Non-portable Aviation Awards #'s

[VtwinVince]

Gentlemen,

Regarding the Army Air Service's Ehrenbecher and the Naval equivalent Ehrenpreis, does anyone have a reasonable estimate as to the numbers of awards of these items? Perhaps Luftmensch can chime in on this one, or Rick? And we won't even talk about the Thor Becher's rarity...

[Luftmensch]

Hi, Vince!

You keep asking this question, one day you're going to get an answer!

Here's a back-of-the-envelope methodology that others can probably refine...

Go through the references and scrutinize the date of every army victory scored from December 1915 on...

For first kills during (or a subsequent kill if existing kills predate) the period 12/1915 to 12/16 add one Becher to the count.

For first and second kills from 1/17 to 3/17 add another Becher.

For first kills after 1/17 and second and third kills after 3/17 but before 7/17 add one.

For first kills after 1/17, and second kills after 3/17, and third after 7/17 and fourth before 11/17 add one.

For first kills after 1/17, and second kills after 3/17, and third after 7/17 and fourth and fifth after 11/17 but before 2/18 add one.

Fifth kills after 2/18 got paper which I'm guessing won't count for Vince.

My cutoffs are only rough guesses. Please check my logic as I got a "C" in permutations and combinations. Those with anecdotal evidence can tinker with the dates and thus the final tally.

As for Ehrenpreise, our Marine Flieger forumites talk about the Ehrenpreise file in Freiburg that went AWOL several years ago. Did anyone get a look at the totals before, or have copies they can share?

If not, to get Ehrenpreise we can multiply the number of Bechers calculated above by the ratio of Navy flight crew to Army.

Rgds

Shiny Assed Bookkeeper

Edited September 19, 2006 by Luftmensch

[VtwinVince]

Thanks, Mr. Bookkeeper, I think those calculations far exceed my primitive math skills. So I gather that there were no records kept of the award numbers for these. Seems very un-German not to keep a tally.