Fighter Kill claims - airplanes on the ground

[TAIPAN_]

In Il-2 BoX there's quite alot of "parked planes" and kills of planes on the ground. Especially in career mode and airfield attacks.

The game counts these as actual plane kills.

 

I'm curious how this was treated in the war for each side, did an ace rack up kills when strafing or bombing parked planes? Or were they counted as ground targets only?

 

[busdriver]

The USAAF's 8th AF was particularly aggressive about awarding “credit” for destruction of enemy aircraft on the ground. A nice overview that covers the perspective for each of the major combatants is Combat Kill by Hugh Morgan & Jurgen Seibel.

 

edit: Checked the book but it doesn’t really go into credits for ground destruction. Page 83 shows the criteria according to USSTAF Regulation 80-6 (8 May 1944). 

2nd edit: To reflect that 8th AF rather than the entire USAAF was aggressive about crediting destruction of aircraft on the ground. 

Edited July 24, 2020 by busdriver

[LukeFF]

I know that in the official lists of victories credited to US Army Air Force pilots, aircraft destroyed on the ground did not count towards their total number of aircraft shot down. Same deal with the RAF. 

Edited July 24, 2020 by LukeFF

[busdriver]

@LukeFF is exactly right. The official list (a nearly 700 page volume) titled USAF Credits For The Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II does not include aircraft destroyed on the ground (or V-1s). Frequently authors/historians up through the 1980s writing about USAAF fighter pilots in Europe specifically mentioned credits for aerial victories and ground victories. 

 

However the USAAF official 1944 guidance/criteria states:

 

b. Aircraft not in flight shall be considered destroyed when:

1. Seen by photograph to have been blown apart or burned out.

2. Seen by strike photo to have been within unobserved lethal radius of a fragmentation bomb.

3. Seen to sink in deep water.

4. Known to have been aboard a carrier or other ship at time of confirmed sinking.

 

According to Frank Olynyk's introduction to Stars & Bars the reviewing mechanism for awarding credits varied greatly among the various USAAF numbered Air Forces. The 8th AF had the most extensive process in that the Victory Credit Board "... reviewed all claims for damage to the enemy by its pilots. This included everything from aircraft in the air or on the ground, to any targets attacked on the ground, from locomotives to bicycles." No other numbered Air Force came close to this degree of accounting.

 

The USN and USMC reviewing mechanism was essentially the squadron/air wing Intelligence Officer. They did not bother with ground victories.