# Pilot shot down many times



## Devil505 (Apr 15, 2008)

I'm desperately trying to remember something I think I may have read in the Times obituary pages in the last couple of years. It was for a fighter pilot, and I remember it said something staggering like he was shot down something crazy like 40 times. It's one of those things you have to look at twice to believe it. I'm starting to doubt whether I dreamt it now!! Does anyone know of anyone who could fit this description?!?


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## timshatz (Apr 15, 2008)

Snoopy?


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## lesofprimus (Apr 15, 2008)

Starbuck???


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## FLYBOYJ (Apr 15, 2008)

Dick Dastardly!


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## Soundbreaker Welch? (Apr 16, 2008)

That's one amazing amount of times! If it happened, I bet he got shot down every other mission.

Was he a German or Russian Pilot? Because American or British Pilots could have flown enough to even be shot down 40 times.


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## timshatz (Apr 16, 2008)

Maybe he flew the target drone for the USN AAA School?


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## wilbur1 (Apr 16, 2008)

Couple of years or do you mean decades?


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## Devil505 (Apr 16, 2008)

No it was definitely only 1 or 2 years ago in a newspaper. It must have been WW2 because they definitely wouldn't have survived 40 shoot downs in WWI! For some reason I think he was German. Maybe it was just a misprint or something, I remember taking a double take when i read it thinking 'HOW many times?!?'. Frustrated I forgot the name. Also it wasn't exactly 40 times, but well in double figures. Maybe it was an obituary for Admiral Benson in Hot Shots!


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## pbfoot (Apr 16, 2008)

I know one who was shot 8 times 4 bailouts and 4 crashes


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## Devil505 (Apr 16, 2008)

Ahah, some hope for my sanity at last!! I thought the article may have been related to the business of Werner Molders flying with the Condor Legion which was in the news a couple of years back, but I can't find anywhere that says how many times he was shot down. BUT..............I did find Hans-Ulrich Rudel the Stuka ace was shot down 32 times, and Georg-Peter Eder an ace with 78 kills was shot down 17 times!! Neither of these died recently so it likely wasn't them, but evidently it was possible to be shot down that many times!!


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## seesul (Apr 17, 2008)

pbfoot said:


> I know one who was shot 8 times 4 bailouts and 4 crashes



Me too. Willi Reschke perhabs...4 bailouts 4 emergency landings...


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## pbfoot (Apr 17, 2008)

seesul said:


> Me too. Willi Reschke perhabs...4 bailouts 4 emergency landings...


Oskar Boesch


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## Bernhart (Apr 17, 2008)

remember reading about Priller was shot down 13-14 times? And believe Hartmann was shot down alot of times, like 7/8?


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## R-2800 (Apr 17, 2008)

Hartmann was shot down a bunch of times right? like 4+??


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## XBe02Drvr (Jan 9, 2018)

One of ROTC classmates went on to be a Huey pilot and survived four shootdowns in 'Nam. Then, years later, as CO of the local Army Guard aviation section he was shot down again stateside while scud running a medevac under a low overcast to an accident scene and overflying a Native American reservation. He and his flight medic heard a "ping" and the rotor decoupled. He had enough forward speed to autorotate successfully from 300 feet, where they found themselves in a marijuana patch surrounded by .30-30 toting Mohawks and found a nice .30 caliber hole in the transmission. But he made ace!
Cheers,
Wes

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