Best WWII fighter pilot....?
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If he should be #1, then why having the trouble to make a list, while 1 would be sufficient
lesofprimus
Brigadier General
I agree Marcel...
Coors9
Senior Airman
Came in late on this one.....How about these 3 fellas, Beeson, Godfrey and the greatest fighter pilot.....Gentile.
Trautloft
Airman
i got with Marseille because the way he fought. a new,unique way. he adopted a new way,the desert ambiente with the lack of clouds etc. was completely different of other areas.he had to shoot in ANY,often unusual or crazy position and hell,he did it well. in my eyes his marksmanship skill was one of the best ever.
Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
Just found what I've been looking for. Regarding marksmanship (and I throw this into the mix for argument sake - not as a vote for a pilot) but this is from "Luftwaffe Fighter Aces" by Mike Spick...........
"The most usual way of assessing the performance of the aces is by victory totals. Using this method, Erich Hartmann is pre-eminent by a considerable margin. There are, however, other factors to consider, the major one of which is opportunity. Ideally, the best alternative would be to divide the number of sorties on which contact was made with the enemy by the number of victories to give a strike rate. Unfortunately this information is available only in rare cases, and the data obtained would be insufficent to give evn a moderately accurate picture. On the other hand, the total number of sorties flown is known in the majority of cases........"
Number one is Gunther Scheel -JG 54 (all Eastern Front) Total of 71 victories attained during 70 sorties for a strike rate of .99. It should be noted that there are 72 other pilots ahead of Hartmann with better strike rates - Marseilles had a stike rate of 2.42 with this formula.
"Interestingly, strike rates for night-fighters where known match the best of those of the day fighters. Heinz-Wolgang Schnaufer scored at the rate of one victory for every 1.36 sorties, beating everyone except Gunther Scheel; Martin Becker came next at 1.43. Wilde Sau pilot Friedrich-Karl Muller matched Werner Schroer's rate of 1.73 while Paul Zoerner averaged 1.83."
and one last word for Heinz Bar......from the same book....
"Who was the greatest ace of all? There are many contenders. Galland as a great fighter leader, Hartmann as the absolute top scorer and Marseilles as top-scorer against the Western Allies - all have their backers. Much depends on what values are assigned to each theatre. The record suggests that victories in the West were much harder to come by than those in the East with North Africa, with its accent on purely tactical operations, somewhere in the middle. Fighter combat called for great flying skills and marksmanship; tackling the American 'heavies' needed nerves of steel with a fair helping of luck to aid survival. And what of the night defence of the Reich, facing not only the guns of the bombers and the technically superior Mosquito intruders but the weather as a third, unrelenting foe?
....Regardless of the relative difficulties of each front, the record shows quite clearly that Experten who were successful on one front frequently failed when switched to another. Only two top scorers did really well wherever they were sent. They were Heinz Bar and Erich Rudorffer...."
"The most usual way of assessing the performance of the aces is by victory totals. Using this method, Erich Hartmann is pre-eminent by a considerable margin. There are, however, other factors to consider, the major one of which is opportunity. Ideally, the best alternative would be to divide the number of sorties on which contact was made with the enemy by the number of victories to give a strike rate. Unfortunately this information is available only in rare cases, and the data obtained would be insufficent to give evn a moderately accurate picture. On the other hand, the total number of sorties flown is known in the majority of cases........"
Number one is Gunther Scheel -JG 54 (all Eastern Front) Total of 71 victories attained during 70 sorties for a strike rate of .99. It should be noted that there are 72 other pilots ahead of Hartmann with better strike rates - Marseilles had a stike rate of 2.42 with this formula.
"Interestingly, strike rates for night-fighters where known match the best of those of the day fighters. Heinz-Wolgang Schnaufer scored at the rate of one victory for every 1.36 sorties, beating everyone except Gunther Scheel; Martin Becker came next at 1.43. Wilde Sau pilot Friedrich-Karl Muller matched Werner Schroer's rate of 1.73 while Paul Zoerner averaged 1.83."
and one last word for Heinz Bar......from the same book....
"Who was the greatest ace of all? There are many contenders. Galland as a great fighter leader, Hartmann as the absolute top scorer and Marseilles as top-scorer against the Western Allies - all have their backers. Much depends on what values are assigned to each theatre. The record suggests that victories in the West were much harder to come by than those in the East with North Africa, with its accent on purely tactical operations, somewhere in the middle. Fighter combat called for great flying skills and marksmanship; tackling the American 'heavies' needed nerves of steel with a fair helping of luck to aid survival. And what of the night defence of the Reich, facing not only the guns of the bombers and the technically superior Mosquito intruders but the weather as a third, unrelenting foe?
....Regardless of the relative difficulties of each front, the record shows quite clearly that Experten who were successful on one front frequently failed when switched to another. Only two top scorers did really well wherever they were sent. They were Heinz Bar and Erich Rudorffer...."
lesofprimus
Brigadier General
Good stuff Jaco...
Poll round 2 will be started in a few hours and will last 15 days.
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Lucky13
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Great stuff NJ!
Please direct all discussion to Round 2:
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/best-ww2-fighter-pilot-poll-round-2-a-12997.html
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/best-ww2-fighter-pilot-poll-round-2-a-12997.html
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