The Greatest Fighter Pilot of WWII... Finalized....

[drgondog]

I know this is an oldie but I just found the Poll. I vote for Egon Mayer first and then Bar.

Both fought in the most hostile environments, were superb fighters and leaders - and tangled with B-17s and escorts in daylight until the war was over (Bar) or KIA (Mayer). Mayer was KIA on 2 March 1944. Had he survived the war he would have been one of the highest probability top scorer in the West.

On the far side Saburo Sakai was one he!!uva fighter pilot -

No slouches with any choice.

We (US) had a lot of great pilots but survival factor of hundreds of combats was never tested to enable a fair comparison with guys that fought in desparate times for two years or more like the early Russians or the late German and Japanese pilots.

 

[renrich]

It would have been interesting to see what Joe Foss's score would have been if he had been in combat as long as some of the Japanese and Germans. All his kills were in an F4F4, not he most sprightly of a/c against Japanese pilots who were still very skilled. In fact he may have seen action against Saburo Sakai. His living conditions on Guadalcanal were probably as bad as any pilot experienced anywhere. They were usually outnumbered, the A6M which accounted for many of his kills was probably superior to the Wildcat and the maintenance of the Navy and Marine a/c on the Canal I amsure left much to be desired.

 

[lesofprimus]

With Foss' situation, it was more because of excellent tactics and his superior leadership, not his skill or aircraft that allowed him to run the score he did.... Foss has admitted as such to my own ears...

Once the Zeros/Zekes advantages/disadvantages were realized, things got a whole lot better in the Pacific...

 

[renrich]

Thx Erich, but wasn't Foss an excellent shot?

 

[lesofprimus]

Erich??? Dont u mean les or Dan???

Foss did infact an excellent eye for deflection shots...

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

Didn't the P-51D have a gunsight that had automatic deflection, so the Pilot no longer had to shoot outside the target circle, just aim inside the cross hairs? That way, you don't have to lead an enemy plane with your bullets in front of him.

Interesting, but then you would never learn that skill of deflection shooting.

 

[renrich]

Sorry Les, I was confused, not unusual these days. I do know the US Navy and I presume the Marines to were well trained in deflection shooting which was aided by the good visibility over the nose of the Wildcat. I seem to remember that Foss had a lot of experience with wingshooting as a youngster.

 

[Lucky13]

How do you count the kill ratios for these gentlemen? What would a top 20 list look like if you look at the kill ratio instead for the total in kills?

 

[drgondog]

Soundbreaker - the K-14 came to the ETO in small quantities in June 1944 and effectively equipping about 1/2 of 8th FC by late September, 1944.

The only thing you really had to do is dial in the wingspan (which the USAAF kindly helped by naming each selection 'Me 109', Fw190, for fighter pilots who were memory challenged, etc).

Then just 'fly the pipper' and the gyro would automatically 'compute' the solution. As long as the pipper inside the ring was where you wanted to shoot - well there you were... but it did not compute trajectory for the 300+ shots

The radar computing gunsight in Korea was even better as it would also put trajectory into the equation whereas the K-14 did not.

Regards,

Bill

 

[claidemore]

I'm new to these forums, so just found this poll.

I'd have to say the best fighter pilot of WWII was
S.L. Bert Houle 418 Squadron RCAF.
He didn't have as many kills as a lot of guys, but he did one thing that few others can claim.

He never lost a single pilot in any flight that he led. North Africa, Sicily and Italy, flying Hurricanes, Spit Mk V's and Spit Mk VIII's.

That's the guy I would have wanted to fly with.

 

[pbfoot]

I'm new to these forums, so just found this poll.

I'd have to say the best fighter pilot of WWII was
S.L. Bert Houle 418 Squadron RCAF.
He didn't have as many kills as a lot of guys, but he did one thing that few others can claim.

He never lost a single pilot in any flight that he led. North Africa, Sicily and Italy, flying Hurricanes, Spit Mk V's and Spit Mk VIII's.

That's the guy I would have wanted to fly with.

418 RCAF never flew Spits nor Hurricanes or in the middle east it was intruder squadron based in the UK perhaps you mean 417sqn RCAF which was active in those theatres he also flew with 213 and 145 RAF Squadrons prior to 417 .

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I'm new to these forums, so just found this poll.

I'd have to say the best fighter pilot of WWII was
S.L. Bert Houle 418 Squadron RCAF.
He didn't have as many kills as a lot of guys, but he did one thing that few others can claim.

He never lost a single pilot in any flight that he led. North Africa, Sicily and Italy, flying Hurricanes, Spit Mk V's and Spit Mk VIII's.

That's the guy I would have wanted to fly with.

That's more luck than skill - and there were many who never lost a pilot on their flight.

 

[Soren]

I still say Erich Hartmann, although Nowotny Marseilles are my favorites.

Anyone ever mentioned Barkhorn ? I'd say he deserves a mention.

Btw, while we're talking amazing pilots lets not forget about the Finnish pilots, some really skilled pilots there!

 

[Freebird]

Dude the P-40 was a piece of crap.. The pilots that sometimes had the horrible luck to have to fly the P-40 sometimes were a different story......


Thats a bunch of crap... I doubt seriously that that was the case......

I don't know Les, I really wouldn't call the P-40 a total piece of crap, maybe a little sh*tty. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to face an ME-109 or a -190 in one, but the "Tigers" did do well with it, but as you pointed out earlier, "PILOT SKILL."

Many Commonwealth nations used the P-40 and it served them well. In the ground support role, it did well considering it was available in numbers.

Was the P-40 unpopular at the time? (1941 - 1942)

Unless you got a P-38 or a Spitfire, was the P-40 that much worse than the alternatives? (I mean Allies aircraft of course, Hurricane, P-39, Buffalo)

It would probably beat having to fly in a p-35, P-36, Defiant, Roc, or Gladiator....

 

[claidemore]

418 RCAF never flew Spits nor Hurricanes or in the middle east it was intruder squadron based in the UK perhaps you mean 417sqn RCAF which was active in those theatres he also flew with 213 and 145 RAF Squadrons prior to 417 .

oops, Yer right pbfoot, it was 417. All my Spitfire books are in storage, and I was relying on memory, which probably isn't the best! lol

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Was the P-40 unpopular at the time? (1941 - 1942)

Unless you got a P-38 or a Spitfire, was the P-40 that much worse than the alternatives? (I mean Allies aircraft of course, Hurricane, P-39, Buffalo)

It would probably beat having to fly in a p-35, P-36, Defiant, Roc, or Gladiator....

I think its coming down to say the P-40 was a very under-rated fighter.

 

[lesofprimus]

There were several polls that lead up to this one guys.... Barkhorn was on a previous poll and got zero votes.....

 

[pbfoot]

I'd like to nominate Lloyd Chadburn as possibly the best allied pilot in the eto with 14 destoyed 6 probables 6 damaged 2 eboats destroyed , while escorting 60 9th airforce(they called him the angel) bombing missions lost only a B 26 . In one mission on 3 nov 43 of the 15 109's attempting to intercept the 26's 9 were shot down. He was killed in a mid air shortly after D Day

 

[Soren]

Barkhorn was on a previous poll and got zero votes.....

Pretty sad as he was an excellent pilot, arguably in the top 3.

 

[lesofprimus]

Agreed Soren....