Erich Hartmann, Gerard Barkhorn or Gunther Rall vs. pilots of today

[vinnye]

Apparently, Hartmann disapproved of the German Airforce procuring the 104. He eventually resigned over this issue. Maybe he realised that this was too much aircraft for many of the new pilots ?
He had joined the new German Airforce only after spending 10 years or so in various prisons / gulags on trumped up charges.

 

[bobbysocks]

I agree, todays fighter pilots are a lot better trained than those during WW2. In peace time you can practice as long as you like - especially with simulators. You even get G suits and have training to deal with G forces. I dont recall any such training or equipment back then.

the closest thing they had as a simulator was a link trainer. iirc that was used mostly for instrument flying as you couldnt see out of it...and a pen marked your flight path on a paper map. but it still counted for flight time in the log book. late in the war they had a g-suits...which was not a whole flight suit but a pair of pants. was nowhere as close to what they have now but it worked.