ORIGINAL: G-Pete
ORIGINAL: P-40K-5
Erich Hartmann for 3 simple facts:
~ highest scoring ace in history
~ never got shot down
~ never loss a wingman - this is what he was most proud of.
that makes him the 'ace of aces'
Well, there is more to that legend - he spent over 10 years as POW in Russian camps. After he was back home he took again a officer position in the German Airforce, were he was forced to retire because of massive complaints about the F-104 Quote "Hartmann considered the F-104 a fundamentally flawed and unsafe aircraft and strongly opposed its adoption by the Bundesluftwaffe ". He was right and over 200 crashes and 100+ dead German pilots proved that sad fact...
He died 1993 at age 71.
Other German WWII pilots (Hartmann included) considered Galland to be better, he fought on the western front which (with all respect to the Russian pilots) was considered more demanding.</p>
Galland himself considered Hans-Joachim Marseille to be the best pilot in the Luftwaffe by virtue of his outstanding marksmanship.</p>
It's interesting how opinions vary so much... fascinating thread!</p>