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In the 1970s, a San Jose State University graduate student came across Galland's memoirs The First and the Last while researching USAAF records and matching them to German victory claims. He found that James Finnegan, a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot of the 50th Fighter Group, Ninth Air Force , had made a "probable" claim on 26 April 1945, the day of ...
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.
Operation Gisela (German: Unternehmen Gisela) was the codename for a German military operation of the Second World War. Gisela was designed as an aerial intruder operation to support the German air defence system in its night battles with RAF Bomber Command during the Defence of the Reich campaign.
German pilots Günther Specht and Horst-Günther von Fassong were among those German pilots killed. [87] Little is known about the claims of JG 11. According to one German document, 13 fighters, two twin-engine and one four-engine aircraft were claimed destroyed. Five fighters were claimed damaged on "Glabbeek airfield"—in reality it was Ophoven.
The air battle of Asch, later known as the "Legend of Y-29", was a disaster for JG 11. U.S. fighters claimed 30 German fighters while JG 11 lost 28 aircraft (from 65). 25 pilots were killed. 5./JG 11 was the only unit that returned unscathed, though all the aircraft were damaged. III./JG 11 lost six pilots including Major Vowinkel. Some 40 ...
Heinz Knoke (24 March 1921 – 18 May 1993) was a World War II Luftwaffe flying ace.He is credited with 33 confirmed aerial victories, all claimed over the Western theatre of operations, and claimed a further 19 unconfirmed kills in over 2,000 flights.
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 ]
Oberleutnant Kurt Robert Wilhelm Wolff PlM (6 February 1895 – 15 September 1917) was one of Imperial Germany's highest-scoring fighter aces during World War I.The frail youthful orphan originally piloted bombers before being picked by Manfred von Richthofen to join Jagdstaffel 11 (Fighter Squadron 11) in the burgeoning Imperial German Air Service.