War is a strange business and during WW2 there were commanders who accepted ground kills as counting for ace status. Whether the top brass knew or not is another story entirely. Another issue is overclaiming which happened in all involved airforces during that war. Nowadays one would perhaps think it's harder to overclaim, what with all the electronic eyes watching but who knows what can happen when things get a bit out of hand.
(On a total sidenote: The WW2 German Jg 27, while stationed in North Africa were accused of overclaiming by those in the unit who didn't get their iron crosses. It died out with no real action taken except for the alleged masterminds, but it's a curious story what happened to one of their pilots. A genuine ace he faced the possibility of being stripped of his victories with the rest. He took off and crashed his plane into the sea. Serious business indeed.
That story was told in the book "A Higher Call" in case someone want to read about pilots on the other side.)
Anyway, that was somewhat off topic.
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