Why not it ain't just numbers , 99.9% of the time after 41 the Germans were flying over or very near there own lines they weren't tredding deeply into unfamiliar territory and when they did they didn't fare all that well.
That's a pretty weak point. First of all, there are many factors which are more important than whether or not a pilot was flying over his own lines.
In fact, one might argue that it's *totally* irrelevant, especially seeing that as the war went on, the allies had an ever-increasing level of air superiority, and scoring kills under conditions where the enemy has you outnumbered counts as a plus for the Germans.
I would like to know how you rate yourself an expert what qualifications do you have ? have you ever talked to some of these guys
Nope, I've never met a WWII fighter ace personally, but I'm interested in the subject, I read a lot, and I'm aware of a lot of relevant facts and statistics. Most importantly, though, I have a background in mathematics, and I understand how to compare things across multiple orthogonal categories as objectively as possible. In the case of World War II fighter pilots, the statistics are skewed so far in favor of the top Germans that there really doesn't seem to be any way a non-German could come out on top of *any* reasonable comparison model.
And seriously, am I making any unreasonable claims here? Is it really that unreasonable of me to express disapproval at the fact that Nowotny isn't on the list up there and that so many of those other guys are???
By the way, it seems like I'm just agreeing with what the professional military historians have to say. If there's anyone here who believes that the best pilot of the war wasn't German AND can cite a reputable military historian specializing in WWII air combat (a.k.a. a real expert) who agrees, then I'd love to hear about it.
I for one can cite Galland, who stated that Marseille was the best fighter pilot of the war.