Good post. Well written and expressed. The point I was trying to get to as in "clue me in" was that after the fact, after the bullet has entered your head and killed you, it simply does not matter WHERE that bullet came from. Tactics and strategy play their role in deciding how you are put in a position to kill or be killed, not some stoopid childish AH dicta that planes should NOT fire during a particular moment in any engagement.
Thank you sir and a big <<<<<S>>>>>.
You are correct, after a rifled .303 or Spandau fired bullet entered a pilot's head (except at the glancing skull shot that von Richthofen suffered--and almost killed him as well from blacking out while attempting to land) the game is over and get ready to be in a box.
I haven't read most of the game related posts about the HO in this thread (I only passed on the historical side on the subject) because the debate on the HO has been beaten into the dust in scads of past threads.
All I can pass on is what I tell my squaddies:
A) Have the Situational Awareness to not get into the position of being HO'ed in the first place.
B) There is a simple maneuver to not only avoid the HO, but to get a decent shot on the enemy attempting the HO--AND take away his HO firing solution in the same maneuver. We work on this maneuver two to three squad nights a year in the DA as well as share films.
C) There are times the using the HO is absolutely unavoidable in a fight, especially when fighting multiple enemy silmultaneously, but realize the statistical odds are not in your favor.
D) The players out there who are one-trick-ponys and the HO is all they know--realize that on the first pass---and use the other tactics available in your mental experience to turn their HO-addiction against them. One squaddie takes HO addicts to the deck and dispatches them pretty quickly in his Brewster Buffalo.
Anyone complaining about the HO because they keep getting HO'ed and killed, need to work on their tactics and maneuvers. If they don't they will continue to be the easy kill for the HO addicts.
ROX