Yet another Poll!!!!!......Greatest Fighter Pilot

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
21

O.K. I’ll put in for another poll.

I’m casting my vote for Lilya Litvyak. She didn’t score the most kills, but her Yak-1b with the white lilies painted under the cockpit struck as much fear into German pilots as Hartmann’s 109 with the black tulip nose marking struck into Soviet pilots.

By anything I’ve ever read about her, she was totally without fear in combat. The account of her final combat goes to the effect that her plane was jumped by eight 109s she sent 5 down and the others running before damage to her own plane sent her down (talk about keeping your cool under pressure!). Her remains weren’t found until 1979 and she was buried with full state honours.

Gives whole new meaning to the old phrase “Fights like a girl” doesn’t it?

22

Fellow Readers,

I acknowledge and salute the greatness of the many Allied and Axis pilots who fought in the skies over Europe and the Mediterranian Theaters. But in the humble opinion of this reader, I think we need to look to the Pacific Theater. Especially a place that was virtually unknown untill August of 1942. That place is Guadalcanal.

The Marine and Navy pilots who defended Henderson Field and torched the myth of the Zero’s invinciblity ideed need to be included in this poll. They had to contend with pritmaive facilities,poor food, lack of sleep, land ,naval and air bombardment. That was all before they could get thier planes aloft to battle the Japanese. Chief amoung these pilots were John L. Smith,(19 kills), Joe Foss, (26 kills), Harold Bauer, Marion Carl and several others I can’t recall. Flying the F4F Wildcat, they had to fly thier planes in a manner which exerted the Wildcat’s strength against the weaknesses of the faster and much more manuverable Zero.

On the Japanese side, were the A Team of Japanese Naval Pilots. Hirioshi Nishazawa,(102 kills), Saburo Sakai, (64 kills), were the most outstanding and among the few to survive the Guadalcanal Campaign. These Japanese pilots had to fly 600 miles just to reach the combat area. Sakai’s flight home after being seriously injured in a fight over Gualdalcanal is among the annals of WWII aviation.

As a result of the Guadalcanal Campaign, the tide of war was permanently turned against the Japanese. The Japanese Naval Air Arm never recoverd from the loss of so many irreplacable trained and experienced pilots. The exploits of a few Marine pilots in thier Wildcats paved the way for victory for the Corsair and Hellcat pilots who followed them.

So my vote is a joint affair. I vote for the U.S, Navy and Marine pilots, as well as the
Japanese Navy pilots they fought over Guadalcanal.

23

OK, you got me. Here it goes.

My first reaction was to say Adolf Galland (boy was he good).

Then I remembered that everybody who flew with “Pappy” Boyington thought that he was the most natural fighter pilot ever.

Then I put my brain in gear and decided that I had to flip a coin between Richard I. Bong (I served with one of his nephews in the navy), and Tommy McGuire. Together they were invincible. They both died after they were separated.

But my final vote goes to Douglas Bader. Not only a terror in the skies. But the Germans had to take away (or threaten too, I forget) his legs to keep him from escaping.

24

Douglas Bader, Seems you Americans can never look past your own achievements, but this guy flew with no legs, and was instrumental in developing tactics that helped win the Battle of Britain.

25

Ok guys, I gotta jump on several of you for this one…

YEAGER NEVER FOUGHT IN KOREA.

He was a test pilot for the USAF testing the captured MiG-15 and other aircraft during the war. He never made it overseas. He commanded a wing of F-4s in Vietnam, however, which is often overlooked. Its in his bio; YEAGER

He’s up there as far as best of all time, but as a pure fighter pilot I’d have to cast my vote for Yevgeny Pepelayev, Dick Bong or Dave McCampbell.

Pepelayev was an ace in both WWII and Korea. I forget how many he got in WWII, but he had 21 in Korea against Sabres (and I LOVE the Sabre!)

Bong was a natural. He and McGuire were neck and neck (and also nose to nose a few times from what I’ve heard) in the Ace Race.

And McCampbell was the top scoring USN ace of WWII with 34 kills. The man got 9 in one day, which is still a record for US pilots and probably will never be broken.

That’s my $.02
Rolling in Hot!

Jon

26

Let’s play nice here… the third entry in this thread was for Bader posted by a Yank and many others have selected non-American pilots as well…
I have to go with Ivan Kozhedub. Sat out 1941-1943 as an instructor pilot, then went on to become the highest scoring Allied ace of the war with 62 victories. The Russians fought a tough war in brutal conditions and rarely receive due credit in the West.

Regards,

Pat

27

i vote for Hans Jochim Marsilles, he only had 138 confirmed kills, but unlike the other highscoreing L/W pilots who had the majority of there kills on the Russian front against poor quality Russian pilots(not all were,but most). Marsilles scored all of his on the Western and Medeteranian fronts against much better U.S and Brit pilots, and in a very short amount of time before his death.

28

I also forgot to mention Saburo Sakai. If he hadn’t been so seriously injuried (eye) in the opening days of the Guadalcanal campain his 64 kills would have been just the tip of the iceberg. Try reading his book “Samurai”. Great reading and very enlighting. And nzgunnie you need to read all the post before you make such a statement.

29

Rickenbacker and Richtoffen, Bong and Bader, There’s just too many to choose from. Marines and Navy over Guadalcanal who fought Malaria, Dysentary, Trench foot and the Japanese, the Tuskegee Airmen who NEVER lost a bomber under their protection, and Torpedo Eight who went in with no top cover.

There were the Poles and French who fought on though they were using inferior equipment against overwhelming numbers then escaped to England to fight on, the English who just wouldn’t give up and the Australians and New Zelanders who fought in primitave conditions with outdated equipment.

I can’t name a greatest but my favorite was Bong.

30

Cobrahistorian is right - I’ll eat the crow. In 1953, Chuck Yeager was in Europe serving as commander, 417th Fighter Squadron, Hahn Air Base, West Germany, and at Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France. He’s also correct on Vietnam (so I got my conflicts mixed up - Yeager flew 127 missions.

Still and all - damned well accomplished.

31

Hello,
My choice would be Adolf Galland(the most gutsy guy…) and Lydia Litwak, A Russian female ace during ww2.

Cheers,
Nandakumar…

32

Just what is the criteria to determine the greatest fighter pilot? I think it should be his number of kills. Because if we had to consider other aspects like his personality, then this poll would be far more complex than this.
So i have to vote for Erich Hartmann. 352 confirmed kills in only two and a half years, for someone who began at the age of 20, that’s something. Oh, and something for those who mention the character and personality, he never lost a wingman! So, how about that for a nice person? ; )

33

How about

Besides those mentioned. What about Robbie Risner, Bernard Fisher, Chuck DeBellevue, Steve Ritchie

34

At first you missed the best Fw 190 Ace - Col. Kittel ( unfortunately shot down over Kurland front line in 1945 ),
but we shouldnt forget all the young and nearly innocent fighter pilots of germany aat the end of WW 2; outnumbered flying day by day against growing bomberstreams - and the boys who survived this hell are the real fighter ace for me, of course i dont want to forget the young american pilots in the first aattack on Pearl, or the the exhausted RAF pilots during BoB

they all were good

and for the so called aces : they could only be an ace, cause they survived long and had mostly cover

Thoms

35

I have to say this…There is no way in hell that the greatest fighter pilot will be taking off from anything other than a ship!!! This applies to all nations, not just the US Navy. So if your nominee requires pavement to get aloft your out of luck. Also, your not a real fighter pilot until you shed that air to mud stuff. If your shooting at or dropping stuff on the ground, your something other than a fighter pilot.

Darren

36

My submission for greatest fighter pilot is Gregory Boyington. Anyone who can get in a Corsair, fly to the enemy’s base, and then dare them to come up and fight is alright in my eyes. Plus, the fact that I’m also a former devil dog probably biases my opinion!! 8-))

37

Yeager and Bong.

Yeager got 5 in one mission, and he got an Me-262. But his greatest contributions to avation come later as a test pilot.

38

Marsellis got 18 spits in one day…but the Brits still deny it.

39

I’ll propose Hans Joachim Marseilles. He only had 158 victories but they were
all air to air against U.S. and British fighters. He never brought an airplane home
with a hole in it and, he never lost a wingman. He was called “The Star of Africa”

40

Just what is the criteria to determine the greatest fighter pilot? I think it should be his number of kills. Because if we had to consider other aspects like his personality, then this poll would be far more complex than this

Hopefully I don’t get in any sort of trouble for reviving a topic that hasn’t had much action for the last day or so. I normally don’t answer this type of question, but I wanted to comment on the above.

I have two objections with using this as the criteria.

First, you are simply creating a list of pilots based upon the number of planes destroyed. The term “greatest” isn’t something that can be defined, particularily with such simple criteria.

Hartmann was a great pilot, as were all of those mentioned here. One could argue, however, that other pilots, given the opportunity to fly against the pilots and planes he did and the chance to fly the number of missions he flew, could have put up similar “numbers”.

It basically eliminates any country that limited the number of missions a pilot flew or rotated pilots out of combat, or those who fought in wars without much air to air combat. They simply wouldn’t have the same number of chances.

The whole purpose of this type of thread is (or it seems to me is) the debate and not the resolution. I haven’t come across a “who do you think is the greatest…” that has ever been answered without any objection.

My vote would be for a pilot that had only six kills- Jimmy Thach.

I expect that I would have a hard time convincing many that he was indeed the greatest of all time based on the “small” number of aircraft he destroyed. The fact that he did so in a limited number of encounters, flying an aircraft designed for use by the peace-time Navy, against well trained, veteran pilots, a case can be made for Thach.

Using the “Vicotry Total Method”, there were probably fifty better pilots within the USN, and hundreds, if not thousands, better during the war. And while Thach might not have been the “greatest”, I know he was better than his raw victory total would suggest.

Now… anyone know where I can get a Monogram 1/48 SBD and/or TBD? :slight_smile: