In article , Keith Willshaw
writes

"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.

That would explain the otherwise inexplicable. The Camel had the
engine, the guns and ammo, and all its fuel sited in the front six feet
of the airframe, and with its rotary engine could almost literally turn
on a sixpence. No Camel pilot needed to stay in the gunsights of the
enemy for a second longer than he wanted to - a gyroscopically assisted
turn took him right out. Which suggests that most of the Camels lost in
aerial battle were probably flown by novices (which many would have been
after 'Bloody April' in 1917).

Cheers,

Dave

--
Dave Eadsforth