ascforithobbies

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Who do you think was the best ace in WW Iand WW II
American
German
Italian
French
British
Japanese
Russian
??????

Walt Thyng

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How do you define best? Number of kills; quality of aircraft; skill of opponents; most kills in shortest time; most kills in a particular period of time?
Walt

ascforithobbies

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Walt

you tell me any pilot of the 1901 - 1945 era, its all about your opinion. I just think it be fun to see what everyone thinks.
if you had to pick of all the pilot who would be your top 3

Walt Thyng

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Gotta think about it. Too bad you cut it off at 45 otherwise I'd include my cousin, Gen. Harrison R. Thyng who is one of only 7 aces in both piston and turbine planes. His other distinction is having kills in more different theatres of war than any other ace.
Walt

larry@coyotenet

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Without a doubt, Eric Hartman

ascforithobbies

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guys beside names help out give a few stats, like time line, theater of operations.

MANFRED

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Hartman, Boelke, Richtoffen, Bong, McGuire, Galland, Sakai, Boyington, Kepford, Gabreski, Kozhedub, Voss, Udet, Ball, Gunemeyer, Barkhorn, Rall, Graff, the list is endless... save yourself alot of trouble and check out this site http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/aces/aces.htm#wwii

ascforithobbies

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Manfred Thats a heck of a list of all those names who do you think is top 3 and why?

vertical grimmace

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Urnst Udet, for flying and surviving almost the entire war, then Erich Hartman. He never lost a wingman, along with flying so much and having the most kills ever.

Mk23socom

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No love for the Finns??

STUKA BARRY

You forgot Hans...... Shame on you.

ascforithobbies

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The link you posted is really cool thanks for sharing

Im not posting to save time. I think its be a informative thread to see who there favorite pilot was for the time period and there place in history.

There lots of story's about the aircraft but we sometime forget the guys who had the courage to climb into those planes and mark there spot in history.

denoferth

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Let’s not forget Sabur� Sakai who also never lost a wingman.

TA152

Udet during WW1 I guess? On 17 November 1941, Ernst Udet committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

I think Rudel was the best. Surviving the war in a Stuka together with his rear gunner.

nutz4planes

My vote would be for Joe Foss USMC. For shooting down 26 at the time some of the best trained pilots Japan had. When you figure they were flying the outmatched f4f Wildcat against the much more nimble Zero. And the maintance and living conditions the air crews of the Cactus airforce had to deal with I think they deserve a vote.

vertical grimmace

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Yes, Udet is my pic for WW1. He did not fly combat in WW2. He also developed the Stuka, after studying the Curtis hawk biplanes he brought back with him from the states. I think he was quite impresssive.

louie525

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My top 5 from the second world war are Edward "Butch" O'Hare, Bud Anderson, Richard Bong, Robert Gentile and Chuck Yeager! Two of four that survived the war; died test flying jets. Hard to name a true number one. All heros in my opinion!

Jim Cattanach

A truly international selection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...II_flying_aces

planedriver_2

Just for the fact that I fly a N 28 C-1 with CAPTAIN EDDIE RICKENBOCKER'S COLORS,
that's my vote. He was one of the early aces.

ascforithobbies

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I was wondering when the more everyday names was going to get noted, I kinda of shocked no one mentioned the red baron

Luft-Gangster

The Red Barron was listed by MANFRED. All of the pilots listed above have great merrit, but my vote for the number one has to be
Hans-Joachim Marseille. Eric Hartman also said that Marseille was the better fighter pilot, listing that his aireal victories were all on the eastern front where pilots with less skill were thrown in the air too soon. Marseille's aireal victories were all on the western front against pilots of greater skill. Marseille was shot down once during the Battle of Brittan as a rookie pilot, but never again. When assigned to North Africa, he started practicing unusual offensive tactics, diviating from the standard 6 o'clock above and behind. His wingman said he was one of the hardest to stay with in combat, because he would cut throttle, apply dive brakes, pivot on a wing tip, pull up dive brakes, slam the throttle forward and go after the next opponent. On one mission he was credited with 5 victories. The interesting part is they all went down within a five minute span. When he landed, his ground crew was amazed to find that he fired only 80 rounds. He died not from enemy fire. His plane was never hit again after the Battle of Brittan. He died falling to the ground unconcious from hitting hishead on the hoizontal stab bailing out of one of the first Bf109F's because of an oil leak covering his windshield.
Saboro Sakai would be my number 2 vote. His book is also an amazing story. Ground training to qualify for flight school required doing flips on a trampolene while one of many standing around the tramp would throw a ball to pilot want to be while doing a flip. The trainee would have to catch the ball and return it to the person who threw it to him. And that was just one of the requirements to get into flight school. He flew combat up till Midway. He lost an eye at Midway, recovering inverted at about 10 feet off the deck (pacific ocean) and was able to get his plane back to land because of his expierments of extending fuel consumpsion. Was assigned to training new pilots because of the loss of one eye. Sent out on a kamikaze mission to lead others who lacked the navigation skills. Did not find the US fleet, so he returned to base and was never allowed to lead again.
Based on what I have read, these are my 1 & 2 picks.

jmohn

I thik it would have to be a German pilot as they were kept in service the entire war on the front lines where other coutries pulled their aces back so help on the home front as a reward. The German aces were kept in service.


Jeff

Oberst

The best WW1 ace would be hard to pick. There's the obvious and often over-popular Manfred von Richthofen, but his brother, Lothar, deserves attention. In 77 days total combat, Lothar achieved 40 kills, perhaps more (some were unverified). Of course, for "best ace who survived the war" that would go to Udet - in skill and as the second-highest scoring ace of that war. (62) - Boelcke and Immelmann also deserve looking at, since they were in essence the "fathers" of combat flying -Boelcke's Dicta comes to mind as THE source of combat tactics. We also can look at "Iron Ace" Berthold who flew despite injuries that would have grounded lesser men, Josef Jacobs, who perfected (in my opinion) the flight of the Dr-1 - and also Werner Voss, who also flew that Dr1 as an extension of himself.

But that's just the Central powers. We haven't even touched the likes of Mick Mannock, Billy Bishop, James McCudden, Ira "Taffy" Jones and others.

As for WW2 - for Germany I would have to pick Walter Schuck as the jet ace, Galland, Moelders and Oesau for tactics, Marseille who flew the 109 like an extension of himself, and perfected deflection shooting, Hajo Hermann for night single-engine, Schnaufer for 110 night fighting, Graf, Grislawski for Eastern Front (along with Hartmann and Barkhorn, obviously), Nowotny also for jet fighter. And let's not forget Rall.

Osterkamp comes to mind for Germany for being in BOTH wars AND fighting in both. Longevity.

I do admit I'm not familiar with the Allied powers or Japan or Russia - though my wife says I do have to mention the night witches and the female Russian pilots. Those ladies held their own.

We also have to take in mind that the German aces were in air for extended periods of time, with no fighter rotation, something which the Allies DID do - so that does skew the results. Many of the aces that were shot down by the Allies were at the end of their mental and physical ropes, or too damn young and inexperienced. A lot of the "greats" have said it was down to a matter of luck of the draw whether or not they would be alive when their flight was over. As the war progressed in Europe, the odds of Allied to German fighter strength grew exponentially.

However, I have to mention that the "last kill" of the war (May 7th or so, 1945) was with a Salamander in JG 1 "Oesau" - shot down an Allied fighter.

Pete

TA152

"Pips" Priller is also one of my favorites, shooting down at least 68 Spitfires
http://www.luftwaffe.cz/priller.html

Mk23socom

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My vote goes to Douglas Bader. 20 aerial victories, zero legs.. maybe not the best there was, but the guy gets my nod for determination.