Quote:
Originally Posted by Furio
This is a well-known fact. It should be considered that USAAF calculated the risk for a loss rate of around 5%, considering 10% a prohibitive limit, and the 25 missions mark was not easy to reach.
The only explanation I can think of is different duration of missions. Fortresses and Liberators flew for hours over enemy held territory, while a Stuka based near frontline could possibly complete a mission in a matter of minutes, facing, however, a much more dangerous anti-aircraft fire at low level.
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I seriously doubt AAA fire at low level was more dangerous than what initially the level bombers faced. Targets were well defended by AA, and the straight and level flying masses of bombers made even the low hit probabilities of high alt FlaK a real serious threat. Anti tank planes usually do not hunt for tanks far behind the frontlines, most of the time when used against enemy advances there is not that much FlaK to be expected -on the march forward it is either too slow or lacks protection. And unlike Germany the Soviets were not too keen on FlaKpanzers, so I'd bet the biggest threat to a Stuka pilot was enemy fighters - which made it a pretty risky job - but maybe not on par with USAAF bombers crews.
Quote:
Originally Posted by swiss
The USAAF had replacement pilots which put them in the comfortable position to come up with the tour of duty system.
The Germans on the other hand did not - their tour of duty was over with their death/capture.
Most Germans aces had flown a ridiculous amount of missions till they were shot down and killed.
Most German aces actually were killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...nd_attack_aces |
Now I'm getting doubts, more missions than everyone else, okay. More victories, okay. But significantly more kills/mission than everyone else on top -and that by a large margin -around double. Either they let him have a lot of easy kills -or he made them easier.