Top Aces by plane

lesofprimus wrote
"Heres a listing of what I have......

Country
Pilot Victories

Germany
Maj. Erich Hartmann 352
Austria
Maj. Walter Nowotny 258
Japan
Chief Warrant Officer Hiroyoshi Nishizawa 147
Finland
Flight Master E. I. Juutualainen 94
Denmark
Prince Heinrich of Sayn-Wittgenstein 83
South Africa
Squadron Leader M. T. St. J. Pattle 62
USSR
Guards Col. Ivan N. Kozhedub 60
Rumania
Capt. Prince Constantine Cantacuzino 60
Croatia
Mato Dukovac 44
USA
Maj. Richard I. Bong 40
UK
Group Capt. James E. Johnson 38
Poland
Jan Poniatowski 36
Hungary
2nd Lt. Dezjö Szentgyörgyi 34
Slovak
Jan Gerthoffer 33
France
Squadron Leader Pierre H. Clostermann 33
Ireland
Wing Comdr. Bredan E. Finucane 32
Canada
Squadron Leader George F. Buerling 31
Australia
Group Capt. Clive R. Caldwell 28
Czechoslavakia
Sgt. Josef Frantisek 28
New Zealand
Wing Comdr. Colin F. Gray 27
Spain
Juan Lario Sanchez 27
Italy
Maj. Adriano Visconti 26
Greece
Wing Com. Ioannis Agorastos Plagis 16
Norway
Flight Lt. Svein Heglund 16
Belgium
Rodolphe Ghislain Charles de Hemricourt de Grunne 15
Bulgaria
Maj. Stoyan Iliev Stoyanov 14
Rhodesia
William Ivan Hartley Maguire 13
China
Kwei-Tan Li 12
Denmark
Group Capt. Kaj Birksted 10
Holland
Flt. Lt. Bram van der Stok 8
Netherlands
Lt. Col. van Arkel 5"

Holland and the Netherlands are the same country.
Nishizawa with 147? Doubtful. The Japanese were notorious over claimers.
There are two from Denmark on the list. Is the first one listed a typo?

The Boomerang was a fighter that never scored a kill so impossible to be an ace in one.
Caldwell got his kills in a mix of Tomahawk, Kittihawk and Spitfire.
What is unusual about Caldwell was that he scored against three nationalities.
A profile of his Spitfire VIII A58-484 showed 17 German scores, 3 1/2 Italian (both in Tomahawk/Kittyhawk in the middle east) and 7 Japanese (in the Spitfire V after returning to Australia)

Crikey! Who blew the dust off this 5 year old thread??!!

Wasn't me - but I should have noticed!

Njaco said:

Crikey! Who blew the dust off this 5 year old thread??!!

Click to expand...

Guilty...and I'd do it again!

Twitch said:

Never heard of anyone scoring 5 in a Boomerang.....

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That's not surprising since the Boomerang didn't achieve any air-to-air kills. Several aces flew the Boomer but nobody became an ace while flying it.

Oops! Someone beat me to it on the Boomerang factoid. Must remember to read the entire thread before contributing.

Twitch said:

Let' see as for top aces in certain planes, these guys scored most of their vics in one plane type-
Francis Gabreski 28 in P-47
Dick Bong 40 P-38
David McCampbell 34 F6F
George Preddy 26 7/8 P-51
Joe Foss 26 F4F
Bob Hansen 25 F4U
David Hill 18 3/4 P-40
Carroll Smith 7 P-61
Mike Russo 5 A-36
Wm. Feidler 5 P-39

Click to expand...

Preddy had at least 3 in P-47 between Sept 14, 1943 through 4-9-44

Kozhedub had 62 victories plus 2 kills of P-51 Mustangs that mistakenly attacked his La-7. Both are verified, so it is 64 kills with two being "friendly but hostile."

I have a great print signed by Ivan just before he died. If shows him in an La-5FN shooting down an Me-262 and is a nice print indeeed.