![Messerschmitt Bf 109G-10 USAF](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Messerschmitt_Bf_109G-10_USAF.jpg)
This is a list of
fighter aces in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
from Germany. A flying ace or fighter ace is a
military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...
during aerial combat. It is relatively certain that 2,500 German fighter pilots attained ace status, having achieved at least five aerial victories.
German day and night fighter pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories during World War II, over 25,000 British or American and over 45,000 Soviet aircraft. 103 German fighter pilots each shot down 100 or more enemy aircraft, for a total of approximately 15,400 victories. Approximately 360 German fighter pilots shot down from 40 to 99 enemy aircraft for a total of approximately 21,000 victories. Approximately 500 German fighter pilots shot down from 20 to 39 enemy aircraft for a total of approximately 15,000 victories. These achievements were honored with 453 German day fighter pilots and ''
Zerstörer
A heavy fighter is a historic category of fighter aircraft produced in the 1930s and 1940s, designed to carry heavier weapons, and/or operate at longer ranges than light fighter aircraft. To achieve performance, most heavy fighters were twin-e ...
'' (destroyer) fighter pilots and 85 German night fighter pilots (including 14 crew members), for a total of 538 German fighter pilots, receiving the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
German losses, on the other hand, were very high as well. Roughly 12,000 German day fighter pilots were killed or are still missing in action, with a further 6,000 being wounded. The ''Zerstörer'' (destroyer) pilots suffered about 2,800 casualties, either killed or missing in action, plus another 900 wounded in action. German night fighter losses were also high, in the magnitude of 3,800 pilots or crew members killed or missing and 1,400 wounded.
Hans-Ulrich Rudel
Hans-Ulrich Rudel (2 July 1916 – 18 December 1982) was a German ground-attack pilot during World War II and a post-war neo-Nazi activist.
The most decorated German pilot of the war and the only recipient of the Knight's Cross with G ...
was the most decorated flying ace in the Luftwaffe, primarily as a ground-attack bomber pilot with over 800 vehicles destroyed in addition to his victories over opposing aircraft.
Background
There are a number of reasons why Germany's highest-scoring pilots shot down many more aircraft than the most successful Allied pilots. During the first years of the war, German day fighter pilots tended to enjoy favourable tactical circumstances; for instance, during the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
British pilots generally tried to attack the German bombers rather than the fighters protecting them. German combat tactics during this period also tended to be superior to those of the Allies, with formation leaders in particular often having a higher chance of success.
Formal and informal Luftwaffe practices also contributed to the high numbers of victories achieved by some pilots. The normal practice in fighter units was for the highest-scoring pilot to lead formations, regardless of their rank, which placed them in the best position to shoot down Allied aircraft. The German pilots also typically conducted much more combat flying than their Allied equivalents: while the western Allied air forces frequently rested their fighter pilots or rotated them out of combat zones after a certain number of missions or flying hours, German pilots were required to fly until they became casualties.
Accuracy of claims
During the 1990s, the German archives made available to the public, including
microfilm
Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...
rolls of wartime records not seen since January 1945.
They show that although the Luftwaffe generally did not accept a "kill" without a witness (in which instance it was considered only a probable and didn't count in the victory scoring process), some pilots habitually submitted unwitnessed claims and these sometimes made it through the verification process, particularly if they were made by pilots with established records.
Unlike all of the other air forces that fought during World War II, the Luftwaffe did not accept shared claims, but sometimes it happened. Each claim should have referred to a particular aircraft, but some victories were awarded to other pilots who had claimed the destruction of the same aircraft.
From mid-year 1943 through 1944, the
OKW communiques often overstated Allied bomber losses by a factor of up to two; these claims existed only in the communiques and weren't used in victory scoring. Defenders of the German fighter pilots maintain that overclaims were eliminated during the confirmation process, but the microfilms show that this wasn't always the case.
Stringent reviews and comparisons of Allied archives and German archives show that 90 percent of the claims submitted were confirmed, or found to be "in order" for confirmation, up to the time the system broke down altogether in 1945.
Aces
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
Z
Pilots with more than 100 aerial victory claims
According to Obermaier, 103 Luftwaffe pilots were credited with more than 100 aerial victories. Mathews and Foreman, authors of ''Luftwaffe Aces – Biographies and Victory Claims'', researched the
German Federal Archives and list 94 Luftwaffe pilots in this category. The authors differentiate between confirmed and unconfirmed claims. In consequence the following pilots were not listed by Mathews and Foreman.
*
Eberhard von Boremski, listed with at least 88 aerial victories, plus two unconfirmed claims, potentially further aerial victories with EJG 1.
*
Kurt Bühligen, listed with 99 aerial victory claims, plus nine further unconfirmed claims.
*
Walther Dahl
Walther Dahl (27 March 1916 – 25 November 1985) was a German pilot and a fighter ace during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. Dahl claimed some 128 enemy aircraft shot do ...
, claimed at least 90 aerial victories, plus further 13 unconfirmed claims.
*
Siegfried Freytag
Siegfried Freytag (10 November 1919 – 2 June 2003) was a World War II German Luftwaffe pilot and wing commander. As a fighter ace, he was credited with 102 aerial victories of which 49 victories were claimed over the Eastern Front. Among his ...
, listed with 89 aerial victories.
*
Friedrich Geißhardt
Friedrich GeißhardtHis name, in German, is spelled with a "sharp S"; see ß. (22 January 1919 – 6 April 1943) was a German former Luftwaffe fighter ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves during World War I ...
, listed with 93 aerial victory claims, plus eight further unconfirmed claims.
*
Hartmann Grasser, listed with more than 96 aerial victory claims, plus six further unconfirmed claims.
*
Kurt Tanzer, listed with at least 35 aerial victories.
*
Kurt Ubben, listed with 93 aerial victory claims, plus 13 further unconfirmed claims.
*
Franz Woidich
Franz-Walter Woidich (2 January 1921 – 5 July 2004) was a Luftwaffe flying ace of World War II. Wernitz was credited with 110 aerial victories claimed in roughly 1000 combat missions. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron C ...
, listed with 82 aerial victory claims, plus thirty further unconfirmed claims.
Additionally, Spick lists
Horst-Günther von Fassong
Horst-Günther von Fassong (27 April 1919 – 1 January 1945) was a German Luftwaffe military aviation, military aviator and fighter ace during World War II. Depending on source, he is credited between 63 and 136 aerial victories achieved in an ...
with 136 aerial victories,
Rudolf Rademacher
Rudolf "Rudi" Rademacher (19 June 1913 – 13 June 1953) was a German military aviator who served in the Luftwaffe during World War II. As a fighter ace, he was credited with 97, potentially up to 126, aerial victories—that is, 97 aerial co ...
with 126 aerial victories, and
Herbert Rollwage with 102 aerial victories. Further more, the US historian
David T. Zabecki states that
Paul-Heinrich Dähne
Paul-Heinrich Dähne (7 July 1921 – 24 April 1945) was a German Luftwaffe military aviator during World War II, a fighter ace credited with 100 aerial victories—that is, 100 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enem ...
was also credited with 100 aerial victories.
Heavy bomber aces
The Luftwaffe fighter force defended the airspace of German-occupied territory against attack, first by
RAF Bomber Command and then against the
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
(USAAF) in the
Combined Bomber Offensive
The Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) was an Allied offensive of strategic bombing during World War II in Europe. The primary portion of the CBO was directed against Luftwaffe targets which was the highest priority from June 1943 to 1 April 1944. ...
. In particular, combating the
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber
Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larges ...
s, flying in a
combat box
The combat box was a tactical formation used by heavy (strategic) bombers of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. The combat box was also referred to as a "staggered formation". Its defensive purpose was in massing the firepower of the b ...
, posed a challenge to the Luftwaffe daytime fighter force. In consequence, the destruction of a heavy bomber, or the ''Herausschuss'' (separation shot)—a severely damaged heavy bomber forced to separate from its combat box which was counted as an aerial victory—was considered an exceptional achievement. In consequence, the Luftwaffe introduced a point system in 1943 which accounted for the difficulties in shooting down a heavy bomber. Although a single heavy bomber shot down or damaged still counted as one aerial victory, the accumulated points earned a fighter pilot awards, medals and promotions. The point system worked as follows:
* Three points were granted for the destruction of heavy bomber.
* Two points were earned for the ''Herausschuss'' of a heavy bomber.
* One point was awarded for the ''endgültige Vernichtung'' (final destruction), a ''
coup de grâce
A coup de grâce (; 'blow of mercy') is a death blow to end the suffering of a severely wounded person or animal. It may be a mercy killing of mortally wounded civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the sufferer's consent. ...
'' inflicted on an already damaged heavy bomber.
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:List of World War Ii Aces From Germany
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
Fly
*
Aces