Aces, pt 3 - Erich Rudorfler 222 victories.jpg (1/1)

[Mitchell Holman]

[Hans Holbein]

Mitchell Holman schrieb:

Did the germans hav an other mthod of counting victories or was it the
sheer ammount of sorties they had to fly which gave them the possibility
and experience to collect so many victories?

[Mitchell Holman]

Hans Holbein > wrote in news:fv4809$fgs$1
@newsreader2.utanet.at:

> Mitchell Holman schrieb:
>
> Did the germans hav an other mthod of counting victories or was it the
> sheer ammount of sorties they had to fly which gave them the possibility
> and experience to collect so many victories?


Many of their victories came in combats with Poles,
Greeks, Finns, Spaniards, and later on Russians, all
of whom were flying obsolete planes, so the victories
came relatively easy. Hence their optimism at the start
of the Battle of Britain, and thus their shock at fighting
planes and pilots as good as they were. Also they didn't
have a rotation program, so they fought until they died,
not until they reached X number of missions. The Luftwaffe
had more aces, but they still lost control of their airspace
to greater quantity of allied planes and pilots.