German Luftwaffe Aces

Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke Wulf 190 pilots

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WWII Combat Planes

Bf 109 Fw 190

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Erich Hartmann

Adolph Galland

Günther Rall

Erich Rudorffer

Otto Kittel

Walter Nowotny

Several of them shot down more than 200 Allied airplanes. One of them, Erich Hartmann, destroyed 352 Russian planes. They flew, and racked up staggeringly high scores over North Africa, France, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Poland, and, in the end, Germany itself. Two hundred aerial victories. By comparison, the top U.S. aces of World War Two achieved twenty or more; one of them, Major Richard Bong, shot down 40 Japanese planes. The leading aces of WWI, Manfred von Richthofen and Rene Fonck, 80 and 75. The high-scoring Russian and Japanese ace, about 60. The great U.S. aces of the Korean War knocked down fifteen MiGs. While the 200+ kill Luftwaffe experten flew on the Eastern Front, many of their Western Front scored over 100 kills.

How did they do this, when no other aces in history, from any nation, at any time, on any front, came close? As a group, were they ten times better fighter pilots than their American opponents, as the scores of 200 vs. 20 might imply? I don't think so. "Why did the German pilots of WW2 scored so high" is an interesting question. One reader asked, "Were they using different rules?" And that suggested a possible analogy, because, in fact, the Luftwaffe pilots were using the same rules as others, if anything, somewhat stricter rules. Historically, fighter pilots have scored a "kill" when their air force gives them official credit for the aerial destruction of any enemy aircraft. In most countries and services, the pilots own combat report, i.e. his own, unsupported word, his good faith, sufficed. Of course, novice pilots had to prove themselves, and first-timers who returned to base with claims of vast numbers of enemy fighters who fell beneath their guns were viewed skeptically. Luftwaffe pilots were required to have independent confirmation from another pilot. But basically they were "playing by the same rules."

The difference lay, not in the rules, nor in some nonsensical Aryan racial superiority, but rather in the conditions of combat. By analogy, consider home run hitters in baseball. For many years Babe Ruth's record of 714 home runs remained the top score. Eventually Henry Aaron passed that number. Other sluggers, from different teams and from different eras have hit 500, 600, or more home runs. Despite these differences, the achievements of the home run hitters remain essentially comparable. The conditions of their achievements remained essentially the same.

But suppose that some ballplayers played only 30 games a season rather than 162. Indeed when Roger Maris (playing in a 162-game season) broke Babe Ruth's single season home run record (set in a 154-game season), that difference merited baseball's most famous asterisk.

What if some hitters faced minor league pitchers while others faced major leaguers? What if ballparks varied greatly in size, some with 250-foot centerfields and others with 600-foot distances down the middle? What if some players played year-round? What if some hitters were assigned with getting singles and drawing walks?

What about differences in equipment? About 1920, baseball replaced the so-called "dead ball" with a livelier ball, and the game changed forever. No one would try to compare a Mickey Mantle to a "Home Run" Baker. Similarly, it would be difficult to compare the achievements of pilots who flew 200 hp biplanes to those who flew 1,200 hp WW2 monoplanes to those who flew jets in Korea.

The frequency of contests? On the Russian Front, most aerial combat occurred in the vicinity of the battle lines; it was all about tactical air support, not long range strategic bombing. The short distances permitted multiple missions per day, no 14-hour bomber escort missions, the Luftwaffe pilots frequently did two or three sorties in a day.

The length of the career? The Germans had a "fly till you die" policy. No rotation home for training duty. No limit on missions or combat hours. While such a short-sighted policy hampered the Luftwaffe's ability to turn out large numbers of well-trained pilots later in the war, it permitted those who excelled to rack up more and more missions and more and more aerial victories. One Luftwaffe experte, Erich Rudorffer, flew over 1,000 missions and was shot down himself sixteen times. American pilots generally finished a tour of duty and rotated home for training, command, or flight test assignments. Some immediately "re-upped" for more combat, but they were the exceptions.

The quality of the opposition? With no disrespect to brave Russian fliers nor to greatly skilled Russian aces like Pokryshkin (60 victories), the war on the Eastern Front (both on the ground and in the air) was one of quality vs. quantity. The Soviet Union had immense reserves of manpower, raw materials, and industrial goods (both from their own factories and from U.S. Lend-Lease equipment). And Stalin was not afraid to use his massive resources profligately. Many, many poorly trained Russian fliers went up in poorly made aircraft.

Varying assignments? By policy, many American fighter groups were assigned bomber escort duty. Their responsibility was to protect the bombers, not to zoom off, hunting down enemy planes to shoot down. The 332nd Fighter Group, the famed Tuskegee Airmen, is a case in point; the group's highest scoring pilot was credited with "only" 4 kills, but they rarely lost a bomber to enemy fighters.

Another matter, which perhaps doesn't have a direct analogy in baseball, is a "target-rich environment." In World War One, especially in the first two years of the war, airplanes did not exist in large numbers. There just weren't that many of them in the air. In World War Two, airplanes were mass-produced, with hundreds of thousands of combat aircraft delivered to the combatant nations. With the jet era, beginning in Korea, airplanes became much larger, much more complex, and much more expensive. An F-14 Tomcat or a MiG-29 cannot be compared to a WWII fighter plane. No nation will ever again field such a large number of airplanes. And, no fighter pilot will ever shoot such large numbers; the targets just don't exist. One can sense this in reading about the air war in Korea; a pervasive theme is "looking for the MiGs." Would the MiGs be flying on a given day? "Double aces," i.e. pilots with ten or more kills, were a rarity in Korea. In Vietnam, the U.S. had one or two aces. In the Gulf War, none; a few pilots downed two or three Iraqi aircraft.

I think it's reasonable to predict that we will never see another ace. The targets just don't exist in large enough numbers.

All the factors that created opportunities for aces to pile up huge scores came together for German Luftwaffe pilots on the Russian Front. Erich Hartmann scored 352; Gerhard Barkhorn 301; Günther Rall 275; Otto Kittel 267; and Walter Nowotny 258. The long-serving Erich Rudorffer downed 222 enemy aircraft on all fronts: 136 in the East, 48 in the West, 26 in North Africa, and then 12 more in Me.262 jets over Germany.

The top Luftwaffe aces of WW2, with over 170 aerial victories:

A fine book on this topic is Bf 109 Aces of the Russian Front (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series #37) by John Weal.

It covers Hartmann and his fellow Bf-109 pilots who flew on the Eastern Front; ten of whom shot down more than 200 aircraft.

Like all the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series, includes detailed profile illustrations of the planes, as flown by individual pilots at certain times. Also lots of contemporary B&W photographs.

Günther Rall

His first kill was a Curtiss P-36 over France. During the Battle of Britain, he flew escort for the bombers, and observed first-hand the superior handling and turning qualities of the Spitfire. In June, 1941, with the start of Operation Barbarossa, JG.52 moved to Costanza, Romania, on the Black Sea coast, where some refineries were expected to draw Russian aerial attacks. When the DB-3 bombers came, Rall and the other Bf-109 pilots flew to intercept. Such was the shortage of spare parts, that only half of the twelve planes in Rall's staffel could take off.

At that time, they were flying the Bf 109F, armed with two cowling-mounted 7.9mm machine guns and a 20mm cannon firing through the hollow propeller shaft. Unusually, this was a reduction in armament from the Bf 109E, which had also been equipped with a pair of guns in the wings; several pilots had reported that concentrated center-mounted firepower was more effective, and that the guns in the wings threw off the airplane's handling.

They intercepted the unescorted Soviet bombers at 15,000 feet. Rall described this early encounter in Edward Sims' book, The Aces Talk:

The Russians were about twenty miles away when we took off and, climbing fast, it wasn't long before we saw them straight ahead. They had come from the Crimea, I think, and the two patrol 109s had already attacked and shot down some of them. When they saw us coming out to meet them - we were still below them climbing - they turned back east, some dropping their bombs. They were silver-colored or white, and now the chase was on. We attacked from below and behind and shot many of them down. I aimed at the right engine of one and set him afire. He went into a spin. We continued our attacks until we were about out of fuel, and then had to turn back toward the base. Since they had no fighter escort it was simple. ... In attacking them, we had come very fast from underneath and behind. In this way we achieved excellent results.

He returned to combat flying in August of that year. He achieved his 100th victory on November 1, for which he received the "Oak Leaves." A year later, for his 250th victory, he was awarded the "Swords," only the fourth flier by that date to receive that high distinction. (Later in the war, as more decorations were issued, the Germans added the "Diamonds" to the "Swords," - the Knight's Cross to the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds!)

He survived the war to become Inspector General of the West German Air Force.

Gerhard Barkhorn

He was born on 20 May 1919 at Königsberg in East Prussia. In 1937, he joined the Luftwaffe, and began flight training in March 1938. After initial posting to 3./JG 2, Leutnant Barkhorn was transferred to 6./JG 52 on 1 August 1940. He flew his first missions during the Battle of Britain but did not shoot down any aircraft at this time. He was shot down over the Channel, but was rescued. Barkhorn achieved his first victory during his 120th mission on 2 July 1941 over the Eastern Front. Thereafter he was to score steadily, if relatively unspectacularly, in comparison to other Eastern Front Luftwaffe aces. On his best single mission he scored four victories, on his best day seven.

Highlights of Barkhorn's career include:

• 5 January 1942 - his 30th victory
• 1 March - Staffelkapitän of 4./JG 52
• 25 July - wounded while flying Bf 109 F-4 (# 13388) “White 5”
• 23 August - awarded the Ritterkreuz, with 64 victories
• 19 December - his 100th victory
• 11 January 1943 - awarded the Oak Leaves, with 105 victories
• 8 August - his 150th victory
• 1 September - Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 52
• 30 November - his 200th victory
• 23 January 1944 - 1,000 combat missions (the first fighter pilot in history to do so)
• 13 February - his 250th victory
• 2 March - awarded the Swords
• 5 January 1945 - his 301st, and last, victory

He claimed 24 victories in August, 1943, 15 in September, 23 in November, and 28 in December, including seven on 28 December (his best day of combat). His success did not come without cost. He was shot down nine times, bailed out once, and was wounded twice. On 31 May 1944, Barkhorn was flying his sixth mission of the day in Bf 109 G-6 (WNr 163195) “Black 5,” when he was bounced by a Russian Airacobra and shot down . He received severe wounds to his right arm and leg which put him out of action for four months. He returned to combat duty at the end of October.

On 16 January 1945, Major Barkhorn was transferred to take command of JG 6 serving on Reichsverteidigung duties based at Posen. He led the unit until 10 April 1945 but was still suffering the effects of his wounds and eventually relinquished command for another spell in hospital. On recovery he joined JV 44. On 21 April 1945, flying an Me 262 jet fighter, an engine failed. He broke off his attack on some American bombers and returned to base at Riem. Pursued by the Mustang fighter escort he crash-landed his crippled machine in a clearing. The cockpit canopy, which he had opened to enable a quick escape, slammed shut on his neck. This put him back in hospital and out of the war.

After the war Barkhorn became a Generalleutnant in the Bundesluftwaffe. He retired in 1976. He died, with his wife Christl, in an automobile accident on 6 January 1983.

Otto Kittel

He was born on 21 Feb.1917 in Kronsdorf (in the Sudeten region of the present Czech Republic), and joined the 2.Staffel of JG 54 in February 1941. On 31.May 1941, due to engine trouble, he bailed out of his Bf 109 F-2, and landed at Spikeroog, only lightly injured. In June of 1941, with the start of Operation Barbarossa, he shot down a Yak-1 fighter, an SB-2 bomber and an IL-2. By the end of 1941, he had achieved 17 victories (not a very impressive number, considering the relatively easy time that the Luftwaffe had in those early days). JG 54 was based at Krasnogvardeisk.

In July, 1942, he was married, by means of a long-distance ceremony Fertrauung, a German wartime policy. On 19.Feb.1943 he shot down his 39th plane, which also was the 4000th victory of JG 54.

After achieving his 47th victory on 15 March 1943 (while flying FW 190A-4, serial number 2481), Kittel made an emergency landing 60 kilometers (37 miles) behind Russian lines. After landing on an open icy field, he immediately set out for some woods he saw at 2 kilometers distance. Sitting in the woods for a short break, he searched his pockets and found three "Drops" and two cigarette packets, but no matches. He also had a gun, a clock and a compass. In his haste to leave his landing site, he had forgotten his supplies and his gloves. Bitterly cold and underclothed, he crossed the frozen Ilmen Lake and after 3 days without food, reached the German troops. After he returned to his Group, 18.March 1943, he was promoted to Oberfeldwebel and got the German Cross in gold.

He received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knight`s Cross to the Iron Cross) on 29 Oct. 1943 upon achieving his 123rd victory. And he got the "Oak Leaves" in April, 1944.

From November 1943 through January 1944, he was Instructor of the EJGr.Ost, in Biarritz, France. 31.December 1943 , Kittel started to attack American bombers, but didn't get involved in a dogfight. Some of his EJGr.Ost comrades were upset because of that.

In March 1944, Kittel returned to JG 54 on the Russian Front, but after just two months was transfered to the western front, the Normandy invasion area, to help III./JG 54.

He earned his Schwerter (Swords) on 25 November 1944 after achieving 239th victory.

Kittel was killed on February 14, 1945 (his 583rd mission), over Courland by an Il-2 Stormovik.

Erich Rudorffer

He flew the Bf.109 in the Battle of Britain in late 1940.

He went to Tunisia in late 1942 when the Luftwaffe sought to check the American advances in North Africa. In February, 1943, he was flying the Fw.190 with J.G. 2 against the Americans. On the 9th, while based at Kairouan, his unit got word of an attack by dozens of USAAF bombers and fighters. They attacked the B-17s, as the P-40s, P-38s, Spitfires and Hurricanes came to defend them. In the ensuing dogfight, the P-40s went into a defensive Lufbery. But Rudorffer repeatedly penetrated it, and shot down six of the Curtiss fighters in a few minutes. As the dogfight broke up, he spotted some P-38s below, and destroyed two of them. Eight in one day! One of his best days ever.

He was sent to Russia in August, and achieved great success on that fronat as well, downing eleven Russian machines on two different occasions.

In 1944, he flew the Me.262 jet against the U.S. bombers that were attacking Germany. While the Me.262 was very fast,it had a lot of bugs, and there were simply too many Allied aircraft by that time.

Rudorffer also survived the war.

Sources:

• German Jet Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No 17), by Hugh Morgan, John Weal

• Bf 109 Aces of the Russian Front (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series #37), by John Weal.

• Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Aces of the Russian Front (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces, No 6), by John Weal
• Bf 109 Aces of North Africa and the Mediterranean (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces, No 2), by Jerry Scutts, Tony Holmes (Editor)
• Otto Kittel webpage - in both German and English, with many original photos of Kittel, some supplied by his family.
• Gerhard Barkhorn webpage

• The Aces Talk (originally titled Fighter Tactics and Strategy, 1914-1970), by Edward Sims, Ballantine Books, 1972
• Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft: 1914-1980, by Enzio Angelucci, The Military Press, 1983

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