Marseille's 17 victories in a day

greybeard · Apr 5, 2021

Hi gents!

Were they got in a day during multiple flights, or in a single one? (I wonder if would be possible to shot down so many aircraft with a single ammo load).

Thanks,
GB

pbehn · Apr 5, 2021

From this it seems there were 4 actions
Hans-Joachim Marseille - Victory Claims and Notable Actions | Victory Claims Notable Actions
Discussed here Hans-Joachim Marseille - Victory Claims and Notable Actions - Dispute Over Claims | Dispute Claims

I have read that when attacking a defensive circle he could shoot down an aircraft using very little ammunition.

Milosh · Apr 5, 2021

You can also get Lw claims here, don-caldwell.we.bs/jg26/claims/tonywood.htm (don-caldwell.we.bs) It gives the time as well as place and altitude.

greybeard · Apr 5, 2021

Thank you gents for your prompt and kind replies.

pbehn said:
From this it seems there were 4 actions

From the document you linked it looks they were only three: "Marseille was credited with 17 kills in three separate sorties over El Taqua, Alam Halfa and Deir el Raghat. "

According to Wikipedia (quoting Shores, Christopher F.; Massimello, Giovanni; Guest, Russell (2012b).A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940–1945 Volume 2: North African Desert, February 1942 – March 1943. London, UK: Grub Street.ISBN 978-1-909166-12-7): "The post-war analysis shows that the actual results of the day were probably eight to nine destroyed by Marseille with three or four more damaged."

Therefore, an average of three per sortie, plus one damaged; an average of 50 cannon and 250 MG shells per target.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
GB

Edit: corrected MG shells per target from 500 to 250 - I forgot that versions of the Bf 109 after the "E" had a total of only 1000 rounds for their machine guns.

pbehn · Apr 5, 2021

greybeard said:
Thank you gents for your prompt and kind replies.

From the document you linked it looks they were only three: "Marseille was credited with 17 kills in three separate sorties over El Taqua, Alam Halfa and Deir el Raghat. "

According to Wikipedia (quoting Shores, Christopher F.; Massimello, Giovanni; Guest, Russell (2012b).A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940–1945 Volume 2: North African Desert, February 1942 – March 1943. London, UK: Grub Street.ISBN 978-1-909166-12-7): "The post-war analysis shows that the actual results of the day were probably eight to nine destroyed by Marseille with three or four more damaged."

Therefore, an average of three per sortie, plus one damaged; an average of 50 cannon and 500 MG shells per target.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
GB

LOL@ me I was just looking at the hours not the minutes. As was pointed out in the link, if Marseille got 17 then the other 100 of his colleagues got 5, however from what I read about how he attacked a defensive circle, no one else could do it and you have to do it alone.

Marseille's 17 victories in a day

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