Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: kluksdah@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (Norman C. Kluksdahl)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: German claims in WW2
Summary: scoring kills by bomber gunners
Message-ID: <7520@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 16 Jun 89 03:34:19 GMT
References: <7285@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7434@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Arizona State Univ, Tempe
Lines: 29
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: kluksdah@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (Norman C. Kluksdahl)
In article <7434@cbnews.ATT.COM>, welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty) writes:
> In article <7285@cbnews.ATT.COM>, Amos Shapira writes: 
> 
> = The british, french, US, and Italian were VERY simple- EVERYONE who fired
> =(participated) at a german plane which ostensibly fell, got a partial score
> 
> it seemed like most of the confusion in scores comes from multiple claims
> by AA crews on various vessels in task forces.
> 
And then there is the confusion over kills by gunners in US bombers.  (ref:
"Flying Forts" by Martin Caiden, among other books).  At first, the gunners
were eager to claim anything they fired at which fell as a kill.  With a
formation of dozens of bombers (early in the efforts of the 8th), there were
many 'duplicate' kills, sufficiently so that the rules were very severly
revised.  Jokes sprang up to the effect that claiming a kill was next to 
impossible.  Somewhere (a museum?  CAF museum?) I saw a comic poster, which
had a waist gunner watching an enemy plane break up.  The other waist gunner
asked if he was going to claim a kill--the reply, no, he didn't see it hit
the ground.  

**********************************************************************
Norman Kluksdahl              Arizona State University
            ..ncar!noao!asuvax!enuxha!kluksdah
alternate:   kluksdah@enuxc1.eas.asu.edu

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