I WOULD be starting to come round in normal circumstances :) Although I note it still needs lots of experience and practice to get hits, and fighter-bombing was a low life expectancy occupation. But I'm happy to concede that some pilots were able to get hits...and they may well have caused the majority of what tank losses were suffered.
But we still haven't got past the bit where the German total losses reports for tanks to air attack are about one for every fifty tank kills claimed. I'll see if I can find a link to the research (searched too long and found all sorts of interesting stuff, including a debunking of Rudel's claimed 500 tank kills, but not what I was looking for). As a taste, and as an example, fighter bomber pilots (US & Brit/Commonwealth) claimed 391 tank kills in the Mortain operation, whereas the Germans only lost 50 to ALL CAUSES in total...not just air attack, all causes. USAAF claims of tanks destroyed or damaged in the ETO (not counting the Mediterranean) are 3 times the total number of German tanks fielded in the ETO. US fighter bombers flew 335,000 sorties in the ETO, not counting the Brit Typhoons and other fb craft. If a fighter bomber got even one tank every ten missions they would have wiped out the German tank fleet in western Europe several times over, but of course they didn't.
A highly interesting thread, particularly page four (it's all worth reading) although not the one I was looking for:
http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/u...004176;p=4
In fairness to the previous crews trying to get Wittman, the vast majority didn't have a gun that could scratch a Tiger. Even at Villiers Bocage people tend to forget that all the Tigers were eventually lost, including Wittmans. Once the Tigers were up against guns capable of killing them, it ceased to be such good sport. At least five of eight Tigers were destroyed in the attack in which Wittman died, without any loss to the Brits.....he was just one more target. German recollections (tank commander Dollinger) are of heavy anti-tank fire from locations they initially could not spot. Research covering RAF log books of the day's operations by 2nd Tactical Air Force has been able to discount the idea that a Typhoon was responsible.
Check out this superb thread at the Battlefront forum....it is an extremely lengthy read, but well worth it. It starts off with the Typhoon theory, which is gradually and meticulously discounted.
http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/u...024918;p=1
Joe Ekins of 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry is the gunner generally credited with killing Wittman, as well as two of the other Tigers, but there is a case to be made for the Sherbrooke Fusiliers of 4th Canadian Armoured Div.
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