Best Ace of WW1

[bronzewhaler82]

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 8)

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/hawker.html

 

[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. 8)

He died in 1973

 

[bronzewhaler82]

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 8)

 

[cheddar cheese]

does anyone know who shot the red baron down?

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

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? .......................................

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

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. 8)

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

 

[bronzewhaler82]

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

 

[kiwimac]

Still to my mind, the Red Baron is the creme de la creme of WW1 flyers.

Kiwimac

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

he sirtainly was good................

 

[cheddar cheese]

cheers, thanks bronze, that made interesting reading 8)

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i saw a show about all that one, they said it was two bullets that kiled him..........

 

[plan_D]

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.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

doesn't supprise me, that's how the 1st plane of the war was shot down...............

 

[Crazy]

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**!!"

 

[plan_D]

It wouldn't be very funny, we'll say that.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

well the first few times enemy planes met they waved and tried to shout at each other, that soon changed.......................

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Manfred von Richthoffen the great Red Baron was probably the greatest and for me is actually the greatest of all times because he was the ace of aces in WW1 the first war with aircombat. Not to take anything away from the other great aces of WW1 from England and America but if I recall from reading a book on Richthoffen when he died airmen from many nations including England, France and the US attended his ceremony along with Germans that says something about the respect the man recieved. I can only think of one other soldier who still today is so highly respected by his enemies and that is Rommel. I attend his memorial service every year near Ulm, Germany and there are German, French, British, and American soldiers there dressed in there best uniforms laying wreaths and flowers at his grave. Even many of the surviving members of the famed Afrika Korps are there in there uniforms, it really is a somber sight to see and very amazing.

 

[KraziKanuK]

WW1 aces

http://www.wwiaviation.com/aces/aces.shtml


No one mentioned Mannock(73) or Bishop(72)?

Besides the Baron, there was Oberl. Ernst Udet(62) and Oberlt. Erich Löwenhardt(56).

 

[Erich]

Believe it or not but the chap, slim at one time during WW 1, Hermann Göring was quite a competent pilot flying his famous all white Fokker DVII. He was actually quite good. "Red" was excellent no doubt but there were quite a few other Pour le Merit winners that should be mentioned and no doubt French/British as well. quite a tribute should be shown these noble and brave pilots, flying nothing by our standards as total junk heaps, but boy could those little things turn.........

E ~

 

[Erich]

did a little digging in my old ww1 files. Hermann Goering took over his white DVII with Red crosses in October of 1918 as Kommandeur of the 1st Jagdgeschwader "Richthofen"

Ernst Udet flew the craft a couple of times. The werke nummer of the white a/c was 3226 and had a BMW 3a engine.

Goering had 22 kills