From: bowers@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov (Al Bowers)
Subject: Re: Best fighterpilot ?!?!
Organization: NASA Dryden, Edwards, Cal.
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 18:02:39 GMT

In article <1993Jan5.214015.17279@den.mmc.com> zwork@starfighter.den.mmc.com (Michael Corvin) writes:

>The most successful fighter pilot of all time was Erich Hartmann whose
>official tally was 352 aerial victories.  He flew Bf-109 of various
>marks on the Eastern Front from (check Tolliver & Constable's book,
>"The Blond Knight of Germany" for accurate dates & facts) '42 or '43
>until the end of the war when he surrendered to the Russians along
>with his squadron.  After 10 years as POW he was finally released and
>eventually commanded the first jet squadron in the W. German Luftwaffe.

Actually, at the time of the German capitulation Hartmann took his men
to the west and surrendered to the Americans.  The Americans then
handed him and his men back over to the Russians (they did fight on
the eastern front after all), and he was then interred before being
allowed to return to his home in West Germany.

>Quite a few german pilots had over 100 victories and several had over
>200 in WW2.  The fact that most of the best of them flew missions almost
>continuously for the whole war contributed to these large tallies and
>most of them were each shot down themselves several times.

The following is a complete listing of all Luftwaffe aces with scores
of 150 or more.

Erich Hartmann         352             WWII                Germany
Gerhard Barkorn        301             WWII                Germany
Guenther Rall          275             WWII                Germany
Otto Kittel            267             WWII                Germany
Walter Nowotny         258             WWII                Germany
Wilhelm Batz           237             WWII                Germany
Erich Rudorffer        222             WWII                Germany
Heinrich Bar           220             WWII                Germany
Herrmann Graf          211             WWII                Germany
Theodore Weissenburger 208             WWII                Germany
Hans Philip            206             WWII                Germany
Walter Schuck          206             WWII                Germany
Anton Hafner           204             WWII                Germany
Heinrich Ehler         204             WWII                Germany
Helmut Lipfert         203             WWII                Germany
Walter Kuprinski       197             WWII                Germany
Anton Hackl            190             WWII                Germany
Max Stotz              189             WWII                Germany
Joachim Brendel        189             WWII                Germany
Joachim Kirschner      188             WWII                Germany
Kurt Hans Friedrich Brandle 180        WWII                Germany
Gunther Josten         178             WWII                Germany
Johannes Steinhoff     176             WWII                Germany
Ernst Wilhelm Reinert  174             WWII                Germany
Gunther Schack         174             WWII                Germany
Heinz Schmidt          173             WWII                Germany
Emil Lang              173             WWII                Germany
Horst Adameit          166             WWII                Germany
Wolf-Dietrich Wilke    162             WWII                Germany
Han-Joachim Marseille  158             WWII                Germany
Heinrich Sturm         158             WWII                Germany
Gerhard Tyben          157             WWII                Germany
Hans Beiswenger        152             WWII                Germany
Peter Duttmann         152             WWII                Germany
Gordon Gollob          150             WWII                Germany

>There were a number of Soviet aces with over 100 kills too, I believe.
>Unfortunately, few details about these aces are known in the west (does
>anyone know of good books about any of them?)
>In many respects, the air battles over the eastern front were the biggest
>of the war.

No Soviet pilot ever achieved a score of 100.  The highest ranking was
Ivan N. Kozhedub with 62.  The Soviets were more concerned with
tactical Close Air Support and spent little time chasing after other
aircraft.  The Soviest did employ women, and two women eventually
scored high enough to be aces (this during the seige of Leningrad, or
Volgograd, or St Petersburg, or whatever it is called now).

--
Al Bowers                       bowers@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov
NASA F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle, Lead Aero
NASA, Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California
Xref: sparky rec.aviation.military:1733 rec.aviation.owning:363