 | Best Ace of WW1| World War I Discuss Best Ace of WW1 in the Other Eras forums; In my opinion without a shadow of a doubt (yes, even with the 'Red Baron' in mind) it was Lanoe ... |
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04-14-2004, 12:36 PM
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#1 | | Senior Member
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| Best Ace of WW1
In my opinion without a shadow of a doubt (yes, even with the 'Red Baron' in mind) it was Lanoe Hawker...
Even though he only scored 7 kills in his FE2b 'pusher' aircraft for the RAF before being shot down in Nov 1916 by the Red Baron   he was still the best pilot of that era in my mind - he was the first pilot to win a victoria cross during the great war's air conflict
when his career first began fighting the Germans he flew a Bristol Scout aircraft but he eventually upgraded to the Fe2b aircraft which was his favourite and proceded to shoot down his enemies...with a bolt-action hunting rifle instead of machine guns...beat that  http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/hawker.html
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04-14-2004, 01:49 PM
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#2 | | Senior Member
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| I don't know about 'the best' ace of WWI, but my favorite has to be Eddie Rickenbacker. A race car driver before the war, he proposed making a squadron made up entirely of race car drivers. Eventually dropping this, he joined the 'Hat in the Ring' 94th Squadron, shooting down 22 aircraft and four balloons. He recieved the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the French Croix de Guerre.
He died in 1973 
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04-15-2004, 04:20 AM
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#3 | | Senior Member
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| How did i know you'd vote for an American? 
But seriously Eddie Rickenbacker was an amazing pilot and certainly one of the best of the war
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04-16-2004, 09:20 AM
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#4 | | Konfused with a 'K'
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Country:  | does anyone know who shot the red baron down?
__________________  with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... | |
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04-16-2004, 02:20 PM
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#5 | | Senior Member
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| no one knows for sure, its a toss up between Aussie ground gunners and a Canadian guy named Roy Brown who usually gets the credit... BUT! when they found his body in his plane, he was slumping so that makes it seem as though he was shot from below, but it could also be that he was shot from above, who knows? ....................................... | |
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04-16-2004, 02:23 PM
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#6 | | Senior Member
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| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Crazy I don't know about 'the best' ace of WWI, but my favorite has to be Eddie Rickenbacker. A race car driver before the war, he proposed making a squadron made up entirely of race car drivers. Eventually dropping this, he joined the 'Hat in the Ring' 94th Squadron, shooting down 22 aircraft and four balloons. He recieved the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the French Croix de Guerre.
He died in 1973 | he also flew Bf109s in Africa! kinda..... he test flew captured ones after the war was over! ill post what he thought of it (it was a G model if my memory serves me correctly) once i can find the bloody magazine that contains it  | |
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04-16-2004, 04:13 PM
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#7 | | Senior Member
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Originally Posted by cheddar cheese does anyone know who shot the red baron down? |
Actually Germans you would have been right about a year ago that no-one knows who killed him but now they DO know who killed him as they looked at the post-mortem report a doctor made at the time...
The Red Baron was being fired at from 3 different positions...
1) Captain brown in his Camel (right behind the Baron)
2) A handful of Soldiers manning a Lewis gun on the ground (To his left)
3) A Commenwealth solider with a .303 Lee Enfield bolt-action rifle (to his right)
Manfred Von Richtofen was killed by a single bullet that entered his body under his right armpit and became lodged under his left nipple (in other words it went straight through his chest and remained lodged there) The shot killed him- but not straight away -he was able to land his plane - ( testament to what an excellent pilot he was, there aren't many pilots around that could take a .303 round in the chest and still land their plane  )
A soldier rushed over to his plane and the Red Baron apparently tried to speak to him but the soldier didn't speak German so his words were lost forever...but after examining the reports made at the time they say looking at the angle of the entry wound and the position of the bullet (blah blah blah) basically proves without a shadow of a doubt that the Baron was killed by a single shot from the Commenwealth Rifleman who was an Australian named Cedric Popkin (what a name! )
Yes it was flukey but it is also true - they proved it
The Baron's body was buried by the British and Australian forces in the area with full military honours and a scout plane dropped a note over German territory to deliver the news http://www.anzacs.net/who-killed-the-Red-Baron.htm
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04-17-2004, 07:42 AM
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#8 | | Hairy one of Old Judea
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Country:  | Still to my mind, the Red Baron is the creme de la creme of WW1 flyers.
Kiwimac
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04-17-2004, 11:41 AM
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#9 | | Master of Ewes
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Country:  | he sirtainly was good................
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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04-20-2004, 05:35 AM
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#10 | | Konfused with a 'K'
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Country: | cheers, thanks bronze, that made interesting reading 
__________________ with my one last gaping breath id apologise for bleeding on your shirt... | |
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04-24-2004, 08:48 AM
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#11 | | Master of Ewes
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Country: | i saw a show about all that one, they said it was two bullets that kiled him..........
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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05-04-2004, 08:15 AM
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#12 | | Senior Member
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Country: | Yes it was, he had two bullets in him. They still don't know how he managed to get in that state, and unable to avoid his defeat. And one theory being he blacked out due to a head injury he had suffered previous, he was advised not fly.
He was still the best.
I've read, and heard many tales of WW1 pilots killing others with rifles.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004  To those in that club. | |
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05-16-2004, 08:42 AM
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#13 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country: | doesn't supprise me, that's how the 1st plane of the war was shot down...............
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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05-16-2004, 01:24 PM
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#14 | | Senior Member
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Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass doesn't supprise me, that's how the 1st plane of the war was shot down............... | Wouldn't that just be a bugger of a thing...
"Hey, look there! It's a German recon plane!" *Pilot waves*
*German fires rifle*
"Oh SH**!!"
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05-17-2004, 10:42 AM
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#15 | | Senior Member
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Country: | It wouldn't be very funny, we'll say that.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004 To those in that club. | |
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