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syscom3 said:Shouldnt one way of determing who was the best among the aces is to compare their kill rate per sortie where combat occured?
DerAdlerIstGelandet said:I go for Baer and Hartmann, allways have and allways will. Hartmann being my favorite and Baer being the best in my opinoin and second favorite. Good annalysis up there also Hunter.
DerAdlerIstGelandet said:My personal top are:
1. Hartmann
2. Baer
3. Nowotney
4. Galland
Baer for though is the over all fighter pilot of the war.
If I'm not mistaken, there were a couple of Russians and 1 American in Korea that scored 16 or more kills in Korea.... Joseph McConnell had 16 kills by 5/18/1953, with the Top Scorers being Evgeni Pepelyaev and Nick Sutyagin with 23 kills....Baer's 16 kills in the ME262 made him the leading jet ace in WW2 and also until 1973 the leading jet ace of all nations.
CurzonDax said:My question is this, without again sound pro-US, but its a question I have always had since a child. Why does everyone seem to forget the US aces. While I did vote for Hartmann, my fav Luftwaffe ace, is that US aces are not as romantic or didn't shoot down a million planes. I hope I don't sound pissy, cause I am not, its just I have been curious since a child.
My top 10 in no particuar order:
1. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington
2. Chuck Yeager
3. Hubert Zemke
4. Francis "Gabby" Gabresky
5. Tommy Blackburn
6. Tex Hill
7. Bud Mahurin
8. George Welch
9. Joe Foss
10. Butch O'Hare
:{)
CurzonDax said:My question is this, without again sound pro-US, but its a question I have always had since a child. Why does everyone seem to forget the US aces. While I did vote for Hartmann, my fav Luftwaffe ace, is that US aces are not as romantic or didn't shoot down a million planes. I hope I don't sound pissy, cause I am not, its just I have been curious since a child.
My top 10 in no particuar order:
1. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington
2. Chuck Yeager
3. Hubert Zemke
4. Francis "Gabby" Gabresky
5. Tommy Blackburn
6. Tex Hill
7. Bud Mahurin
8. George Welch
9. Joe Foss
10. Butch O'Hare
:{)
cheddar cheese said:I wouldnt call McGuire boring...
I know this now, but its one of those things that he didn't intrest me back then so he is sort of low on my radar.
And why does everyone forget the Italian aces?(No prizes for any jokes saying "cos they didnt have any" )
evangilder said:Having spent a good chunk of my growing up years in Wisconsin, I got to hear plenty about Richard Bong. There was even an Air Force base in Wisconsin named after him. It was long since closed though.