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Then don't post or vote on it!I think this is a somewhat foolish mission.
how come some of the top german aces have 200+ kills, how is that possible?
Because some of them were shooting down aircraft during the Spanish civil
war in 1936. World War II didn't start til 1939 (in Europe). Plus I don't think
their method of "confirmation" was like the US's.
Charles
What do you mean?
They shot down that many aircraft. German pilots flew until either they were killed or the war ended. It was not like it was for the US pilots who would fly so and so many missions and then rotate out. They did not have a rotation system.
Chris, I was wondering in order to put it into perspective, how many missions did allied pilots fly in comparison to for instance Hartman?
Thanks, that's quite a huge difference and explains a lot."On 20 July 1944, Gabreski had reached the 300-hour combat time limit for Eighth Air Force fighter pilots"
"Gabreski was officially credited by the USAF with 28 aircraft destroyed in air combat and 3 on the ground, flying 166 combat sorties."
"Johnson flew a total of 89 combat missions between April 1943 and May 1944." - Robert S. Johnson 27 kills in that time
"He scored 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were won against the Soviet Air Force, and 260 of which were fighters) in 1,404 combat missions and engaging in aerial combat 825 times while serving with the Luftwaffe in World War II." - Hartmann
source wikipedia
Given that Bong and Gabreski had more time to build up their scores than Preddy my "US" vote would go to George Preddy. Given a similar situation exists for Hans-Joachim Marseille compared to his counter-parts he would receive my vote. It's too bad I do not know more about the Soviet pilots who flew with different tatics and equipment than the Germans or Americans. The best statistical judge would be kills/sortie flown - if someone has those figures it would be great to know it. The more equal match of equipment existed in the west so figures by theatre could be misleading (in my opinion).
Overall, my vote currently goes to George Preddy.