This article explores confirmation and overclaiming of aerial victories during World War II. In aerial warfare , the term overclaiming describes a combatant or group that claims the destruction of more enemy aircraft than actually achieved. The net effect is that the actual losses and claimed victories are unequal, and that the claiming side is inaccurately reporting their combat achievements, thereby potentially undermining their credibility to all parties participating and observing the war.
In order to reduce the risk of overclaiming, the various militaries participating in World War II developed methods and procedures for confirmation of claimed aerial victories in an attempt to more reliably report actual losses. There are disagreements over the terminology to be used in assessing "aerial victories".
Former Canadian Armed Forces pilot and Wings editor Wayne Ralph cautioned that the term " flying ace ", emerging during the First World War , 'was first coined by the French in There are no governing international bodies controlling the label or screening entry into the club. The enemy you fight does not have to die for you to be credited with a victory. Therefore the expression "kills" used when discussing aces is misleading. It is confirmed victories, not deaths in air combat that produces aces.
Any conclusions drawn from such simplistic rankings are meaningless. This is the number of aerial victories they score. To pre-empt comments about overclaiming, the author wishes to stress that a victory is not necessarily a kill: it is a combat in which an enemy aircraft appears to be hit, and goes down in such a manner as to make the successful pilot believe that it is a total loss.
In some instances of combat over friendly territory a damaged aircraft may have been claimed as an aerial victory by its opponent, while the aircraft was later salvaged and restored to an operational status. Separate from problems with confirmation, overclaiming can also occur for political or propaganda reasons, to stimulate morale amongst the troops or at the home front, or to attempt to undermine the enemy's morale.
