During my time in the US Navy I was able to meet Adolf Galland in 1992 he was very plesent and polite. I met Saburo Saki in Sasabo Japan in 1998 this man was by far the most humbal and real he shook my hand and said “you are a great man to serve your country, don’t ever forget” my Japanese is rough, unfortunatly I have never met any US aces.
Scott
George Preddy. Tarheel, Cripes A’Mighty, Cripes a’Mighty II and III. Too bad he was killed by friendly fire, Christmas day, 1944. No telling what his number of kills would have been had it not been for this tragedy.
Hud
American ace has to be Robert S Johnson, a P-47 ace with the 56 FG. I met him in 1976 at an IPMS meeting. Second would be Robert S. Miller with six kills in the ETO, and also my late uncle.
Germany, Adolf Galland, who I had the pleasure of meeting in 1974.
British, Johnny Johnson, a man I also had the pleasure of meeting.
Japan, Soboto Akuria, my next door neighbor in Okinawa for six months. He became a pilot late in the war at the age of 17 and flew only in Japan. He destroyed six B-29’s. He was shot down twice by P-51’s and once by a Hellcat.
Im with Pappy but i also like to add saburo the other is not an air-to-air ace but otherwise known as the indestructable pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel who has accounted for 519 russian tanks destroyed, 1 battleship,and 1 cruiser 70 landing crafts, four armoured trains plus 9 enemy aircrafts
I had the pleasure of meeting several fighter pilots of different nations over the years at IPMS meetings and other functions. I’d have to include Bob Johnson of the 56th FG, Bob Stanford-Tuck of the RAF, Adolf Galland, Joe Foss (one very class act) and Boots Blessie. Also tip my hat to General Robert L. Scott of “God is My Copilot” fame, still going strong in Warner Robins, GA.
I would have loved to have met Albert Ball, Frank Luke and Charles Nungesser, along with Oswald Boelke and Manfred von Richtofen.
For the USAAF would be McGuire, he pretty much surgically removed plane from the sky unlike Bong who sprayed and prayed,
For the USN/MC has to be “Butch” O’Hare
For the Luftwaffe it’s a toss up between Galland and Rickmann
For the Imperial Japanese another has to be Saburo
For the British Empire it’s gotta be “Boots”
Haven’t heard to much of the Italians, or Russians but they too have gotten some really good flyers who needs their fame as much as the rest
I have to go with Eric Hartmann. Closed to almost ramming distance to ensure accurracy-352 kills says it worked. Escaped every time he was captured till he was given up to the Soviet Union at the end of the war. Endured 10 years in the gulag system where he became a hero to all the inmates,and lost a son he never got to meet.Then helped Galland rebuild the German(West) Luftwaffe after his release.Died 1995.
And the list goes on…
Tom T [C):-)]
Lol, I think you have the same book I do, Aircraft of the Aces (Vol.2). I think all those pilots are in that book. Cool book.
Dave
Here is a pretty nice list of WWII Aces broken down by Nations
http://www.1000pictures.com/aircraft/aces.htm
Scott
I’ve noticed that many of the American aces are relatively low-scoring, compared to those of other countries, especially the Germans. Anybody have an opinion as to why that is? Is is equiptment or possibly training? Or maybe the U.S.'s later arrival in the war (WWII)?
I bet a lot of it has to do with the US entering the war relatively late. Maybe training or doctrine has something to do with it. Our fighters used machine guns, not cannon. And perhaps even the relative scarcity of targets late in the war has something to do with it- the Germans and Japanese always had plenty of allied planes to go for, when they could get into the air due to lack of fuel, bombing of bases, etc. As far as the Germans were concerned, Clostermann (citing RAF and US sources) points out that the Luftwaffe was knocking Allies down at 7-1 at war’s end. Their doctrine was sounder right from the get go, they were better armed, and the long nose Fw190 D9 and ME262 were truly superior aircraft to the majority of Allied fighters.
There are several reasons for Germany’s super aces. One is that they left their aces flying for long periods of time, where many allies brought back their best pilots to help train new ones. Also, the Luftwaffe didn’t believe in “tours”. They didn’t have the luxury of letting pilots fulfill a lenght of service before being able to go home. In addition, many of the German aces racked up their scores on the eastern front against the russians. The russians theory was to throw as many planes as possible at the germans, regardless of loss. Further, from what I understand about the way the Luftwaffe flights were coordinated, the better pilots were put in position for kills most of the time with the rest of the flight covering. The best pilots got the majority of the kills whereas the allied pilots spread the kills around more. I’m sure there are many more variables for the reason of the german super aces.
Mine is Guenter Rall. he’s the man. every one knows about Erik hartman, and Adolf Galland, but Rall isn’t as popular.
-J
most articles I have read have Allied pilots feeling that the average German pilot at the end of the war was pretty bad (no fuel for training and few safe places for training) but with some experts left. Seems the feeling in the Pacific was the same, some of the Allied pilots felt that their enemy was barely able to get the airplane off the ground much less fight it. The U.S. had the luxury later in the war to not have to keep pilots in combat, you did your missions and got to go home. Some did one tour and that was it, others worked to either come back to the ETO or head to the Pacific (like Morgan of the Memphis Belle fame).
I think it was Peter Townsend that said that almost all of the R.A.F. pilots that he had known before the war did not survive the war. The ones that did had for some reason or another spent enough time on other duties. It must be “luck” in some ways, think of how often some of them were wounded or shot down, Sakai, Hartman and others. If you were lucky you survived being shot down and you either got back to home or you were out of the war as a POW. If you were wounded it might be fatal in the long term, or a “Hollywood wound” and get you home and out of the war or mess you up enough that flying was out of the question… If you were an American shot down in Europe and did make it back to England your time was over in the ETO except for a hand full of fast talkers, didn’t want you to get shot down again and reveal how you managed to evade the first time. If you were a German pilot shot down over Germany it was like a British pilot in the Battle of Britain, might be up again that same day! After the tide had indeed turned we didn’t have to use pilots like that, compare Cactus to the Fifth Air Force in late 1944…
After reading Shilling’s thread on the P-40 versus other aircraft I take “better” with a grain of salt, the late war German fighters had TBO’s of less than 20 hours and like most of the late war fighters were unforgiving of pilots. The 262 was great as long as both sensitive engines were running. The Allies could win with the sheer numbers of good to better than good fighters, we didn’t need to send “test” aircaft into combat. German doctrine wasn’t all that hot, they didn’t crank up their training pipeline in time to supply high quality pilots from about late 42 on, they stuck a long time with aircraft that were getting outclassed, no real big bomber and didn’t go into high gear in production until it was too late and using slave labour meant you added sabotage to the problems of supply. Some recent restorations in England had signs of deliberate sabotage by workers. I think the real reasons that the Allies won the war was supply, raw materials, manpower and the Allies made fewer mistakes than the Axis.
Just reading a book about the French in Vietnam, some small infantry units had to have ten different types of ammunition (mostly Fench and American small arms but an odd lot of other junk), I understand that the Germans did the same thing, using weapons from occupied countries, captured weapons and of course their own weapons and keeping them supplied was a nightmare. The U.S. didn’t always have the top of the line but most of the time it was pretty close and a good weapon with parts and ammuniton is a lot better than the best with no parts or ammo. Like my rangemaster said, “Doesn’t matter what size of round you miss them with!” If you don’t have the weapon system working it might as well not be there.
Favorite ace, I can tell you some I don’t like but I respect men like Marion Carl, Swett, Bauer, Porter, O’Hare, McCampbell, Hofer, Johnson’s (more than one!) Townsend, Sakai, Hartmann, Priller, Galand and on and on. Can’t recall the guy’s name, a Marine pilot that went on to be a test pilot for Vought, felt that you had some real warriors, some real cowards (engine running rough, got to turn back…) and a lot of guys that just did their job. At times I think I respect some of the guys that were scared, threw up before each mission but went ahead and flew. I also think that to be on the side that the odds are against you, Allied at the first part of the war and Axis at the last part…must be a little harder doing your job when the odds are against you. I think that Hartmann said in one of his last interviews that Hitler had told him they were going to lose a year or so before the end of the war, might be wrong on the exact time frame but it was a long time in some ways before the end of the war and yet Hartmann went back and did his best again and again. Maybe in the long run it would have been better for the world, Germany and the rest of us if more Germans had been brave in a different way.
Whoa…way tooo long response, sorry!
Here goes again. I have no true favorite ace. I admire and respect any person who can strap on a fighter that is often in need of repair and fly into the face of an enemy who outnumbers them.Imagine doing this day after day, watching friends and comrades depart and never return. This takes more guts than I’ll ever possess. So, for that reason, all of the German, Japanese and Italian pilots get a tip of my hat.
Now, lets not forget that the USSR had many female pilots and quite a few of them became aces also.
I have always been a George Preddy fan, ever since seeing a Mustang painted as Cripes a mighty 3rd, at Oshkosh 1976.
For Preddy, it was a sad and tragic end to one of the best Mustang drivers of the war. He surely would have added to his score, if he had lived.
Leon.
I would say in general, it was due to the fact Germany started the war in the first place, overwhelming typically technically inferior foes from the start. Also their pilots got “their feet wet” in the Spanish Civil War, so they had both real-time experience as well as having had the time to develope superior tatics with their mounts, such as the “finger-four” formation devoped under Galland’s leadership.
This gave them both an operating experience/equipment familiarity edge as well as simply having been at it longer then any of the typical British/American pilots, which gave them more time to rack up more kills.
The bulk of Galland’s kills were British planes during the “Battle of Britain”.
By the time the Americans fully got into it, we had them outnumbered to the point that there simply weren’t that many German planes for each American pilot to shoot down!
Tom T [C):-)]
My only comment is on the German pilots.
I think my vote would be for Hans-Ulrich Rudel. He was not only an ace versus aircraft (7 Russian fighters and 2 IL-2s), he was an ace versus tanks! He was the highest decorated German; the only recipient of the Golden Oak Leaves with Swords and Diamonds to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. His combat record is so extensive that is just doesn’t seem true. It is truly mind-boggling! Quoted from the book “Stuka Pilot”: “He flew 2,530 missions and destroyed over 519 Russian tanks, a battleship, a cruiser, a destroyer, 70 landing craft, more than 800 motorized and horse-drawn vehicles, over 150 artillery, anti-tank and flak positions, and numerous important bridges, supply lines adn bunkers.” He was “shot down over thirty times by ground fire, was wounded five times, saved six crews who crash-landed in enemy territory.” While touted as “the most successful combat pilot in history,” Rudel seems to be overshadowed by the “glamorous” fighter pilots.
That said, I guess for a fighter pilot ace, my vote would be for Gunther Rall. While Erich Hartmann has the highest “score” in history, I think Rall was an “underdog” and did not get as much recognition as he should have.
The reason why Rudel is overlooked as a “famous” pilot has to do with his continued support of Nazism right up to his death in 1982. Granted, he was probably one of the greatest combat fliers of all time, but sadly, even his book “Stuka Pilot” published in 1958 is full of radical, right-wing Nazi ideology.
I just finished reading the book, right after completing the new Hasegawa kit, and I must confess I skipped over 50% of the text since it didn’t really relate to the historical aspects of his missions.
Jeff