Who do you think is the greatest fighter-ace of all times, and why?
I don’t think it is all about the number of kills a pilot had—although the number certainly carries weight, but a combination of many factors, such as: leadership ability, combat conditions he flew in, longevity, etc…
I’ll weigh in once a few names get thrown out there…remember to defend your pick…
I’m going with Bubi Hartmann. Never shot down, fought against the USAAF and scored victories, and the Russians were no slouches either.
I’m not so interested in his decorations, but he did shoot down a whole lot of airplanes. And he flew a whole bunch of missions.
Survived.
Im gonna go with John E Johnson. But im am biased, cos he was a kiwi lol. Not necessarily the greatest ace of all time. But certainly the greatest kiwi ace.
Ahhhh, going with the top scorer, huh? 352 kills makes him the highest scorer of all time but I believe you overstate his service on the Western front. Almost ALL of his kills were on the Eastern front (except for 7, I believe)…Most Eastern front German aces had a very hard time with American and British pilots when they flew in the West…He by no means is at the top of the list for German pilots in terms of operational missions–I believe under 900…
Think you’ll have as many names as there are members who participate…
Off the top of my head, Jim Howard, 356th FS/354th FG-8AF-USAAF. Ace in two Theaters of Operation. Only fighter pilot that received the Medal of Honor in the ETO would be among the top.
But if I were to be honest with myself and go with all the criteria, it’d be Hans-Ulrich Rudel… Outstanding combat leader, 2500+ sorties (400+ in FW-190), destroyed a battleship, 2 cruisers and a destroyers, knocked-out an entire Panzer Army’s-worth of tanks, 11 air-to-air kills, and received the highest decoration Nazi Germany ever awarded…
I would go with one of the guys from the first world war - the conditions they flew in were primitive, longevity was usually measured in days or weeks, and they were just as likely to die from mechanical failure of their own equipment as from enemy fire, etc.
So, from WWI, I’m gonna go with Eddie Rickenbacker. Not the most number of kills, but did show leadership skills both during and after the war.
Wiki sez 1400 FWIW.
“Conditions they flew in”… The sky?
Snoppy
He had the best looking doghouse in the sky. Can wait for the new Revel kit.
Of course I mean the sky, you dolt! Always kind of gray and gloomy looking. Not blue like we have today - just look at the pictures of the sky back then and you’ll see what I mean. IIRC, they didn’t start getting colored sky until WWII, and even then most of it was still gray like in WWI. Would YOU want to fly in those conditions?[;)]
This is a rough question. And you know there is going to a certain amout of criteria.
World War 1 aces I will give a huge amount credit to because they had no one to learn from and developed tatics that are used today. My vote is Richtofen.
World War 2 had to develope new tactics but learned from WW1. My vote is Hartmann or Bong
Korean war- the coming of the age of jets. So Ill vote for Bordelin!
Vietnam- DeBellevue just because he got the most.
But my overall vote is Hartmann. The odds were not in his favor at all. Everytime he flew I am sure there were more enemies than friendlies.
While Hans Ulrich Rudel flew the most combat missions of ANY pilot (around 2500 missions) He was not a fighter pilot. He was just the greatest close air support pilot in history.
For the greatest Ace, I’m gonna go with Hans Joachim Marseilles. While he only (only?) had 158 kills, they were all against British and American fighters. His aircraft was never hit in combat and best of all, he never lost a wingman. He died when his engine seized due to a cooling system failure. He rolled inverted to bail out but hit the vertical stab. He never opened his chute and was seen falling to the desert…
Ray
Robin Olds. Look up “Fighter Pilot” in the Dictionary and you will find his picture.
Probably because that was the name of his book! Good book, too.
Rudel flew over 400 sorties in an FW-190 and scored 11 air-to-air kills. That’s a fighter pilot and a double-ace by Western Standards. Experte by Luftwaffe standards, since they required 10 kills to be considered …
I stand corrected…Rudel flew over 2,500 and Barkhorn (2nd highest scorer) flew a similar amount as Hartmann…Rudel, although technically not a fighter pilot, had 9 air-to-air kills nonetheless…
I am leaning towards Marseille as well; also considering Schnauffer…
Plus he flew with one leg if I remember correctly…
I wonder how Moelders would have faired if not for his plane crashing.
I don’t think you can go by aircraft shot down, there are many variables such as opportunity (assigned as a wingman, few contacts etc), length of service also obviously provides more opportunity giving pilots from Japan, Germany and the USSR a big advantage to rack up their score, since they basically flew until they died, while pilots from the US, UK etc were taken out of the line after a time.
I’d lean towards a succesful multiwar pilot, since it balances the luck aspect and shows the ability to adapt to the tactics of different eras of aviation. This limits the choice to pilots from WW2/Korea or WW2/Vietnam (I’m not aware of any WW2/Korea/Vietnam or WW1/WW2 fighter pilots). This also limits the option to the USSR or US since those were the pilots flying MiGs and F86s. I’m not really that familiar with pilots meeting this requirement. I know there were 7 US pilots who were aces in WW2 and Korea.
I’ll throw a few names into the mix.
James Bigglesworth[:P]
Johnnie Johnson, Highest (official) RAF Scorer, every single kill was a single engine fighter, onle once fired on a multi engined aircraft a Bf-110 (fighter bomber), gained all his kills after the battle of britain when scoring became harder for RAF pilots. Was very well respected by his men, and went on to become air vice marshell
Douglas Bader, admired by fellow pilots, 20 kills before being shot down and taken prisoner, multiple escape attempts and all this without his own legs
Keith “Bluey” Truscott
I also agree with Ulrich Rudel
Andrew