How Long was the Life of a Battle Of Britain Pilot..

[ATAG_Lewis]

A couple questions to you WW2 historians out there from me on Battle of Britain pilots...specifically RAF pilots...

I have read many books on BOB pilots but have as yet not had any info as far as I remember on these questions I have below...I also know that the average life expectancy of an RAF pilot in WWI was 11 days..

so...



1) On average how many sorties did an RAF pilot fly before he got to fire his guns/or engage the the enemy?...How often did this happen?....I have read some personal RAF accounts in the battle whereby some pilots simply didn't get the chance to fire during the whole battle let alone get a kill even though they were flying on a daily basis throughout the battle...This prompted my question

and the same for the Luftwaffe?

2) What was the average life expectancy of the RAF pilots during the Battle of Britain?

3) What was the average kill score for an RAF pilot?...and the same for Luftwaffe Fighter pilot?

4) How many sorties a day would a pilot fly?


Thanks in advance fellas...~S~

[Cybermat47]

3) What was the average kill score for an RAF pilot?...and the same for Luftwaffe Fighter pilot?

I'd say it would be below 5, seeing as five kills makes you an ace. I'd also say that Rotteführers and Secos would be scoring more than their wingmen.

[SorcererDave]

Interesting questions. I sadly can't tell you much on this subject myself, other than on average Spitfire pilots were (apparently) roughly twice as likely to survive their first engagement than Hurricane pilots, and that during the height of the battle, up to an incredible seven sorties a day was not unusual for RAF pilots. The kind of exhaustion these guys must have felt is just beyond comprehension. And to think, many of them went on to do it all over again in Malta, only this time outnumbered even more, and quite literally flying and fighting while suffering from chronic dysentery and malnutrition caused by the siege-like conditions on the island.

Really makes you sit back in awe of those brave young lads. We owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.

[BenQuinn]

Slightly off subject but it's interesting to know of the 537 pilots who were killed during the Battle of Britain the 40 top scoring Luftwaffe aces claimed 637 "kills!"
The vast majority of planes shot down and or pilots killed was done by a relatively few German aces and bomber crews.

The top ten Luftwaffe aces accounted for 265 "kills!"

In 1955 Flt Lt John Holloway, a serving RAF officer, began a personal challenge to compile a complete list of "The Few". After fourteen years of research Flt Lt Holloway had 2,946 names on the list. Of these airmen, 537 were killed during the Battle or later died of wounds received.

http://www.luftwaffe.cz/bob.html

[RAF74_Buzzsaw]

Slightly off subject but it's interesting to know of the 537 pilots who were killed during the Battle of Britain the 40 top scoring Luftwaffe aces claimed 637 "kills!"
The vast majority of planes shot down and or pilots killed was done by a relatively few German aces and bomber crews.

The top ten Luftwaffe aces accounted for 265 "kills!"

In 1955 Flt Lt John Holloway, a serving RAF officer, began a personal challenge to compile a complete list of "The Few". After fourteen years of research Flt Lt Holloway had 2,946 names on the list. Of these airmen, 537 were killed during the Battle or later died of wounds received.

http://www.luftwaffe.cz/bob.html

Both sides over claimed in the number of aircraft shot down during the BoB. German figure was over 2-1 in overclaiming.

This was common for all sides during WWII. With the pace of air combat, and tendency for more than one pilot to shoot at the same plane, it was easy to make mistakes.

[Cybermat47]

Both sides over claimed in the number of aircraft shot down during the BoB. German figure was over 2-1 in overclaiming.

This was common for all sides during WWII. With the pace of air combat, and tendency for more than one pilot to shoot at the same plane, it was easy to make mistakes.

Plus, shooting down a plane didn't always mean that the pilot would be killed.