesn't really account for that great a difference but, at the start of WWII, most German pilots were already war-experienced, to some degree or another, and outnumbered experienced adversaries. Many counts may also have been from targets that weren't able to shoot back at the war's start. They really didn't start losing but a few of their experienced pilots until the Battle of Britain. On that note, your RAF had thinned out the number of targets a bit before the U.S. pilots joined the fray; the balance of numbers also quickly reversed drastically upon the U.S. entry, reducing the number of adversaries per Allied pilot.

8-)

[patchz]

[color=#000000]This brings to mind the old TV show, Laugh-In. I can never remember whether it was Henry Gibson or Arte Johnson, (Johnson, I think) wearing a German uniform and helmet and saying, "very interesting".

[beaky]

Have you ever wondered why the Luftwaffe fighter pilots in WWII claimed so many more victories than the top-scoring allied aces? Almost 100 Luftwaffe pilots were credited with 100 or more victories.

That's easy to answer: most of them were first trained in gliders.

[C]

[quote][quote]M

[patchz]

[quote][quote][quote]M

[olderndirt]

Regardless of participant nation criteria, when you get past five kills (ace) you've already separated yourself from your peer group.