List of World War II flying aces
{{short description|Wikipedia li'. Fighter aces in World War II had tremendously varying kill scores, affected as they were by many factors: the pilot's skill level, the performance of the airplane he flew and those he flew against, how long he served, his opportunity to meet the enemy in the air (Allied to Axis disproportion), whether he was the formation's leader or a wingman, the standards his air service brought to the awarding of victory credits, et cetera.
Towards the end of the war, the Axis powers had largely exhausted their supply of skilled pilots and the replacements did not have as much opportunity to gain enough experience to be successful. Additionally, national policies differed; German, Italian, and Japanese[1] pilots tended to return to the cockpit over and over again until they were killed.[N 1]
It is not clear what impact each nation's rules for score crediting have on the counts listed below. Germans credited a shared victory to only one pilot, while the French credited full victory to all participants. British, Finnish and US air forces credited fractional shares of aerial victories, resulting in fractions, such as 11½, which might be for example 10 aircraft and three shares with the second pilot. Some U.S. commands also credited aircraft destroyed on the ground. The Soviets counted only solo kills, while group kills were counted separately, as did the Japanese. The Italian Air Force did not officially credit victories to individual pilots, but to their unit as a whole. Probable kills are usually left out of the list.
It is necessary to emphasize that the question of assessing and comparing the success rate of fighters by number of victories is one of the more problematic. There are disputes about what is "shot down" and what is "air victory", but the most problematic seems to be credibility of reports and reliability of its confirmation, which was substantially different in particular air forces. As the most reliable is considered the confirmation of the victories in RAF, using comparison of testimonials of participants and—if possible—film material.
Flying aces
Gallery
- Ivan Kozhedub, highest scoring Soviet and highest scoring Allied ace
- Mato Dukovac, the highest scoring Croatian ace
- Ilmari Juutilainen, top flying ace of the Finnish Air Force and the highest scoring non-German fighter pilot of all time
- Marmaduke 'Pat' Pattle, the highest scoring United Kingdom and Empire ace
- George Beurling, the highest scoring Canadian ace
- Richard Bong, the highest scoring US ace
- Tetsuzo Iwamoto, Japanese Navy fighter ace, often credited with being the top scoring Japanese ace
- Teresio Vittorio Martinoli, the highest scoring Regia Aeronautica ace
Table
References
- Citations
- By 1945, combat experienced Japanese airmen were often detailed to provide fighter escort for newer inexperienced Kamikazi pilots en route to their targets in the Pacific
- Bibliography
- Hata, Ikuhiko with Yasuho Izawa and Christopher Shores. Japanese Army Air Force Fighter Units and Their Aces, 1931–1945. London: Grub Street, 2002. ISBN 1-902304-89-6.
- Holmes, Tony (Editor). Dogfight: The Greatest Air Duels of World War II. Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2011. ISBN 978-1-84908-482-6.
- Massimello, Giovanni and Giorgio Apostolo. Italian Aces of World War 2. Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2000. ISBN 978-1-84176-078-0.
- Morgan, Hugh and John Weal. German Jet Aces of World War II. Botley, Oxfordshire, UK: Orsprey Publishing Limited, 1998. ISBN 1-85532-634-5.
- Rajlich, Jiří. Esa na obloze (in Czech). Praha: Naše vojsko, 1995. ISBN 80-206-0139-2.
- Rajlich, Jiri and Stephan Boshniakov. Slovakian and Bulgarian Aces of World War 2. Botley, Oxfordshire, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-84176-652-6.
- Sakaida, Henry. Japanese Army Air Force Aces, 1937–45. Botley, Oxfordshire, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1997. ISBN 1-85532-529-2.
- Seidl, Hans D. Stalin's Eagles: An Illustrated Study of the Soviet Aces of World War II and Korea. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1998. ISBN 0-7643-0476-3.
- Spick, Mike. Luftwaffe Fighter Aces. New York: Ivy Books, 1996. ISBN 0-8041-1696-2.
- Toliver, Raymond F. and Trevor J. Constable. Die Deutschen Jagdflieger-Asse 1939–1945 (in German). Stuttgart, Germany: Motorbuch Verlag, 1977 (reprinted 1998). ISBN 3-87943-193-0.
- Becze, Csaba (2016). Elfelejtett hősök: a Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierők ászai a második világháborúban (in Hungarian). Zrinyi Kiadó. Second, extended edition. ISBN 978-963-327-649-5. OCLC 971563229.