ajcooper . # .

Aces scoring: No surprise there. Yeats\' \'Winged victory\' is very clear on why the aces did all the scoring: the flight leader (usually of a five-aircraft vic)maneuvred his flights to achieve a bounce. When they dove, it was the leader who got the shot. The said leader was very often the A, B, or C Flight commander (usually a Captain, or Flt Lt after the RAF was created), but was often one of the other more senior pilots in the Flight. In the event of things deteriorating & the engagement becoming a free for all, other pilots got an opportunity to shoot, but the best opportunity for scoring was the initial bounce. Hence the leaders racked up the scores. Another aspect of aces\' dominantion of squadron scores was that they survived: they had four aircraft behind them for the Huns to pick off in the event of they themselves being bounced. Flights typically lost \'garden variety\' pilots to Hun bounces, not leaders. The latter were also more situation-aware, of course.