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Hartmann before a Messerschmitt Bf 109. Erich Alfred Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993) was a German fighter pilot during World War II and the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. [1] He flew 1,404 combat missions and participated in aerial combat on 825 separate occasions. [2]
Soviet confirmed losses of 3 Il-2. 47 ShAp logbook states: "8 Il-2 came under attack of 8 Fw 190 and lost 2 a/c. Both Il-2 were shot up by fighters, and crashed in flames in the sea 8–9 km SW from Libau. Both crew killed." On the other hand, Soviet sources have confirmed Soviet losses been 28 aircraft failed to return and 10 force landed.
Erich Alfred Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993) was a German fighter pilot during World War II and the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. [1] He flew 1,404 combat missions and participated in aerial combat on 825 separate occasions. [ 3 ]
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 the pilot flew and the planes they flew against, how long they served, their opportunity to meet the enemy in the air (Allied to Axis disproportion), whether they were the formation's leader or a wingman, the standards their air ...
Ilmari Juutilainen, the top Finnish flying ace with 94 confirmed kills. The German Luftwaffe continued the tradition of "one pilot, one kill", and now referred to top scorers as Experten . [ N 1 ] Some Luftwaffe pilots achieved very high scores, such as Erich Hartmann (352 kills) or Gerhard Barkhorn (301 kills). [ 18 ]
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 British pilots generally tried to attack the German bombers rather than the fighters protecting them.
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The highest-scoring day-fighter pilot was Erich Hartmann with 352 confirmed kills, all of them on the Eastern front against the Soviets. The leading aces in the west were Hans-Joachim Marseille with 158 kills (most of which were against British Commonwealth forces in the Desert campaign ), and Georg-Peter Eder with 56 kills of aircraft from the ...