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It has been stated that during WWI the Central Powers as well as the United Kingdom specified an ace as a pilot with 10 or more confirmed "kills" but no authoritative sources have emerged to support the claim. Germany had no ace system such as the French but instead popularized its "Jagdflieger" who had destroyed an escalating number of Allied aircraft. Britain had no ace system at all and in fact published no victory lists comparable to the French or Germans. Different air services had different victory credit systems. The "purest" was Germany's which credited only one victory to one pilot, and only for enemy planes assessed as destroyed or captured. Most other nations adopted the French system of granting full credit to every pilot or aerial gunner participating in a victory, sometimes as many as six or seven individuals. The British furthermore credited "moral victories" in such categories as "driven down", "forced to land", and "out of control". To a lesser extent so did the U.S. Air Service. Top American ace Edward V. Rickenbacker's 26 victories included ten planes "out of control", several "dived east", and two grounded Observation Balloons . None of those would have been credited in later wars. In World War II the Western air forces generally credited fractional shares of aerial victories, resulting in decimal scores such as 11.50 or 26.83. Some U.S. commands also credited aircraft destroyed on the ground as equal to aerial victories. The Soviets distinguished between solo and group kills, as did the Japanese, though the Japanese Navy stopped crediting individual victories in 1943. The Germans continued their inevitable rule of "one pilot, one kill." The Soviet Union had the world's only female aces. During World War II, flying as part of the all-female 586 IAP , Katya Budanova achieved 11 and Lydia Litvyak scored 12 victories. Despite official figures, very few recognized aces actually shot down as many aircraft as credited to them. The primary reason for inaccurate victory claims is the inherent confusion of three-dimensional, highspeed combat, but competitiveness and the desire for recognition also figure in the mix. Consequently, errors of 50 to 100% and more are common in air combat. In the Korean War , both the U.S. and Russian air arms claimed 10 to 1 victory-loss ratios. The most accurate figures usually belong to the air arm fighting over its own territory, where wrecks can be counted. For instance, in World War I, Manfred Von Richthofen is known to have shot down at least 73 of the 80 planes credited. See ''Under the Guns of the Red Baron'' by Franks, Giblin, and MacReady. ''Ace'' is also used to refer to non-aviators who have distinguished themselves by sinking Ships , destroying Tanks , etc. (e.g. Aces Of The Deep ). WORLD WAR I Of the thirty-two aces, seventeen died during the conflict. SPANISH CIVIL WAR WORLD WAR II KOREAN WAR VIETNAM WAR 1existence disputed - reportedly shot down by Randy "Duke" Cunningham and William Driscoll 10 May 1972 2Advisor to NVPAF 3Cunningham and Ritchie were the only USA pilot aces of the Vietnam conflict. ARAB-ISRAELI WARS INDO-PAKISTANI WARS 5) Multiple footnotes to the same reference: see for a how-to. NOTE: It is important to add footnotes in the right order in the list! --> |
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