Greatest Fighter Pilot in World War II..... UPDATED

[cheddar cheese]

Kozhedub, was he the one who got jumped by two Mustangs while in a La-7 and shot them both down or chased them off?

Yes it was Kozhedub, and he shot both of them down....

I read about a Russian pilot flying a P-39 (I dont know who) but he got jumped by 6 109's, shot down 2 and scared the otheres off...incredible...

I read something similar about that as well.... There were many acts like that.... Ill see what i can come up with...

Dont worry,ive found it...you posted a threa don it a while back...

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=496&start=0&sid=d1f1a90f9b8fdf3ea050c2d55c01d20b

8)

 

[Adolf Galland]

Ummmmm... I think that Galland made 104 kills, not 103...

 

[Adolf Galland]

Erich Hartmann got 352 kills because he had been fighting on the Eastern Front, and Russian aircraft suck. (and so do their pilots, and by the way I'm just trying to point out a fact...)

 

[lesofprimus]

You are right about Galland kills.. A typo on my part.. Thx for pointing that out...... Ill fix it.....

 

[Lightning Guy]

You have to be careful about making those kind of statements about 'Bubi' since he did not scoring kills immediately. Many of his victories were over quality planes and pilots.

 

[cheddar cheese]

Russian planes may not have been the best, granted, but they werent too bad. I think their pilots were amazing though, managing to get the best out of poor machinery (Kozhedub and Pokryshin for example).

 

[Anonymous]

Is that because you believe an American can't do wrong? It's the Soviet that was in the wrong, never the American.

Not at all. I am always suspicous of one sided accounts of this nature.

 

[plan_D]

Sure, okay.

The Soviet pilots weren't good, CC. Only a few come to light as being any good, most of the VVS were poorly trained.

 

[bomber1956]

well I was nearly converted to Baer due to his all round record, but he was shot down 18 times with lots of damage to his own frame. So Hartmann it is as, 1. He didnt get killed! and 2. He didnt get hurt. (I dont think). I dont know how often he was shot down, and surely best pilot must be ratio of kills to being shot down yourself.

 

[Erich]

again it has been pointed out what type of opposition was agasint the German pilot. Bär fought them all and lived. He is # 1. Geez think about it, fighters from the Allies/Soviets as well as chasing down twin and 4 engine bombers. No crap pilots here guyz.............

 

[Anonymous]

Sure, okay.

The Soviet pilots weren't good, CC. Only a few come to light as being any good, most of the VVS were poorly trained.

I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is, suppose this pilot attacked and shot down two P-51's thinking they were 109's (a common mistake even for USAAF pilots). He gets back to his base and they check the guncam footage (by this point the Soviet pilots had guncams) and sees they were P-51's. What are the Soviet's going to say?

It certainly could have happened the way it is reported, but without some verification it's just a one sided story.

 

[cheddar cheese]

and sees they were P-51's. What are the Soviet's going to say?

Erm, that they are in good stead for WW2's sequel: The Cold War?

 

[Darkstalker]

But in the other side many german pilots were flying planes that were considered old (and many of them were) against allied fighters.
This planes were redisgined to match the newly and usually developed and fixed faster than the luftwaffe.
Even facing these problems many german pilots were a match for the allied pilots and their powerful and updated planes.

 

[Darkstalker]

Many of them scored a lot of victories against the Soviets, but this does not mean the soviets were bad pilots, at the beginning of the war maybe, but after Stalingrad, the soviet army and air forces were experiencied and were a match for the Lufwaffe.
In that time the Luftwaffe had lost control over the Russian skies and had little to oposse to the Soviets, and the germans were still shooting down planes with though pilots in the cockpits.
So this made german pilots to be prepared for what lied ahead on the western front and to be victorious in several times.

 

[Darkstalker]

Even when they were outnumbered and knew it was almost impossible to do what they were ordered to do specially after D-Day, when the allies started to control Europe's skies, this pilots fought bravely and shot down a lot of allied planes.
I think the need of surviving, the lack of resources and knowing that they were only a hope to stop for a while Germany's defeat ( or contributing for victory in the beginning of war) made this men truly skilled and aware to make all what were on their hands against the allied superiority.

 

[plan_D]

Yeah, RG. I don't think the Soviets would be too bothered, really. We all know they were only on each others side because there was a common enemy

 

[Anonymous]

I agree. But if they suspected the US might have somehow known it was a Soviet fighter that downed those two P-51's they'd want to have some kind of story for it right?

 

[Lightning Guy]

Friendly fire was fairly common in WWII. So they shot down a couple of our fighters. We strafed one of their convoys and killed a general.

 

[Anonymous]

Friendly fire was fairly common in WWII. So they shot down a couple of our fighters. We strafed one of their convoys and killed a general.

That is not the issue LG, it's the report by the Soviet pilot that the two P-51's attacked him and would not back off so he had to shoot them both down. I'm not saying it's impossible this happened, just that we only have his word that's what happened, and given the circumstances it's highly suspect.

=S=

Lunatic

 

[Hot Space]

I would of voted for Gunter Rall, but he's not here, so I went for Marseille instead 8)

Hot Space