>High Guns
>Monday, Jul. 17, 1944
>"I'm a sa-a-ad sack!" proclaimed Lieut. Colonel Francis Gabreski. The 25-year-old pilot had just brought his Thunderbolt fighter back to its British base. His outfit had not sighted a single German plane that day.
>Previously, Gabby had shot down 27 foes in air combat, was thus tied for top U.S. scoring honors with Majors Dick Bong of Wisconsin and Bob Johnson of Oklahoma. A Pennsylvania boy himself, Gabby wanted to be high gun when he took a 30-day leave and went home to Oil City to marry his girl.
>Next day, coming off an escort job near Evreux, Gabby spotted three low-flying Germans, prodded one of them into a steep, twisting climb, chased him into a cloud and out again, shot him down in flames. Thus, with 28 victims, Colonel Gabreski became—for a while, at least—top U.S. ace.
>On the day of Gabreski's 28th victory, Wing Commander James Edgar ("Johnny'') Johnson, leading R.A.F. ace, batted down two more enemy planes to bring his score up to 35.
>It was a big week all around for high-scoring Allied flyers. The Russians announced that two more Red pilots, a Lieut. Gulayev and a Captain Richkalov, had equalled Major Alexander Pokryshkin's bag of 53.
Погодите, это что значит? Что в той же "Таймс" победы Покрышкина разнились уже в 1944 году? Хотя это объяснимо - все-таки пресса, и к тому же иностранная. Выходит, что в июне 44-го журки написали ему 59 сбитых, а в июле их было 53? Я ничего не путаю?
Это я к тому, что в аналогичной статье, скан которой тут как-то был и недавно обсуждался на другом форуме, побед 59.
