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Yep!!Nonskimmer said:Another name - George Frederick Beurling.
Not as high scoring as Marseille, but he was a natural at the deflection shot.
PipsPriller said:All the men mentioned above were, it seems, natural shots. And to add to that list you could include 'Sailor' Maln, Gunther Rall, Saburo Sakai to name just a few.
But what I'm after is whether Air Forces other than the USN actually taught deflection shooting. As far as I can ascertain the answer is no, but conformation one way or the other would be nice.
FLYBOYJ said:One name - Hans Joachim Marselle!!!!
Dac said:Probably the best airial gunner ever and the most deadly. Reports from other pilots say that in most of his kills his bullet strikes started at the nose of his opponents aircraft and traveled back to the cockpit.
wmaxt said:I think that it needs to be noted that prior to and during WWII arial gunnery was taught by having an aircraft tow a target sleeve, like a big wind sock. To fire from directly behind was not allowed because of the likleyhood of shooting the tug aircraft down and scoring the shots. Scoring was done by giving each aircraft bullets with a different color dye on them and counting the number of marks of a given color. They normaly started their runs from an angle of about 30deg, judging from the accounts I've read, so deflection shooting was more or less taught.
This changed with the P-63 and "Frangable Bullets" (they shatter on contact with any resistance) which had a light bulb that flashed whenever the aircraft was hit. I don't know how many there were or if it was an experimental project or how widespread it was if it was used.
wmaxt