Top Aces by plane

Bullockracing · 04-13-2006, 09:01 PM

Can anyone help with a list of top aces by plane, i.e. the most kills in a P-51, the most kills in a P-47, etc? Or possibly the plane flown most by the aces below? I know the easy ones off the top of my head, but not all.

Loomaluft posted this list of aces.

>Name-------------------------------Country Kills
erich hartmann---------------------germany 352 kills - Bf109
eino juutilainen-----------------------finland 94 kills
hiroyoshi nishizawa------------------japan 87 kills killed 26th october 1944

ivan kozhedub-----------------------russia 62 kills
prince constantine cantacuzenne-----romania 60 kills
marmaduke *pat* pattle---------south africa 51 kills killed in action 20/4/41

richard bong-----------------------------USA 40 kills - P-38
mato dukovac------------------------croatian 40 kills
james johnson-----------------------------UK 38 kills
deszo szentgyiorgyi-------------------hungary 34 kills
jan rezoak----------------------------slovakia 32 kills
george beurling------------------------canada 31 kills
clive caldwell-------------------------australia 29 kills
colin gray------------------------new zealand 28 kills
adriano visconti--------------------------italy 26 kills killed 29th april 1945

marcel albert---------------------------france 23 kills
stanislaw skalski------------------------poland 22 kills
karel kuttelwascher------------czechoslovakia 18 kills
svein heglund--------------------------norway 15 kills
li kwei-tan-------------------------------china 12 kills
kaj birksted---------------------------denmark 11 kills
yvan georges du monceau de bergandel--belgium 8 kills
cudomir toplodolski----------------------bulgaria 8 kills

Salim · 04-13-2006, 10:29 PM

I checked out 'Pat' Pattle's small biographies here and there, but I do know that he started flying Gloster Gladiator (biplanes, as we know) and later on moved to Hawker Hurricanes.

I should also mention that some sources I've read rated his victories as much as 65 to as little as 34 as opposed to the 51 that you've rated. I'm not sure which is true, so I guess I should leave it to speculation on people more informed than me.

Anyway, that guy was simply amazing... he got that much in only 9 months of combat before getting KIA... just think of what would have happened had he survived. He could have been the only Allied pilot to get over 100 kills!

lesofprimus · 04-14-2006, 06:30 AM

Most of Marmaduke Pattles records were lost.... There is some slight conjecture in certain cirles, but with all available datas, and log books/plane captains records, his total is figured to be the highest of ALL Allied pilots....

Some may dispute, but in the end, the truth died with Pattle...

lesofprimus · 04-14-2006, 07:25 AM

Heres a listing of what I have......

Country
Pilot Victories

Germany
Maj. Erich Hartmann 352
Austria
Maj. Walter Nowotny 258
Japan
Chief Warrant Officer Hiroyoshi Nishizawa 147
Finland
Flight Master E. I. Juutualainen 94
Denmark
Prince Heinrich of Sayn-Wittgenstein 83
South Africa
Squadron Leader M. T. St. J. Pattle 62
USSR
Guards Col. Ivan N. Kozhedub 60
Rumania
Capt. Prince Constantine Cantacuzino 60
Croatia
Mato Dukovac 44
USA
Maj. Richard I. Bong 40
UK
Group Capt. James E. Johnson 38
Poland
Jan Poniatowski 36
Hungary
2nd Lt. Dezjö Szentgyörgyi 34
Slovak
Jan Gerthoffer 33
France
Squadron Leader Pierre H. Clostermann 33
Ireland
Wing Comdr. Bredan E. Finucane 32
Canada
Squadron Leader George F. Buerling 31
Australia
Group Capt. Clive R. Caldwell 28
Czechoslavakia
Sgt. Josef Frantisek 28
New Zealand
Wing Comdr. Colin F. Gray 27
Spain
Juan Lario Sanchez 27
Italy
Maj. Adriano Visconti 26
Greece
Wing Com. Ioannis Agorastos Plagis 16
Norway
Flight Lt. Svein Heglund 16
Belgium
Rodolphe Ghislain Charles de Hemricourt de Grunne 15
Bulgaria
Maj. Stoyan Iliev Stoyanov 14
Rhodesia
William Ivan Hartley Maguire 13
China
Kwei-Tan Li 12
Denmark
Group Capt. Kaj Birksted 10
Holland
Flt. Lt. Bram van der Stok 8
Netherlands
Lt. Col. van Arkel 5

Dogwalker · 04-14-2006, 09:06 AM

Capt. Mario Visintini was the top scorer flying only with the CR 42, with 16 individuals and two shared victories (plus one with CR-32 in the Spanish Civil War). He died in a storm on 11 February 1941. At that time he was the Italian top scorer.

Salim · 04-14-2006, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Most of Marmaduke Pattles records were lost.... There is some slight conjecture in certain cirles, but with all available datas, and log books/plane captains records, his total is figured to be the highest of ALL Allied pilots....

Some may dispute, but in the end, the truth died with Pattle...

You're right. It's always a shame when the truth can never be known. Still, what he did was absolutely incredible, it was all up there along with the same type of stories you'd hear about Gunther Rall and Erich Hartmann. Even the Ivan (who I assume, survived the war) couldn't have matched his victories... Pattle did them all in 9 months!

And the interesting thing about Richard Bong is the fact that I've seen a lot of other pilots who could have surpassed his record, but didn't because they were either killed (like Tom McGuire) or didn't serve long enough (like Neel Kerby and the USN leading ace, David McCampbell). He was just lucky enough for that to happen to him so he stayed America's leading ace. Unfortunately for him, he died in a flying accident while testing out the new jet fighters for the USAAF. Who knows what could have happened had he lived? He might have served on in Korea and made ace over there!

Twitch · 04-14-2006, 02:56 PM

Let' see as for top aces in certain planes, these guys scored most of their vics in one plane type-
Francis Gabreski 28 in P-47
Dick Bong 40 P-38
David McCampbell 34 F6F
George Preddy 26 7/8 P-51
Joe Foss 26 F4F
Bob Hansen 25 F4U
David Hill 18 3/4 P-40
Carroll Smith 7 P-61
Mike Russo 5 A-36
Wm. Feidler 5 P-39

loomaluftwaffe · 04-15-2006, 01:45 AM

Otto Kittel Fw-190 267 kills
Ivan Kozhedub flew the La-7 and the La-5

The highest (and only) P-39 ace ive heard of was Alexander Pokryshkin of Russia
59 kills

Salim · 04-15-2006, 10:45 AM

There were many Russian P-39 aces, not just Pokryshkin. People consider it ironic that the Russians were very sucessful with it while the Americans and British were constantly frustrated by it.

Here's a link: http://www.acepilots.com/planes/sovi...airacobra.html

One thing that I found interesting in the list is the fact that, while Pokryshkin is the highest scoring Russian pilot, he got 48 of his victories in a P-39, while Grigori Rechkalov got 50 in one (and 6 in another aircraft type). That makes him the highest scoring P-39 ace, but not the highest scoring ace over all.

lesofprimus · 04-15-2006, 10:55 AM

Yup....

Henk · 04-15-2006, 11:05 AM

It is really funny that the Russians could fly the P-39 so successfull. Wonder why?

Henk

lesofprimus · 04-15-2006, 11:21 AM

Different tactics....

Henk · 04-15-2006, 11:35 AM

Ok.

Henk

MacArther · 04-15-2006, 03:15 PM

And, if memory serves, they lightened the aircrafts amor, and replaced the 37mm most of the time with a 23mm or a 20mm gun, further lightening the plane. All this brought it closer to its original specification. Added to this, the deflection gun sights (or whatever sight it was) that most Russian planes lacked that pilots were eager to use because it made arial gunery a tad bit easier.

Twitch · 04-15-2006, 03:41 PM

They weren't fighting hordes of maneuverable Zeros. The American P-39's 37mm jammed after 2-3 rounds invariably too while the P-400 export version had a 20 mm.