mr. flyboy, hi
"While it could be said that Yeager is a bit of a major @ss there is no reason to undermine or deny his actual combat record, that's been confirmed and verified by many (on both sides) who didn't even like the man for the same reasons I've given. At the same time I know your feelings about allied pilots and your points about the actual effectiveness of the Luftwaffe when dealing with the RAF and the USAAF, but remember this; many a Luftwaffe experten themselves became experten with regards to the functional requirements of parachutes and egress systems, and those who had the luck or skill to survive the war are still very brave men in my book and it doesn't undermine their skill or courage no matter how many times they found themselves floating helplessly while a sky full of P-51s zoomed past them. Scrutinize the allied airforces of WW2, their over-exaggeration of their victories and those who might blindly glorify them 60 years later but remember the last words spoken by Field Marshal Griem on May 24, 1945 - "but I have no Luftwaffe." And there will never be a denail, debut or doubt of that fact.."
i like the true diplomatic fashion of your comment here, thank you; now, what you are basically saying there is "no matter what you might say, the allies won and the germans you love so much lost."
from what i know flyboy, in the post-war era the airplane kills as claimed by german fighter pilots overcame fierce scrutiny and doubts, and they did remarkably well. the western allies can not claim the same thing. (soviet military air force not included there though, for those guys have lived inside a bubble eversince)
you are correct. itīs very true german field commanders and their soldiers complained about the lack of air cover during the last year of the war, a fact that can be easily detected in most german accounts and war memories published.
that such a thing is correct does not mean the Luftwaffe did not exist flyboy -although there are some exceptions when the luftwaffe provided air support to the wehrmacht like the winter battles in the Ardennes in late 1944-.
to give you an idea the luftwaffe was present, the order of battle for two very important Luftwaffe units in the first week of January, 1945:
stab, I., II., III. and IV./ JG 300 and stab., I. and III./ JG 301 altogether fielded some 300 fighters (with more than 75% operational). only 2 units which were very powerful when 1945 commenced.
the point being, where was the bulk of the jagdwaffe while german troops were fighting most of the times without air support in the last year of the war, especially throughout 1944?
trying to deal with the streams of heavy bombers hitting the reich, and the romanian oil fields in Ploesti -obviously, before the collapse of romania in 1944-.
they opted for the enemy heavy bombers.
that the luftwaffe was fighting a losing -or lost- battle itīs true for that period of the war; but the Luftwaffe was very active, virtually non-stop combat, on a daily basis, many times inflicting horrible losses to the USAAF while taking their own for sure, horrific on some battles.
it showed the limits of the german military though, the enemy was so large and was striking from so many places (8th and 15th air forces) they were simply unable to provide adequate and sufficient air support to their troops.
wmaxt, hi
my answer to your question? i do not know; itīd not surprise me to find out the number of german aces who never had to bale out was high. i do know many of them had to bale out one or many times though. but whatīs new about this?
a digression, i do not care about that individual yeager; i was simply told by some of his fellow airmen the man is a liar. a man with such score should not deserve that sort of limelight though. do not intend to heat up with this.
itīs not a competition to see what pilots had to bale out the most wmaxt; rather itīs an attempt to make fun -or even ridicule- the words of a man who simply can not control his tongue.
try to answer this wmaxt: there is a boxing match, [b]udet vs. wmaxt[b]. we get in a ring and the fight begins. you completely kick the living crap out of me. the referee had to stop the match in round 4. udet has both eyes badly bruised, 3 broken ribs, swollen lips, his nose bleeds and a few hours after the combat he urinates blood in his hotel room.
then guess what? next weeks interviews of me are published on the main newspapers where i "ridicule" you as a fighter. i tell the reporter you do not know how to punch, you lack technique, you are a weak fighter....what about that wmaxt?
well, thatīs exactly the thing with that pop-star of the usaaf. got beaten, and shot down. people like him should fill out a job application form for a circus. they are fun
now wmaxt, that the man was a liar does not mean he was a bad pilot. you know that very well. he just had some pathological urge to get attention on him.
you know that if some german experte had to bale out 2, 3 or 10 times that does not make him a bad pilot.
also you know there were hundreds and hundreds of experten who remained in combat for 3, 4 or 5 years of non-stop war, many died during the war, many others saw the end of the conflict. thatīs intense, many of the guys in here who have served in the armies of their nations could tell better than anyone about what it would be like to remain in war for such a period of time, with little if any rest. (i know you acknowledge this as well)
the same applies for the experten and newer pilots who served in Kommando Nowotny, JV 44 and JG 7, to name some of the units who were equipped with jets.
so keeping that in mind, USAAF fighter pilots (who fought under diametrically opposed conditions -fixed number of missions then go home-) that got shot down by the Luftwaffe do not fare better in this department wmaxt.
cheers
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