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A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. [1] German day and night fighter pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories during World War II, 25,000 over British or American and 45,000 over Soviet flown aircraft. 103 German fighter pilots shot down more than 100 enemy aircraft for a total of roughly 15,400 ...
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 ...
Oberleutnant Ludwig Franz Stigler (21 August 1915 – 22 March 2008) was a German fighter pilot and fighter ace in World War II. He is best known for his role in a December 1943 incident in which he spared the crew of a severely damaged B-17 bomber. He escorted the plane to safety over enemy lines.
It is relatively certain that 2,500 German fighter pilots attained ace status, having achieved at least five aerial victories. [81] [82] These achievements were honored with 453 German single and twin-engine (Messerschmitt Bf 110) day-fighter pilots receiving the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Intense personal rivalry may have played an ...
When they spoke on the phone, Stigler described his plane, the escort and salute, confirming everything that Brown needed to hear to know he was the German fighter pilot involved in the incident. Between 1990 and 2008, Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler became close friends and remained so until their deaths within several months of each other in ...
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 ...
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 ]
On 14 January, during the retreat of German forces in the Ardennes, Vogt was shot down and killed by USAAF P-51 fighters of the 78th Fighter Group in his FW 190 D-9 (Werknummer 210176) southeast of Cologne-Eil. That day, JG 26 lost 13 pilots killed in action, more than on any other day of the war.