Greatest Fighter Pilot in World War II..... UPDATED

[Erich]

although he was the Stern of Afrika you are gestimating at Marseilles possible rise till war's end. There is at least a 50 to 85 % he would of been killed in action with P-51's,. I've done a pretty intense research on all the gruppen of Jg 27 from 1944 till war's end, and can tell you that it was quite a rarity for any of the Alte Hase to survive through the fall of 1944 having been in JG 27 sicne Russia and Afrika. Jg 27 was bascially wiped out several times during the Reichsverteidigung

v/r

♪

[Lightning Guy]

But the fact remains that he was facing tougher opposition than many of his Eastern Front colleagues and 154 of his 158 victories were over enemy fighters. 17 in one day is incredible. And the situations surrounding his kills are just as impressive. Just as impressive, in my estimation, is the fact that he twice risked AA fire just to drop a note containing information on a British pilot he had shot down.

Originally Posted by lesofprimus

Yes it was Kozhedub, and he shot both of them down....

I read something similar about that as well.... There were many acts like that.... Ill see what i can come up with...

I still have to wonder if they indeed bounced him, or he bounced them and this was the cover story. We are only hearing one side of it and they had soooooo much motive to lie about the incident I cannot really consider it credible. I'd love to see guncam footage on this one.

=S=

Lunatic

[plan_D]

Is that because you believe an American can't do wrong? It's the Soviet that was in the wrong, never the American.

[Erich]

LG, Marseille's multiple scores of 17 on one day are not cross checked with the RAF group that he and his buddies tangled with. they are not confirmed. Marseille as with 9/10's of JG 27 would of been shot down if not killed during 1944...............period

[cheddar cheese]

Originally Posted by lesofprimus

Yes it was Kozhedub, and he shot both of them down....

I read something similar about that as well.... There were many acts like that.... Ill see what i can come up with...

Dont worry,ive found it...you posted a threa don it a while back...

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/vie...50c2d55c01d20b

[Adolf Galland]

Ummmmm... I think that Galland made 104 kills, not 103...

[Adolf Galland]

Erich Hartmann got 352 kills because he had been fighting on the Eastern Front, and Russian aircraft suck. (and so do their pilots, and by the way I'm just trying to point out a fact...)

[lesofprimus]

You are right about Galland kills.. A typo on my part.. Thx for pointing that out...... Ill fix it.....

[Lightning Guy]

You have to be careful about making those kind of statements about 'Bubi' since he did not scoring kills immediately. Many of his victories were over quality planes and pilots.

[cheddar cheese]

Russian planes may not have been the best, granted, but they werent too bad. I think their pilots were amazing though, managing to get the best out of poor machinery (Kozhedub and Pokryshin for example).

Originally Posted by plan_D

Is that because you believe an American can't do wrong? It's the Soviet that was in the wrong, never the American.

Not at all. I am always suspicous of one sided accounts of this nature.

[plan_D]

Sure, okay.

The Soviet pilots weren't good, CC. Only a few come to light as being any good, most of the VVS were poorly trained.

[bomber1956]

well I was nearly converted to Baer due to his all round record, but he was shot down 18 times with lots of damage to his own frame. So Hartmann it is as, 1. He didnt get killed! and 2. He didnt get hurt. (I dont think). I dont know how often he was shot down, and surely best pilot must be ratio of kills to being shot down yourself.

[Erich]

again it has been pointed out what type of opposition was agasint the German pilot. Bär fought them all and lived. He is # 1. Geez think about it, fighters from the Allies/Soviets as well as chasing down twin and 4 engine bombers. No crap pilots here guyz.............