You will probably notice Swerve that i presented some of these inconsistencies several post back. Indeed it probably looks like it supports your beliefs on the matter, but don’t be so dismissive so very quickly.:)
There are a myriad of perfectly valid explanations for these inconsistencies, none of which will preclude the Tornado kill. The base fact is, iraqi SECRET documents show that after lengthy and thorough investigations, they have shot down 44 “coalition” aircraft and 120 cruise missiles, although initially they thought they shot down almost 200 aircraft and 300 cruise missiles. You can bet that the iraqi people was told ONLY the 200 aircraft, 300 cruise missiles part. In fact, if you read the Um al Marik work, when presented with much lower figures of losses Iraq caused to the coalition ( in the air and ground), Saddam said something like stick with the higher figures and the victory version so that morale won’t sink down.
These documents talk about at least 4 confirmed air to air kills, recognized for at least 4 of their pilots. Don’t forget , awarding a kill was a very long process, likely because there were a lot of MONEY rewards and privileges given to the pilot for such a feat! So they won’t give kills just like that.
Now unfortunately regular folks like me & you don’t have access to these extremely interesting documents, but how about this : maybe the iraqi documents never mentioned the identity of the aircraft or the pilots’ names. They talk very clearly about wrecks and bodies, so i bet there MUST be some pictures of it somewhere ( and pics of all the other wrecks , or most of them!), whether still in Iraq, or in the good ol’ liberating USA. Regarding the HARMs, well it’s very possible they misidentified the missiles, or it’s just a mix-up in those documents, or from the authors.
As for the authors, if say the iraqis never mentioned the crew name and serial number of that GR.1, they probably conducted their own research, so they said ok, iraqis claim Tornado shot down on the 19th, so which british Tornados were shot down on the 19? Oh, ZA396. They were indeed probably insufficiently informed about details like where it crashed, or it’s crew fate, hence the claim about the crew being killed. Maybe they or the pilot allowed themselves a bit of “artistic license”, re. the claim about the other Tornados turning back, anything is possible (just like the american pilots most always talk about the iraqis who “run from them” or “don’t fight” etc.)
Don’t forget that there were at least 7 Tornados shot down or crashed, and the crew of two were lost. It is very possible there is a mix-up (intentional or not) of when each Tornado was lost and where. It is very possible it might be one of the Tornados with crew lost, or one of those lost in the northern or western regions of Iraq.
Imho, bottom line is, i would say the iraqis will be rather in a better position to know who or what shot down each of the “coalition” aircraft lost over their country, than western sources, be it pilots or intelligence. Dismissing their claims as lies is widespread (for propaganda and racism reasons), but for someone who wants to find the historical truth, or even how THEY saw the “coalition” attack , it is extremely interesting stuff. Hopefully, we’ll still be around when there will finally be available 100% definite proof of who was wrong and who was right.:)
Meanwhile, for me IrAF looks like got at least 4 kills and at least 4 damaged during the Gulf War . Live with it.:diablo:
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