Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Nikademus

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ORIGINAL: inqistor

Interesting fact is that in Red Army, soldiers got Money Reward for destroying enemy vehicles, so it could mean, that their claims are closest to truth. After all, there was enough "political officers" to check every claim, and "reeducate" anyone, who tried to steal money of "Party".

Money rewards tend to increase post-war suspicion on the authenticity of claims. The best example was the AVG in Burma. Being paid cash bounties made them mercenaries and there were rumors of "bought claims" though author Daniel Ford disputes this heavily in his revised edition. Shores is neutral on the topic. Even discounting this completely, being compensated for each confirmed kills can't but influence a pilot's thought processes after the heat of battle.

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I love Sakai's book but everyone has to remember that it is not a work of history but a memior. Memiors tend to be fun reads but should not be considered as accurate as primary historical documents. Sakai was writing his book well after the events took place and was also writing his book with English speaking (read American) readers in mind. Considering that, his praise of Allied pilots should be taken with a grain of salt as he may have been just trying to be polite. I am not slamming the book but memiors should be read with the thought that the first person the memiorist (is that a word? ) is serving is the writer himself. A good example would be Genda's memiors which were used to back up a lot of history works but has come under a lot of fire in recent years.

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ORIGINAL: LoBaron

I always wondered about the DC-3 interception story.

The only reference I ever found was here:
http://www.acestory.elknet.pl/sakai/sakai.htm

While I usually like reading through all the stories there I am not sure about the historical accuracy of most and some at least
"sound" like the hero tale you would tell your grandchildren with a grain of truth in the middle.
I thought "Samurai" a stunning read, and Sakai is one of the pilots I am fascinated with because for his obvious skill, his bravery and
the way he integrated bushido into is personal honor codex which probably helped him to stay sane in situations I cannot even imagine.

Do you know of any other source which refers to the story about the transport plane except for the link above Chez?

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Here's an interesting story ...
Several years ago, a former Dutch military nurse contacted the Japanese Military, attempting to locate a Japanese fighter pilot that spared her life over New Guinea in 1942. She was flying in a Dutch military C-47 at low altitude over dense jungle. On board were 11 wounded soldiers and 6 children being evacuated from a combat area. Suddenly, a Japanese Zero appeared alongside the plane. It is not hard to imagine their panic as she and the children began frantically waving, hoping to ward off an attack. After a few moments of terror, the Zero pilot waved back, gave a quick wing wobble and flew away. The C-47 erupted with cheers.
For over fifty years, this Dutch nurse wanted to meet the pilot who had spared their lives. The Japanese Military located that pilot and it was none other than Saburo Sakai, who had been flying combat air patrol on that day. Sakai had thought about downing the C-47 for a moment as was the order of the day, but seeing the waving hands and terrified faces, he was moved to mercy.
Here's how Saburo tells it in one of his last interviews which can be read by following a link at the bottom of this page:

"It was me. That was in the Dutch East Indies. This was during the bombing of Java. The order was to shoot down any aircraft over Java. I was over Java and had just shot down an enemy aircraft when I saw a big black aircraft coming towards me. I saw that it was a civilian aircraft - a DC-4. As I flew closer I saw that it was full of passengers. Some were even having to stand. I thought that these might be important people fleeing, so I signaled to the pilot to follow me. The pilot of the aircraft was courageous enough not to follow me so I came down and got much closer. Through one of the round windows I saw a blonde woman, a mother with a child about three years old. So I thought I shouldn't kill them. As a child I went to a middle school for two years, a school I was later expelled from. While I was there I was taught by an American, Mr. Martin, and his wife came to the class to teach us while her husband or the other teachers were away. She was good to me. And that woman in the airplane looked like Mrs. Martin. So I thought that I shouldn't kill them. So I flew ahead of the pilot and signaled him to go ahead. Then the people in the plane saluted. The pilot saluted me and the passengers. I didn't know where it went: either to the United States or Australia. I couldn't find out. But a few years ago I came to find out where that plane went - back to Holland. Newspapermen from Holland came to visit me to find out if it was true. Well, anyway, I didn't respect my orders that day but I still think I did the right thing. I was ordered to shoot down any aircraft, but I couldn't live with myself doing that. I believed that we should fight a war against soldiers; not civilians."

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ORIGINAL: crsutton

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ORIGINAL: m10bob

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ORIGINAL: Frank

How "underpowered" was a Zero compared to a Corsair?
Do you claim, that US Aces were only shooting down secondclass fighters and therefore should not be some kind of elite, too?

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ORIGINAL: m10bob

As in WW1., we armchair generals really need to look at the kinds of planes shot down..

For instance, a lot of von Richtofens' planes were FB2's and BE2's, RE8's, planes vastly under-powered, under-armed and not even fighters in many cases.

Sakai shot down old planes like Curtiss Hawk biplanes in China flying a Claude (very good plane for its' day), before going against Brewsters, P 39's, and the like, until being shot down by a rear firing gunner in a plane he thought was a single seater from what he thought was a position of advantage..

You missed my point 100%.

Read Saburo Sakai's book. Even he remarks on the poor quality of the planes they encountered for the first months of the war in the DEI and northern Australia..
He did not however detract from the allied pilots in any way.
The OP and some of the following posters were remarking on the inflated claims of some of the Japanese pilots.

My comment was that before looking at victory claims, (like Erick Hartmann,s 352, for instance), one might guage the type of plane that was shot down, the odds of the individual battle.

I love Sakai's book but everyone has to remember that it is not a work of history but a memior. Memiors tend to be fun reads but should not be considered as accurate as primary historical documents. Sakai was writing his book well after the events took place and was also writing his book with English speaking (read American) readers in mind. Considering that, his praise of Allied pilots should be taken with a grain of salt as he may have been just trying to be polite. I am not slamming the book but memiors should be read with the thought that the first person the memiorist (is that a word? ) is serving is the writer himself. A good example would be Genda's memiors which were used to back up a lot of history works but has come under a lot of fire in recent years.

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ORIGINAL: obvert

About Boyington. Obviously a great pilot and ace in two major arenas of the war. (And of course a childhood hero of mine watching Bah-Bah Blacksheep).

Why is it then that in May 42 he has NO kills in the AVG, in spite of being at 80 exp and having flown over 90 missions? Seems a bit strange when there are 30 other pilots in the squad, all with at least 1 kill, and many with lower scores in every category.

Any ideas? Is he just sitting at 20,000 directing traffic?

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The AVG didn't fight before Dec 7th, 1941, though, so this can't be the issue.

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I guess it makes it easier for the researchers to not have to look up thousands of pilot's pre-game back stories that could lead to protest about their favourite pilot missing some "kills."