Previously Leo said...
"Thanks for your reply. The Rickenbacker story I will have to research and get back to you, but it went something like after the war was over Billy invited US pilots to make claims on enemy aircraft which many of them did. All claims were granted. I promise to research this and get back to you. I read the article in the last couple of days, so I know it is here.
By the way, does this mean that the German figures for kills has more validity than the Allied ones? How about the K u K airforce? How did they establish a claim?
An old history teacher and VERY amateur historian"
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Regarding Rickenbacker and everyone else. When you say "Billy invited US Pilots...", are you referring to
Billy Bishop?? I don't see how he could have authority to grant credit for claims placed by the USAS. He wasn't in such a position. In fact he was seperated from the service not long after the armistice, so he had no standing in that manner whatsoever.
And what is the "K u K Airforce"?
AND, firstly, the correct term is victory. Whenever a WWI pilot put in a claim for a downed aircraft, it was termed a "Victory claim". As I said before, the RFC granted "victory claims" for aircraft that were not necessarily destroyed. The French did to, but to a lesser degree. The Germans only granted victory claims for destroyed/captured enemy aircraft....as far as I know.
Basically, that's why German claims are closer to the actual number of lost Allied aircraft, and why Allied claims exceed German Losses, that and the Allies gave full credit for shared claims.
So far as I know, the German system was one claim to one pilot. In the event that more than one claimed the same victory, they resolved it in a variety of methods. In some cases it went to the person with the lower score, others drew cards, or by some other method not currently known.
VBR,
Al Lowe
2-bit amateur aviation historian and/or enthusiast, and wannabe history teacher.
