who had the best pilots?

Amsel · Mar 10, 2009

I agree renrich. The Luftwaffe had some of the best pilots. But the USN pilots were very good. Butch O'Hare, Jimmy Thach, Gregory Boyington(Leatherneck) and Vraciu just to name a few. All the points you made are good.

Clay_Allison · Mar 10, 2009

I'll say this. The US had the most pilots. Our aces were teaching classes while others were still out there getting killed. Made us look bad in guys with high kill stats, but the US was a fighter pilot factory.

Waynos · Mar 11, 2009

Maybe the best pilots were the surviving British and German pilots after the BoB and the surviving US and Japanese pilots after Midway. No training programme could have got close to those events. With all due respect I think its a bit of a facile question because the best training in the world can't make an ace out of an idiot, equally some excellent pilots died through no fault of their own, I think its an unanswerable question.

Nightwitch · Mar 11, 2009

VVS women pilots. Many of them had over a hundred flight hours logged in their Osoaviakhims before the war. Then, the bulk of them went into training regiments for nearly a year. By the time they made it to the front, they were all incredibly well-trained.

pbfoot · Mar 11, 2009

Waynos said:
Maybe the best pilots were the surviving British and German pilots after the BoB and the surviving US and Japanese pilots after Midway. No training programme could have got close to those events. With all due respect I think its a bit of a facile question because the best training in the world can't make an ace out of an idiot, equally some excellent pilots died through no fault of their own, I think its an unanswerable question.

I must agree with you and the only advantage the US Navy or military might have garnered was watching the events transpire in Europe and making revisions of their own .

Colin1 · Mar 11, 2009

Polish fighter pilots
Their Fighter Academy at Deblin was one of the most stringent in the world at the time.

Roughly 12% of Fighter Command at the outbreak of the Battle of Britain were Polish fighter pilots and they accounted for about 19% of all German planes shot down. Statistically at least, if slightly over half of Fighter Command's strength had been Polish pilots, the Luftwaffe would have been destroyed as a fighting force over Kent.

If the Battle of Britain (wandering into what-if territory here) was fought by the Germans on one side and exclusively Polish fighter pilots on the other using Hurricanes and Spitfires, I think German losses would have been alarming.

In a more realistic sense their contribution was, without a doubt, decisive.

Waynos · Mar 11, 2009

But was that down to them being better pilots, or was it that they had a harder edge in the way they went into the fight after what they had seen back home? I know I am generalising a bit but would it be fair to say that British pilots (and Germans?) saw themselves as 'knights of the air' as the old cliche goes while the pilots from fallen countries were out for revenge?

Colin1 · Mar 11, 2009

Waynos said:
But was that down to them being better pilots, or was it that they had a harder edge in the way they went into the fight after what they had seen back home? I know I am generalising a bit but would it be fair to say that British pilots (and Germans?) saw themselves as 'knights of the air' as the old cliche goes while the pilots from fallen countries were out for revenge?

I wouldn't discount revenge for one minute
but an equally useful generalisation would be combat experience

Clay_Allison · Mar 11, 2009

Waynos said:
But was that down to them being better pilots, or was it that they had a harder edge in the way they went into the fight after what they had seen back home? I know I am generalising a bit but would it be fair to say that British pilots (and Germans?) saw themselves as 'knights of the air' as the old cliche goes while the pilots from fallen countries were out for revenge?

I'd say more knowledge and familiarity with German tactics than motivation.

Marcel · Mar 12, 2009

Maybe something to ponder.
When there is a small airforce, it is very difficult for young men to become a pilot as competition is high. Therefore, only the very best become pilots. In a large airforce, there is room for the lesser talented pilots as well. So on average qualitiy of pilots in smaller airforces ten to be, in general, higher than that of a larger airforce. This of course is not a pilot by pilot comparison.

who had the best pilots?

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Amsel

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Clay_Allison

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Waynos

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pbfoot

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Waynos

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