Like flying aces, or snipers, where it may be uncertain who landed the killing blow on a certain foe, or if that foe actually died, or there’s the possibility that no one else was around to see that this person actually killed someone? The thought just came up while I was watching the Sabaton History video on Francis Pegahmagabow : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJPyLlxj8nY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJPyLlxj8nY) .
He is apparently credited with 378 kills. How do they accept that number and hold any faith in its accuracy?
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different countries had different rules. at least in world war 2, typically a victory only counts if pilot ejection, explosion, or crash is recorded on gun cam or vouched by another pilot who was there. the US and britain had half-credit systems where two pilots could share a kill and get half a credit for each. if no one else was around and it wasn’t on a gun cam, you couldn’t claim it (in theory, in practice overclaiming was common. germany is famous for it but everybody did it.)
Fighter pilots claim downed aircraft. In Ye Olden Dayes there was no real way to confirm it. Nowadays it is easier to know whether a plane was actually destroyed.
Nobody actually keeps count of people killed in ground combat. There is not a box on your ERB that says ‘Kill Count.’ If a sniper (or whomever) wants to claim a certain number of kills, they can have fun with that. There is no way to confirm it and nobody truly cares.
I can’t speak for all militaries, but for the US fighter aircraft have had a gun camera in them since just before WW2. When the trigger is pulled a camera takes pictures and often the damage to the enemy aircraft is recorded.
After the war, records were compared, adjustments made
Now a days we have HUD cameras that record both the heads up display and the radar display, as well as air borne tracking aircraft and ground radar to confirm destruction of an aircraft.
Snipers generally operate with a spotter who is also a qualified sniper and something snipers do is to record every shot they take in a log book. If the Shooter records a kill and the Spotter records the shooter getting a kill, it’s a kill.
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