Killeroftanks

Killeroftanks t1_jct5bim wrote

Reply to comment by BlackVisage in TIL that in WW2, a Marine Corps Corsair pilot used his propeller to chew off the tail of an enemy aircraft after his guns jammed, while under fire from the enemy plane's tailgunner. The enemy plane crashed but the Corsair pilot made it back to base, receiving the Navy Cross for his actions. by hipster_deckard

There are none.

There could never be a source like that, however it doesn't take a genius to put together the notion that pilots, who in general have a track record of overestimating their kills, would also alter stories to make themselves look better.

Because again coming back to base with a broken prop because you were an idiot doesn't look good, but ramming into a plane does. Don't mind the fact the facts of the story doesn't make fucking sense.

Also I could say the same thing to you, where are your sources that back up the fact it happened, were there other pilots who saw, did they find the wreckage of the enemy plane? Did the ramming plane survive and could be analyze it to see if it indeed ran someone.

Likely all that is gone to history. The plane scrapped, all the pilots either dead or never saw anything, the enemy plane just doesn't exist when it smacked the land or water. And all you got for a source, is the pilot itself.

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Killeroftanks t1_jcs9hya wrote

Reply to comment by anhedonis539 in TIL that in WW2, a Marine Corps Corsair pilot used his propeller to chew off the tail of an enemy aircraft after his guns jammed, while under fire from the enemy plane's tailgunner. The enemy plane crashed but the Corsair pilot made it back to base, receiving the Navy Cross for his actions. by hipster_deckard

Sometimes other pilots would see it.

However I am pretty sure 70% of these cases are completely made up, because pilots really like to prop up their kill counts, and landing with a destroyed prop would make you look stupid for hitting something, like another plane because you're too stupid to look around you, but its badass if you land back with a broken prop because you smashed an enemy plane with it, on purpose.

Fun fact about this, all throughout the Pacific many allied pilots would confirm Japanese kills because they saw the plane bank away and a smoke trail would follow afterwards, making the pilot believe they shot down a plane.

However the zero ( in this case) used a wep (or war emergency power, aka throwing nitrous into the engine to get a little bit more power out of it, but not actually that in this case) which threw out a lot of smoke.... So ya quite a few kills allied pilots made weren't actual kills. However with zero way of disputing it nothing can be done besides a blanket reduction of kills on reports, which no army will ever do, at least any public reports.

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