"Andrew Chaplin" wrote in message
...
Keith Willshaw wrote:

"old hoodoo" wrote in message
...
I just noticed that approximately 1300 German Aircraft were credited
to
Sopwith Camels in WWI.

However, there is a statistic that approximately 1400 hundred pilots
were
killed in action with the Camel, not including the 385 that died in
non-combat crashes.

Was this considered a successful kill/loss ratio for allied fighters
(not
including the non-operational losses)?


It depends on what point in the war you are speaking of.

This ratio would hardly show the Camel as a dominant fighter, course,
I
don't know if the Camel had extensive losses to ground fire.


It did since they were used heavily in the ground attack
role carrying 4 20lb bombs under the wings at the battles
of Ypres and Cambrai as well as the German offensive of 1918.

Indeed an armoured prototype developed into the Sopwith Salamander.

Is it not also fair to say that the Allies used their aircraft more
aggressively than the Central Powers, ranging routinely beyond their
FLOT and exposing them to ground fire?

Absolutely, aggressive patrolling beyond the front lines
was very much the norm

Keith