Actually, the problem is this: 104 German pilots have an account of 100 or more downed aircraft. Among them are Erich Hartmann (352 wins) and Gerhard Barkhorn (301), who showed absolutely phenomenal results. Moreover, Harmann and Barkhorn won all their victories on the Eastern Front. And they were no exception - Gunther Rall (275 victories), Otto Kittel (267), Walter Novotny (258) - also fought on the Soviet-German front.
At the same time, the 7 best Soviet aces: Kozhedub, Pokryshkin, Gulaev, Rechkalov, Evstigneev, Vorozheikin, Glinka were able to overcome the bar of 50 downed enemy aircraft. For example, Thrice Hero Soviet Union Ivan Kozhedub destroyed 64 German aircraft in air battles (plus 2 American Mustangs shot down by mistake). Alexander Pokryshkin - the pilot, about whom, according to legend, the Germans warned by radio: "Achtung! Pokryshkin in der play!", He chalked up "only" 59 air victories. The little-known Romanian ace Constantin Contacuzino has about the same number of victories (according to various sources, from 60 to 69). Another Romanian, Alexandru Serbanescu, shot down 47 aircraft on the Eastern Front (another 8 victories remained "unconfirmed").
The situation is much worse for the Anglo-Saxons. The best aces were Marmaduke Pettle (about 50 wins, South Africa) and Richard Bong (40 wins, USA). In total, 19 British and American pilots managed to shoot down more than 30 enemy aircraft, while the British and Americans fought on the best fighters in the world: the inimitable P-51 Mustang, P-38 Lightning or the legendary Supermarine Spitfire! On the other hand, the best ace of the Royal Air Force did not have a chance to fight on such wonderful aircraft - Marmaduke Pettle won all his fifty victories, flying first on the old Gladiator biplane, and then on the clumsy Hurricane.
Against this background, the results of the Finnish fighter aces look completely paradoxical: Ilmari Yutilainen shot down 94 aircraft, and Hans Wind - 75.
What conclusion can be drawn from all these figures? What is the secret of the incredible performance of the Luftwaffe fighters? Maybe the Germans just didn't know how to count?
The only thing that can be asserted with a high degree of certainty is that the accounts of all aces without exception are overstated. To extol the successes of the best fighters is a standard practice of state propaganda, which, by definition, cannot be honest.
German Meresyev and his "Thing"
As an interesting example, I propose to consider the incredible story of the bomber pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel. This ace is less known than the legendary Erich Hartmann. Rudel practically did not participate in air battles, you will not find his name in the lists of the best fighters.
Rudel is famous for having made 2530 sorties. He piloted a Junkers-87 dive bomber, at the end of the war he moved to the helm of a Focke-Wulf 190. During his combat career, he destroyed 519 tanks, 150 self-propelled guns, 4 armored trains, 800 trucks and cars, two cruisers, a destroyer and heavily damaged the battleship Marat. In the air he shot down two Il-2 attack aircraft and seven fighters. He landed six times on enemy territory to save the crews of wrecked Junkers. The Soviet Union placed a reward of 100,000 rubles on the head of Hans-Ulrich Rudel.
Just the epitome of a fascist
He was shot down 32 times by return fire from the ground. In the end, Rudel's leg was torn off, but the pilot continued to fly on a crutch until the end of the war. In 1948, he fled to Argentina, where he became friends with the dictator Peron and organized a mountaineering circle. He climbed the highest peak of the Andes - the city of Aconcagua (7 kilometers). In 1953 he returned to Europe and settled in Switzerland, continuing to talk nonsense about the revival of the Third Reich.
Without a doubt, this outstanding and controversial pilot was a tough ace. But for any person accustomed to thoughtfully analyze events, one important question should arise: how was it established that Rudel destroyed exactly 519 tanks?
Of course, there were no camera guns or cameras on the Junkers. The maximum that Rudel or his gunner-radio operator could notice was the covering of a column of armored vehicles, i.e. possible damage tanks. The exit speed of the Yu-87 from a dive is more than 600 km / h, while overloads can reach 5g, in such conditions it is unrealistic to see anything accurately on the ground.
Since 1943, Rudel moved to the Yu-87G anti-tank attack aircraft. The characteristics of this "lappet" are simply disgusting: max. speed in level flight - 370 km / h, rate of climb - about 4 m / s. The aircraft's main weapon was two VK37 cannons (caliber 37 mm, rate of fire 160 rounds per minute), with only 12 (!) rounds of ammunition per barrel. Powerful guns mounted in the wings, when firing, created a large turning moment and rocked the light aircraft so that firing in bursts was pointless - only single sniper shots.
And here is a funny report on the results of field tests of the VYa-23 aircraft gun: in 6 sorties on the IL-2, the pilots of the 245th assault aviation regiment, with a total consumption of 435 shells, achieved 46 hits in the tank column (10.6%). It must be assumed that in real combat conditions, under intense anti-aircraft fire, the results will be much worse. Where is the German ace with 24 shells on board the Stuka!
Further, hitting a tank does not guarantee its defeat. An armor-piercing projectile (685 grams, 770 m/s) fired from the VK37 cannon pierced 25 mm of armor at an angle of 30° from the normal. When using sub-caliber ammunition, armor penetration increased by 1.5 times. Also, due to the aircraft's own speed, armor penetration in reality was about 5 mm more. On the other hand, the thickness of the armored hull of Soviet tanks was less than 30-40 mm only in some projections, and there was nothing to dream of hitting a KV, IS or heavy self-propelled gun in the forehead or side.
In addition, breaking through the armor does not always lead to the destruction of the tank. Echelons with damaged armored vehicles regularly arrived in Tankograd and Nizhny Tagil, which were restored in a short time and sent back to the front. And the repair of damaged rollers and chassis was carried out right on the spot. At this time, Hans-Ulrich Rudel drew himself another cross for the "destroyed" tank.
Another question for Rudel is related to his 2530 sorties. According to some reports, in the German bomber squadrons it was accepted as an encouragement to count a difficult sortie for several sorties. For example, the captured captain Helmut Putz, commander of the 4th detachment of the 2nd group of the 27th bomber squadron, explained the following during interrogation: "... in combat conditions, I managed to make 130-140 night sorties, and a number of sorties with a difficult combat mission was credited to me, as well as to others, for 2-3 departures. (protocol of interrogation dated 06/17/1943). Although it is possible that Helmut Putz, having been captured, lied, trying to reduce his contribution to attacks on Soviet cities.
Hartmann vs everyone
There is an opinion that aces-pilots inadvertently stuffed their accounts and fought "on their own", being an exception to the rule. And the main work at the front was carried out by pilots of medium qualification. This is a profound misunderstanding: general sense, pilots of "medium qualification" do not exist. There are either aces or their prey.
For example, let's take the legendary Normandy-Neman air regiment, which fought on Yak-3 fighters. Of the 98 French pilots, 60 did not win a single victory, but the "selected" 17 pilots shot down 200 German aircraft in air battles (in total, the French regiment drove 273 aircraft with a swastika into the ground).
A similar pattern was observed in the 8th US Air Force, where out of 5,000 fighter pilots, 2,900 did not win a single victory. Only 318 people chalked up 5 or more downed aircraft.
The American historian Mike Spike describes the same episode related to the actions of the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front: "... the squadron lost 80 pilots in a fairly short period of time, of which 60 did not shoot down a single Russian aircraft."
So, we found out that aces pilots are the main force of the Air Force. But the question remains: what is the reason for that huge gap between the performance of the aces of the Luftwaffe and the pilots of the Anti-Hitler coalition? Even if you divide the incredible accounts of the Germans in half?
One of the legends about the failure of large accounts of German aces is associated with an unusual system for counting downed aircraft: by the number of engines. Single-engine fighter - one downed aircraft. Four-engine bomber - four aircraft shot down. Indeed, for the pilots who fought in the West, a parallel offset was introduced, in which for the destruction of the "Flying Fortress" flying in battle formation, the pilot was credited with 4 points, for a damaged bomber that "fell out" of the battle formation and became easy prey other fighters, the pilot was recorded 3 points, because. he did most of the work - breaking through the hurricane fire of the "Flying Fortresses" is much more difficult than shooting a damaged single aircraft. And so on: depending on the degree of participation of the pilot in the destruction of the 4-engine monster, he was awarded 1 or 2 points. What happened then with these reward points? They must have been converted into Reichsmarks somehow. But all this had nothing to do with the list of downed aircraft.
The most prosaic explanation for the Luftwaffe phenomenon is that the Germans had no shortage of targets. Germany fought on all fronts with the numerical superiority of the enemy. The Germans had 2 main types of fighters: Messerschmitt-109 (34 thousand were produced from 1934 to 1945) and Focke-Wulf 190 (13 thousand were produced in the fighter version and 6.5 thousand in the attack aircraft version) - a total of 48 thousand fighters.
At the same time, about 70 thousand Yaks, Lavochkins, I-16s and MiG-3s passed through the Red Army Air Force during the war years (excluding 10 thousand fighters supplied under Lend-Lease).
In the Western European theater of operations, Luftwaffe fighters were opposed by about 20 thousand Spitfires and 13 thousand Hurricanes and Tempests (this is how many aircraft visited the Royal Air Force from 1939 to 1945). And how many more fighters did Britain get under Lend-Lease?
Since 1943, American fighters have appeared over Europe - thousands of Mustangs, P-38s and P-47s plowed the skies of the Reich, escorting strategic bombers during raids. In 1944, during the landings in Normandy, the Allied aviation had a sixfold numerical superiority. "If there are camouflaged planes in the sky, it's the Royal Air Force, if there are silver ones, it's the US Air Force. If there are no planes in the sky, it's the Luftwaffe," the German soldiers joked sadly. How could British and American pilots have big bills under such conditions?
Another example - the Il-2 attack aircraft became the most massive combat aircraft in the history of aviation. During the war years, 36154 attack aircraft were produced, of which 33920 Ils entered the army. By May 1945, the Red Army Air Force included 3585 Il-2 and Il-10, another 200 Il-2 were part of naval aviation.
In a word, the Luftwaffe pilots did not have any superpowers. All their achievements are explained only by the fact that there were many enemy aircraft in the air. Allied fighter aces, on the contrary, needed time to detect the enemy - according to statistics, even the best Soviet pilots had an average of 1 air battle for 8 sorties: they simply could not meet the enemy in the sky!
On a cloudless day, from a distance of 5 km, a WWII fighter is visible like a fly on a window pane from the far corner of the room. In the absence of radars on aircraft, air combat was more of an unexpected coincidence than a regular event.
It is more objective to count the number of downed aircraft, taking into account the number of pilot sorties. Viewed from this angle, Erich Hartmann's achievement pales in comparison: 1,400 sorties, 825 dogfights, and "only" 352 aircraft shot down. This figure is much better for Walter Novotny: 442 sorties and 258 victories.
Friends congratulate Alexander Pokryshkin (far right) on receiving the third star of the Hero of the Soviet Union
It is very interesting to trace how aces pilots began their careers. The legendary Pokryshkin in the very first sorties demonstrated piloting skills, audacity, flight intuition and sniper shooting. And the phenomenal ace Gerhard Barkhorn did not win a single victory in the first 119 sorties, but he himself was shot down twice! Although there is an opinion that Pokryshkin also did not go smoothly: the Soviet Su-2 became his first downed plane.
In any case, Pokryshkin has his own advantage over the best German aces. Hartman was shot down fourteen times. Barkhorn - 9 times. Pokryshkin was never shot down! Another advantage of the Russian miracle hero: he won most of his victories in 1943. In 1944-45. Pokryshkin shot down only 6 German aircraft, focusing on training young personnel and managing the 9th Guards Air Division.
In conclusion, it should be said that one should not be so afraid of the high scores of the Luftwaffe pilots. This, on the contrary, shows what a formidable enemy the Soviet Union defeated, and why the Victory is of such high value.
Every war is a terrible grief for any people that it affects in one way or another. Throughout its history, mankind has known many wars, two of which were world wars. The First World War almost completely destroyed Europe and led to the fall of some large empires, such as the Russian and Austro-Hungarian. But even more terrible in its scale was the Second World War, in which many countries from almost all over the world were involved. Millions of people died, and even more were left without a roof over their heads. This terrible event still affects modern man in one way or another. Its echoes can be found throughout our lives. This tragedy left behind a lot of mysteries, disputes over which have not subsided for decades. The Soviet Union, which was not yet fully strengthened from the revolution and civil wars and was only building up its military and civilian industry, took on the heaviest burden in this battle not for life, but for death. Irreconcilable rage and a desire to fight the invaders who encroached on the territorial integrity and freedom of the proletarian state settled in the hearts of people. Many went to the front voluntarily. At the same time, the evacuated industrial capacities were reorganized for the production of products for the needs of the front. The struggle took on the scale of a truly popular one. That is why it is called the Great Patriotic War.
Who are the aces?
Both the German and Soviet armies were well trained and equipped with equipment, aircraft and other weapons. The personnel numbered in the millions. The collision of these two war machines gave birth to its heroes and its traitors. One of those who can rightfully be considered heroes are the aces of World War II. Who are they and why are they so famous? An ace can be considered a person who has achieved such heights in his field of activity that few people managed to conquer. And even in such a dangerous and terrible business as the military, there have always been professionals. Both the USSR and the allied forces, and Nazi Germany there were people who showed the best results in terms of the number of destroyed equipment or manpower of the enemy. This article will tell about these heroes.
The list of aces of World War II is extensive and includes many individuals famous for their exploits. They were an example for a whole nation, they were adored, admired.
Aviation is without a doubt one of the most romantic, but at the same time dangerous branches of the military. Since any technique can fail at any moment, the pilot's work is considered very honorable. It requires iron restraint, discipline, the ability to control oneself in any situation. Therefore, aviation aces were treated with great respect. After all, to be able to show a good result in such conditions, when your life depends not only on technology, but also on yourself, is the highest degree of military art. So, who are they - the aces of the Second World War, and why are their exploits so famous?
One of the most productive Soviet aces pilots was Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub. Officially, during his service on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, he shot down 62 German aircraft, and he is also credited with 2 American fighters, which he destroyed at the end of the war. This record-breaking pilot served in the 176th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment and flew a La-7 aircraft.
The second most successful during the war was Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin (who was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union three times). He fought in southern Ukraine, in the Black Sea region, liberated Europe from the Nazis. During his service he shot down 59 enemy aircraft. He did not stop flying even when he was appointed commander of the 9th Guards Aviation Division, and won some of his air victories while already in this position.
Nikolai Dmitrievich Gulaev is one of the most famous military pilots, who set a record - 4 sorties for one destroyed aircraft. In total, during his military service, he destroyed 57 enemy aircraft. Awarded twice the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
He also shot down 55 German aircraft. Kozhedub, who happened to serve for some time with Evstigneev in the same regiment, spoke very respectfully about this pilot.
But, despite the fact that the tank troops were among the most numerous in the Soviet army, for some reason the USSR did not have aces tankers of the Second World War. Why this is so is unknown. It is logical to assume that many personal scores were deliberately overestimated or underestimated, so it is not possible to name the exact number of victories of the aforementioned tank battle masters.
German tank aces
But the German tank aces of the Second World War have a much larger achievement list. This is largely due to the pedantry of the Germans, who strictly documented everything, and they had much more time to fight than their Soviet "colleagues". The German army began active operations in 1939.
German tankman number 1 is Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann. He fought on many tanks (Stug III, Tiger I) and destroyed 138 vehicles during the entire war, as well as 132 self-propelled artillery installations of various enemy countries. For his successes he was repeatedly awarded various orders and signs of the Third Reich. Killed in action in 1944 in France.
You can also single out such a tank ace as For those who are somehow interested in the history of the development of the tank forces of the Third Reich, the book of his memoirs "Tigers in the Mud" will be very useful. During the war years, this man destroyed 150 Soviet and American self-propelled guns and tanks.
Kurt Knispel is another record holder tanker. He knocked out 168 tanks and self-propelled guns of the enemy for his military service. About 30 cars are unconfirmed, which does not allow him to catch up with Wittmann in terms of results. Knispel was killed in battle near the village of Vostits in Czechoslovakia, in 1945.
In addition, Karl Bromann had good results - 66 tanks and self-propelled guns, Ernst Barkmann - 66 tanks and self-propelled guns, Erich Mausberg - 53 tanks and self-propelled guns.
As can be seen from these results, both the Soviet and German tank aces of World War II knew how to fight. Of course, the quantity and quality of Soviet combat vehicles was an order of magnitude higher than that of the Germans, however, as practice has shown, both of them were used quite successfully and became the basis for some post-war tank designs.
But the list of military branches in which their masters distinguished themselves does not end there. Let's talk a little about aces-submariners.
Submarine Warfare Masters
Just as in the case of aircraft and tanks, the most successful are the German sailors. During the years of its existence, the Kriegsmarine submariners sank 2603 ships of the allied countries, the total displacement of which reaches 13.5 million tons. This is a truly impressive number. And the German submarine aces of World War II could also boast of impressive personal scores.
The most productive German submariner is Otto Kretschmer, who has 44 ships, including 1 destroyer. The total displacement of the ships sunk by him is 266629 tons.
In second place is Wolfgang Luth, who sent 43 enemy ships to the bottom (and according to other sources - 47) with a total displacement of 225,712 tons.
He was also a famous sea ace who even managed to sink the British battleship Royal Oak. It was one of the first officers to receive oak leaves for Prien and destroyed 30 ships. Killed in 1941 during an attack on a British convoy. He was so popular that his death was hidden from the people for two months. And on the day of his funeral, mourning was declared throughout the country.
Such successes of the German sailors are also quite understandable. The fact is that Germany began a naval war back in 1940, with a blockade of Britain, thus hoping to undermine its maritime greatness and, taking advantage of this, to carry out a successful capture of the islands. However, very soon the plans of the Nazis were frustrated, as America entered the war with its large and powerful fleet.
The most famous Soviet sailor of the submarine fleet is Alexander Marinesko. He sank only 4 ships, but what! Heavy passenger liner "Wilhelm Gustloff", transport "General von Steuben", as well as 2 units of heavy floating batteries "Helene" and "Siegfried". For his exploits, Hitler put the sailor on the list of personal enemies. But the fate of Marinesko did not work out well. He fell out of favor with the Soviet authorities and died, and his exploits were no longer talked about. The great sailor received the Hero of the Soviet Union award only posthumously in 1990. Unfortunately, many aces of the USSR of the Second World War ended their lives in a similar way.
Also famous submariners of the Soviet Union are Ivan Travkin - sank 13 ships, Nikolai Lunin - also 13 ships, Valentin Starikov - 14 ships. But Marinesko topped the list of the best submariners of the Soviet Union, as he caused the greatest damage to the German navy.
Accuracy and Stealth
Well, how can one not remember such famous fighters as snipers? Here the Soviet Union takes the well-deserved palm from Germany. Soviet sniper aces of World War II had very high service records. In many respects, such results were achieved thanks to the mass state training of the civilian population in shooting from various weapons. About 9 million people were awarded the Voroshilovsky shooter badge. So, what are the most famous snipers?
The name of Vasily Zaitsev frightened the Germans and inspired courage in Soviet soldiers. This ordinary guy, a hunter, killed 225 Wehrmacht soldiers from his Mosin rifle in just a month of fighting near Stalingrad. Among the outstanding sniper names are Fedor Okhlopkov, who (for the entire war) accounted for about a thousand Nazis; Semyon Nomokonov, who killed 368 enemy soldiers. There were also women among the snipers. An example of this is the famous Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who fought near Odessa and Sevastopol.
German snipers are less known, although in Germany since 1942 there were several sniper schools that dealt with vocational training frames. Among the most productive German shooters are Matthias Hetzenauer (345 killed), (257 destroyed), Bruno Sutkus (209 soldiers shot dead). Also a famous sniper from the countries of the Hitlerite bloc is Simo Hayha - this Finn killed 504 Red Army soldiers during the war years (according to unconfirmed reports).
Thus, the sniper training of the Soviet Union was immeasurably higher than that of the German troops, which allowed the Soviet soldiers to wear the proud title of aces of World War II.
How did they become aces?
So, the concept of "ace of the Second World War" is quite extensive. As already mentioned, these people achieved truly impressive results in their work. This was achieved not only due to good army training, but also due to outstanding personal qualities. Indeed, for a pilot, for example, coordination and fast reaction, for a sniper - the ability to wait for the right moment to sometimes deliver a single shot.
Accordingly, it is impossible to determine who had the best aces of the Second World War. Both sides committed unparalleled heroism, which made it possible to distinguish from total weight individual people. But one could become a master only by training hard and improving one's combat skills, since war does not tolerate weakness. Of course, the dry lines of statistics will not be able to convey to a modern person all the hardships and hardships that war professionals experienced during their formation on an honorary pedestal.
We, the generation that lives without knowing such terrible things, should not forget about the exploits of our predecessors. They can become an inspiration, a reminder, a memory. And we must try to do everything to ensure that such terrible events as past wars do not happen again.
... the squadron lost 80 pilots in a fairly short period of time,
of which 60 never shot down a single Russian aircraft
/Mike Speke "Aces of the Luftwaffe"/
With a deafening roar, the Iron Curtain collapsed, and a storm of exposés of Soviet myths arose in the media of independent Russia. The most popular theme was the Great Patriotic War - inexperienced soviet man was shocked by the results of the German aces - tankers, submariners and, especially, Luftwaffe pilots.
Actually, the problem is this: 104 German pilots have an account of 100 or more downed aircraft. Among them are Erich Hartmann (352 wins) and Gerhard Barkhorn (301), who showed absolutely phenomenal results. Moreover, Harmann and Barkhorn won all their victories on the Eastern Front. And they were no exception - Gunther Rall (275 victories), Otto Kittel (267), Walter Novotny (258) - also fought on the Soviet-German front.
At the same time, the 7 best Soviet aces: Kozhedub, Pokryshkin, Gulaev, Rechkalov, Evstigneev, Vorozheikin, Glinka were able to overcome the bar of 50 downed enemy aircraft. For example, Three times Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Kozhedub destroyed 64 German aircraft in air battles (plus 2 American Mustangs shot down by mistake). Alexander Pokryshkin is a pilot about whom, according to legend, the Germans warned by radio: “Akhtung! Pokryshkin in der Luft!”, chalked up “only” 59 air victories. The little-known Romanian ace Constantin Contacuzino has about the same number of victories (according to various sources, from 60 to 69). Another Romanian, Alexandru Serbanescu, shot down 47 aircraft on the Eastern Front (another 8 victories remained “unconfirmed”).
The situation is much worse for the Anglo-Saxons. The best aces were Marmaduke Pettle (about 50 wins, South Africa) and Richard Bong (40 wins, USA). In total, 19 British and American pilots managed to shoot down more than 30 enemy aircraft, while the British and Americans fought on the best fighters in the world: the inimitable P-51 Mustang, P-38 Lightning or the legendary Supermarine Spitfire! On the other hand, the best ace of the Royal Air Force did not have a chance to fight on such wonderful aircraft - Marmaduke Pettle won all his fifty victories, flying first on the old Gladiator biplane, and then on the clumsy Hurricane.
Against this background, the results of the Finnish fighter aces look completely paradoxical: Ilmari Yutilainen shot down 94 aircraft, and Hans Wind - 75.
What conclusion can be drawn from all these figures? What is the secret of the incredible performance of the Luftwaffe fighters? Maybe the Germans just didn't know how to count?
The only thing that can be asserted with a high degree of certainty is that the accounts of all aces without exception are overstated. To extol the successes of the best fighters is a standard practice of state propaganda, which, by definition, cannot be honest.
German Meresyev and his "Thing"
As an interesting example, I propose to consider the incredible story of the bomber pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel. This ace is less known than the legendary Erich Hartmann. Rudel practically did not participate in air battles, you will not find his name in the lists of the best fighters.
Rudel is famous for having made 2530 sorties. He piloted the Junkers-87 dive bomber, at the end of the war he moved to the helm of the Focke-Wulf 190. During his combat career, he destroyed 519 tanks, 150 self-propelled guns, 4 armored trains, 800 trucks and cars, two cruisers, a destroyer and heavily damaged the battleship Marat. In the air he shot down two Il-2 attack aircraft and seven fighters. He landed six times on enemy territory to save the crews of wrecked Junkers. The Soviet Union placed a reward of 100,000 rubles on the head of Hans-Ulrich Rudel.
Just the epitome of a fascist
He was shot down 32 times by return fire from the ground. In the end, Rudel's leg was torn off, but the pilot continued to fly on a crutch until the end of the war. In 1948, he fled to Argentina, where he became friends with the dictator Peron and organized a mountaineering circle. He climbed the highest peak of the Andes - the city of Aconcagua (7 kilometers). In 1953 he returned to Europe and settled in Switzerland, continuing to talk nonsense about the revival of the Third Reich.
Without a doubt, this outstanding and controversial pilot was a tough ace. But for any person accustomed to thoughtfully analyze events, one important question should arise: how was it established that Rudel destroyed exactly 519 tanks?
Of course, there were no camera guns or cameras on the Junkers. The maximum that Rudel or his gunner-radio operator could notice was the covering of a column of armored vehicles, i.e. possible damage to tanks. The exit speed of the Yu-87 from a dive is more than 600 km / h, while overloads can reach 5g, in such conditions it is unrealistic to see anything accurately on the ground.
Since 1943, Rudel moved to the Yu-87G anti-tank attack aircraft. The characteristics of this "lappet" are simply disgusting: max. speed in level flight - 370 km / h, rate of climb - about 4 m / s. Two VK37 cannons (caliber 37 mm, rate of fire 160 rds / min) became the main aircraft, with only 12 (!) shells per gun. Powerful guns mounted in the wings, when firing, created a large turning moment and rocked the light aircraft so that firing in bursts was pointless - only single sniper shots.
And here is a funny report on the results of field tests of the VYa-23 aircraft gun: in 6 sorties on the IL-2, the pilots of the 245th assault aviation regiment, with a total consumption of 435 shells, achieved 46 hits in the tank column (10.6%). It must be assumed that in real combat conditions, under intense anti-aircraft fire, the results will be much worse. Where is the German ace with 24 shells on board the Stukka!
Further, hitting a tank does not guarantee its defeat. An armor-piercing projectile (685 grams, 770 m/s) fired from the VK37 cannon pierced 25 mm of armor at an angle of 30° from the normal. When using sub-caliber ammunition, armor penetration increased by 1.5 times. Also, due to the aircraft's own speed, armor penetration in reality was about 5 mm more. On the other hand, the thickness of the armored hull of Soviet tanks was less than 30-40 mm only in some projections, and there was nothing to dream of hitting a KV, IS or heavy self-propelled gun in the forehead or side.
In addition, breaking through the armor does not always lead to the destruction of the tank. Echelons with damaged armored vehicles regularly arrived in Tankograd and Nizhny Tagil, which were restored in a short time and sent back to the front. And the repair of damaged rollers and chassis was carried out right on the spot. At this time, Hans-Ulrich Rudel drew himself another cross for the "destroyed" tank.
Another question for Rudel is related to his 2530 sorties. According to some reports, in the German bomber squadrons it was accepted as an encouragement to count a difficult sortie for several sorties. For example, the captured captain Helmut Putz, commander of the 4th detachment of the 2nd group of the 27th bomber squadron, explained the following during interrogation: “... in combat conditions, I managed to make 130-140 night sorties, and a number of sorties with a complex combat mission were credited to me , like others, for 2-3 departures. (protocol of interrogation dated 06/17/1943). Although it is possible that Helmut Putz, having been captured, lied, trying to reduce his contribution to attacks on Soviet cities.
Hartmann vs everyone
There is an opinion that aces-pilots filled their bills uncontrollably and fought "on their own", being an exception to the rule. And the main work at the front was carried out by pilots of medium qualification. This is a profound misconception: in a general sense, pilots of "medium qualification" do not exist. There are either aces or their prey.
For example, let's take the legendary Normandy-Neman air regiment, which fought on Yak-3 fighters. Of the 98 French pilots, 60 did not win a single victory, but the “selected” 17 pilots shot down 200 German aircraft in air battles (in total, the French regiment drove 273 aircraft with a swastika into the ground).
A similar pattern was observed in the 8th US Air Force, where out of 5,000 fighter pilots, 2,900 did not win a single victory. Only 318 people chalked up 5 or more downed aircraft.
The American historian Mike Spike describes the same episode related to the actions of the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front: "... the squadron lost 80 pilots in a fairly short period of time, of which 60 did not shoot down a single Russian aircraft."
So, we found out that aces pilots are the main force of the Air Force. But the question remains: what is the reason for that huge gap between the performance of the aces of the Luftwaffe and the pilots of the Anti-Hitler coalition? Even if you divide the incredible accounts of the Germans in half?
One of the legends about the failure of large accounts of German aces is associated with an unusual system for counting downed aircraft: by the number of engines. Single-engine fighter - one downed aircraft. Four-engine bomber - four downed aircraft. Indeed, for the pilots who fought in the West, a parallel offset was introduced, in which for the destruction of the “Flying Fortress” flying in battle formation, the pilot was credited with 4 points, for the damaged bomber, which “fell out” of the battle formation and became easy prey other fighters, the pilot was recorded 3 points, because. he did most of the work - breaking through the hurricane fire of the Flying Fortresses is much more difficult than shooting a damaged single plane. And so on: depending on the degree of participation of the pilot in the destruction of the 4-engine monster, he was awarded 1 or 2 points. What happened then with these reward points? They must have been converted into Reichsmarks somehow. But all this had nothing to do with the list of downed aircraft.
The most prosaic explanation for the Luftwaffe phenomenon is that the Germans had no shortage of targets. Germany fought on all fronts with the numerical superiority of the enemy. The Germans had 2 main types of fighters: Messerschmitt-109 (34 thousand were produced from 1934 to 1945) and Focke-Wulf 190 (13 thousand were produced in the fighter version and 6.5 thousand in the attack aircraft version) - a total of 48 thousand fighters.
At the same time, about 70 thousand Yaks, Lavochkins, I-16s and MiG-3s passed through the Red Army Air Force during the war years (excluding 10 thousand fighters supplied under Lend-Lease).
In the Western European theater of operations, Luftwaffe fighters were opposed by about 20 thousand Spitfires and 13 thousand Hurricanes and Tempests (this is how many aircraft visited the Royal Air Force from 1939 to 1945). And how many more fighters did Britain get under Lend-Lease?
Since 1943, American fighters have appeared over Europe - thousands of Mustangs, P-38s and P-47s plowed the skies of the Reich, escorting strategic bombers during raids. In 1944, during the landings in Normandy, the Allied aviation had a sixfold numerical superiority. “If there are camouflage planes in the sky, this is the Royal Air Force, if there are silver ones, the US Air Force. If there are no planes in the sky, it is the Luftwaffe,” the German soldiers joked sadly. How could British and American pilots have big bills under such conditions?
Another example - the Il-2 attack aircraft became the most massive combat aircraft in the history of aviation. During the war years, 36154 attack aircraft were produced, of which 33920 Ils entered the army. By May 1945, the Red Army Air Force included 3585 Il-2 and Il-10, another 200 Il-2 were part of naval aviation.
In a word, the Luftwaffe pilots did not have any superpowers. All their achievements are explained only by the fact that there were many enemy aircraft in the air. The allied fighter aces, on the contrary, needed time to detect the enemy - according to statistics, even the best Soviet pilots had an average of 1 air battle for 8 sorties: they simply could not meet the enemy in the sky!
On a cloudless day, from a distance of 5 km, a World War II fighter is visible like a fly on window glass from the far corner of the room. In the absence of radars on aircraft, air combat was more of an unexpected coincidence than a regular event.
It is more objective to count the number of downed aircraft, taking into account the number of pilot sorties. Viewed from this angle, Erich Hartmann's achievement pales in comparison: 1,400 sorties, 825 dogfights, and "only" 352 aircraft shot down. This figure is much better for Walter Novotny: 442 sorties and 258 victories.
Friends congratulate Alexander Pokryshkin (far right) on receiving the third star of the Hero of the Soviet Union
It is very interesting to trace how aces pilots began their careers. The legendary Pokryshkin in the very first sorties demonstrated piloting skills, audacity, flight intuition and sniper shooting. And the phenomenal ace Gerhard Barkhorn did not win a single victory in the first 119 sorties, but he himself was shot down twice! Although there is an opinion that Pokryshkin also did not go smoothly: the Soviet Su-2 became his first downed plane.
In any case, Pokryshkin has his own advantage over the best German aces. Hartman was shot down fourteen times. Barkhorn - 9 times. Pokryshkin was never shot down! Another advantage of the Russian miracle hero: he won most of his victories in 1943. In 1944-45. Pokryshkin shot down only 6 German aircraft, focusing on training young personnel and managing the 9th Guards Air Division.
In conclusion, it should be said that one should not be so afraid of the high scores of the Luftwaffe pilots. This, on the contrary, shows what a formidable enemy the Soviet Union defeated, and why the Victory is of such high value.
Aces Luftwaffe World War II
The film tells about the famous German aces pilots: Erich Hartmann (352 downed enemy aircraft), Johan Steinhoff (176), Werner Mölders (115), Adolf Galland (103) and others. Rare shots of interviews with Hartman and Galland are presented, as well as unique newsreel of air battles.
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Representatives of the Soviet air force made a huge contribution to the defeat of the Nazi invaders. Many pilots gave their lives for the freedom and independence of our Motherland, many became Heroes of the Soviet Union. Some of them forever entered the elite of the Russian Air Force, the famous cohort of Soviet aces - the thunderstorm of the Luftwaffe. Today we recall the 10 most productive Soviet fighter pilots, who chalked up the most enemy aircraft shot down in air battles.
On February 4, 1944, the outstanding Soviet fighter pilot Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub was awarded the first star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. By the end of the Great Patriotic War, he was already three times Hero of the Soviet Union. During the war years, only one more Soviet pilot was able to repeat this achievement - it was Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin. But the history of Soviet fighter aviation during the war does not end with these two most famous aces. During the war, another 25 pilots were twice presented with the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union, not to mention those who were once awarded this highest military award of the country of those years.
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub
During the war years, Ivan Kozhedub made 330 sorties, conducted 120 air battles and personally shot down 64 enemy aircraft. He flew on La-5, La-5FN and La-7 aircraft.
The official Soviet historiography featured 62 downed enemy aircraft, but archival research showed that Kozhedub shot down 64 aircraft (for some reason, two air victories were missing - April 11, 1944 - PZL P.24 and June 8, 1944 - Me 109) . Among the trophies of the Soviet ace pilot were 39 fighters (21 Fw-190, 17 Me-109 and 1 PZL P.24), 17 dive bombers (Ju-87), 4 bombers (2 Ju-88 and 2 He-111), 3 attack aircraft (Hs-129) and one Me-262 jet fighter. In addition, in his autobiography, he indicated that in 1945 he shot down two American P-51 Mustang fighters, which attacked him from a long distance, mistaking him for a German aircraft.
In all likelihood, had Ivan Kozhedub (1920-1991) started the war in 1941, his account of downed aircraft could have been even higher. However, his debut came only in 1943, and the future ace shot down his first plane in the battle on Kursk Bulge. On July 6, during a sortie, he shot down a German Ju-87 dive bomber. Thus, the performance of the pilot is really amazing, in just two war years he managed to bring the score of his victories to a record in the Soviet Air Force.
At the same time, Kozhedub was never shot down during the entire war, although he returned to the airfield several times in a badly damaged fighter. But the last could have been his first air battle, which took place on March 26, 1943. His La-5 was damaged by a German fighter burst, the armored back saved the pilot from an incendiary projectile. And upon returning home, his own air defense fired at his plane, the car received two hits. Despite this, Kozhedub managed to land the plane, which was no longer subject to full restoration.
The future best Soviet ace made his first steps in aviation while studying at the Shotkinsky flying club. At the beginning of 1940, he was drafted into the Red Army and in the fall of the same year he graduated from the Chuguev Military Aviation Pilot School, after which he continued to serve at this school as an instructor. With the outbreak of war, the school was evacuated to Kazakhstan. The war itself began for him in November 1942, when Kozhedub was seconded to the 240th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 302nd Fighter Aviation Division. The formation of the division was completed only in March 1943, after which it flew to the front. As mentioned above, he won his first victory only on July 6, 1943, but a start was made.
Already on February 4, 1944, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Kozhedub was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, at that time he managed to make 146 sorties and shoot down 20 enemy aircraft in air battles. He received his second star in the same year. He was presented for the award on August 19, 1944, already for 256 combat missions and 48 enemy aircraft shot down. At that time, as a captain, he served as deputy commander of the 176th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment.
In air battles, Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub was distinguished by fearlessness, composure and automatism of piloting, which he brought to perfection. Perhaps the fact that before being sent to the front he spent several years as an instructor played a very large role in his future success in the sky. Kozhedub could easily conduct aimed fire at the enemy at any position of the aircraft in the air, and also easily performed complex aerobatic maneuvers. Being an excellent sniper, he preferred to conduct air combat at a distance of 200-300 meters.
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub won his last victory in the Great Patriotic War on April 17, 1945 in the sky over Berlin, in this battle he shot down two German FW-190 fighters. Three times Hero of the Soviet Union, the future air marshal (the title was awarded on May 6, 1985), Major Kozhedub became on August 18, 1945. After the war, he continued to serve in the country's Air Force and went through a very serious path in career ladder bringing many more benefits to the country. The legendary pilot died on August 8, 1991, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin
Alexander Ivanovich Tires fought from the very first day of the war to the last. During this time, he made 650 sorties, in which he conducted 156 air battles and officially personally shot down 59 enemy aircraft and 6 aircraft in the group. He is the second most successful ace of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition after Ivan Kozhedub. During the war he flew MiG-3, Yak-1 and American P-39 Airacobra.
The number of downed aircraft is very conditional. Quite often, Alexander Pokryshkin made deep raids behind enemy lines, where he also managed to win victories. However, only those of them were counted that could be confirmed by ground services, that is, if possible, over their own territory. He could have had 8 such unrecorded victories only in 1941. At the same time, they accumulated throughout the war. Also, Alexander Pokryshkin often gave the planes he shot down to the account of his subordinates (mostly followers), stimulating them in this way. In those days it was quite common.
Already during the first weeks of the war, Pokryshkin was able to understand that the tactics of the Soviet Air Force were outdated. Then he began to enter his notes on this account in a notebook. He kept an accurate record of the air battles in which he and his friends took part, after which he made a detailed analysis of what was written. At the same time, at that time he had to fight in very difficult conditions of the constant retreat of the Soviet troops. He later said: "Those who did not fight in 1941-1942 do not know the real war."
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and massive criticism of everything that was connected with that period, some authors began to "cut down" the number of Pokryshkin's victories. This was also due to the fact that at the end of 1944, official Soviet propaganda finally made the pilot "a bright image of a hero, the main fighter of the war." In order not to lose the hero in a random battle, it was ordered to limit the flights of Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin, who by that time had already commanded the regiment. On August 19, 1944, after 550 sorties and 53 officially won victories, he became three times Hero of the Soviet Union, the first in history.
The wave of "revelations" that swept over him after the 1990s also went through him because after the war he managed to take the post of Commander-in-Chief of the country's air defense forces, that is, he became a "major Soviet official." If we talk about the low ratio of victories to completed sorties, then it can be noted that for a long time at the beginning of the war, Pokryshkin on his MiG-3, and then the Yak-1, flew to attack enemy ground forces or perform reconnaissance flights. For example, by mid-November 1941, the pilot had already completed 190 sorties, but the vast majority of them - 144 were to attack enemy ground forces.
Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin was not only a cold-blooded, courageous and virtuoso Soviet pilot, but also a thinking pilot. He was not afraid to criticize the existing tactics of using fighter aircraft and advocated its replacement. Discussions on this issue with the regiment commander in 1942 led to the fact that the ace pilot was even expelled from the party and sent the case to the tribunal. The pilot was saved by the intercession of the regimental commissar and the higher command. The case against him was dropped and reinstated in the party. After the war, Pokryshkin was in conflict with Vasily Stalin for a long time, which adversely affected his career. Everything changed only in 1953 after the death of Joseph Stalin. Subsequently, he managed to rise to the rank of air marshal, which was awarded to him in 1972. The famous ace pilot died on November 13, 1985 at the age of 72 in Moscow.
Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov
Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov fought from the very first day of the Great Patriotic War. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union. During the war years, he completed more than 450 sorties, shooting down 56 enemy aircraft in person and 6 in a group in 122 air battles. According to other sources, the number of his personal air victories could exceed 60. During the war years, he flew the I-153 Chaika, I-16, Yak-1, P-39 Airacobra aircraft.
Probably no other Soviet fighter pilot had such a variety of downed enemy vehicles as Grigory Rechkalov. Among his trophies were Me-110, Me-109, Fw-190 fighters, Ju-88, He-111 bombers, Ju-87 dive bomber, Hs-129 attack aircraft, Fw-189 and Hs-126 reconnaissance aircraft, as well as such a rare car as the Italian "Savoy" and the Polish PZL-24 fighter, which was used by the Romanian Air Force.
Surprisingly, the day before the start of the Great Patriotic War, Rechkalov was suspended from flying by decision of the medical flight commission, he was diagnosed with color blindness. But upon returning to his unit with this diagnosis, he was still allowed to fly. The beginning of the war forced the authorities to simply turn a blind eye to this diagnosis, simply ignoring it. At the same time, he served in the 55th Fighter Aviation Regiment since 1939, together with Pokryshkin.
This brilliant military pilot was distinguished by a very contradictory and uneven character. Showing a model of determination, courage and discipline within the framework of one sortie, in another, he could be distracted from the main task and just as resolutely start pursuing a random enemy, trying to increase the score of his victories. His combat fate in the war was closely intertwined with the fate of Alexander Pokryshkin. He flew with him in the same group, replaced him as a squadron commander and regiment commander. Pokryshkin himself best qualities Grigory Rechkalov considered frankness and directness.
Rechkalov, like Pokryshkin, fought from June 22, 1941, but with a forced break for almost two years. In the first month of fighting, he managed to shoot down three enemy aircraft on his outdated I-153 biplane fighter. He also managed to fly on the I-16 fighter. On July 26, 1941, during a sortie near Dubossary, he was wounded in the head and leg by fire from the ground, but managed to bring his plane to the airfield. After this injury, he spent 9 months in the hospital, during which time the pilot underwent three operations. And once again, the medical commission tried to put an insurmountable obstacle in the way of the future illustrious ace. Grigory Rechkalov was sent to serve in a reserve regiment, which was equipped with U-2 aircraft. The future twice Hero of the Soviet Union took this direction as a personal insult. At the headquarters of the district air force, he managed to ensure that he was returned to his regiment, which at that time was called the 17th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. But very soon the regiment was withdrawn from the front for re-equipment with the new American Airacobra fighters, which went to the USSR as part of the Lend-Lease program. For these reasons, Rechkalov began to beat the enemy again only in April 1943.
Grigory Rechkalov, being one of the domestic stars of fighter aviation, could perfectly interact with other pilots, guessing their intentions and working together as a group. Even during the war years, a conflict arose between him and Pokryshkin, but he never sought to throw out some kind of negativity about this or blame his opponent. On the contrary, in his memoirs he spoke well of Pokryshkin, noting that they managed to unravel the tactics of the German pilots, after which they began to apply new techniques: they began to fly in pairs, not in flights, it is better to use radio for guidance and communication, to separate their cars in the so-called " whatnot."
Grigory Rechkalov won 44 victories on the Aerocobra, more than other Soviet pilots. Already after the end of the war, someone asked the famous pilot what he most appreciated in the Airacobra fighter, on which so many victories were won: the power of a fire salvo, speed, visibility, engine reliability? To this question, the ace pilot replied that all of the above, of course, mattered, these were the obvious advantages of the aircraft. But the main thing, he said, was in the radio. The Airacobra had excellent, rare radio communications in those years. Thanks to this connection, the pilots in battle could communicate with each other, as if by telephone. Someone saw something - immediately all the members of the group are aware of it. Therefore, in combat missions, we did not have any surprises.
After the end of the war, Grigory Rechkalov continued his service in the Air Force. True, not as long as other Soviet aces. Already in 1959, he retired with the rank of major general. After that he lived and worked in Moscow. He died in Moscow on December 20, 1990 at the age of 70.
Nikolai Dmitrievich Gulaev
Nikolai Dmitrievich Gulaev ended up on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War in August 1942. In total, during the war years, he made 250 sorties, conducted 49 air battles, in which he personally destroyed 55 enemy aircraft and 5 more aircraft in the group. Such statistics make Gulaev the most effective Soviet ace. For every 4 sorties, he had a downed aircraft, or an average of more than one aircraft for each dogfight. During the war, he flew the I-16, Yak-1, P-39 Airacobra fighters, most of his victories, like Pokryshkin and Rechkalov, he won on the Airacobra.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Dmitrievich Gulaev shot down not much less aircraft than Alexander Pokryshkin. But in terms of the effectiveness of the battles, he far surpassed both him and Kozhedub. At the same time, he fought for less than two years. At first, in the deep Soviet rear, as part of the air defense forces, he was engaged in the protection of important industrial facilities, protecting them from enemy air raids. And in September 1944, he was practically in compulsory order sent to study at the Air Force Academy.
The Soviet pilot made his most productive battle on May 30, 1944. In one air battle over Skuleni, he managed to shoot down 5 enemy aircraft at once: two Me-109s, Hs-129s, Ju-87s and Ju-88s. During the battle, he himself was seriously wounded in right hand, but having concentrated all his strength and will, he was able to bring his fighter to the airfield, bleeding, landed and, having already taxied to the parking lot, lost consciousness. The pilot came to his senses only in the hospital after the operation, here he learned about the award of the second title of Hero of the Soviet Union to him.
All the time while Gulaev was at the front, he fought desperately. During this time, he managed to make two successful rams, after which he managed to land his damaged aircraft. Several times during this time he was wounded, but after being wounded he invariably returned back to duty. In early September 1944, the ace pilot was forcibly sent to study. At that moment, the outcome of the war was already clear to everyone, and they tried to protect the famous Soviet aces by sending them to the Air Force Academy by order. Thus, the war ended unexpectedly for our hero.
Nikolai Gulaev was called the brightest representative of the "romantic school" of air combat. Often the pilot dared to commit "irrational actions" that shocked the German pilots, but helped him win victories. Even among other far from ordinary Soviet fighter pilots, the figure of Nikolai Gulaev stood out for his colorfulness. Only such a person, possessing unparalleled courage, would be able to carry out 10 super-successful air battles, recording two of his victories for a successful ramming of enemy aircraft. Gulaev’s modesty in public and in his self-esteem was discordant with his exceptionally aggressive and persistent manner of conducting air combat, and he managed to carry openness and honesty with boyish spontaneity throughout his life, retaining some youthful prejudices until the end of his life, which did not prevent him from rising to the rank of rank of Colonel General of Aviation. The famous pilot died on September 27, 1985 in Moscow.
Kirill Alekseevich Evstigneev
Kirill Alekseevich Evstigneev twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Like Kozhedub, he began his military career relatively late, only in 1943. During the war years, he made 296 sorties, conducted 120 air battles, personally shooting down 53 enemy aircraft and 3 in a group. He flew La-5 and La-5FN fighters.
The almost two-year "delay" with the appearance at the front was due to the fact that the fighter pilot suffered peptic ulcer stomach, and with this disease they were not allowed to the front. From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he worked as an instructor at a flight school, and after that he overtook Lend-Lease Aerocobras. Work as an instructor gave him a lot, like another Soviet ace Kozhedub. At the same time, Evstigneev did not stop writing reports to the command with a request to send him to the front, as a result, they were nevertheless satisfied. Kirill Evstigneev received his baptism of fire in March 1943. Like Kozhedub, he fought as part of the 240th Fighter Aviation Regiment, flew a La-5 fighter. On his first sortie on March 28, 1943, he scored two victories.
For the entire duration of the war, the enemy never managed to bring down Kirill Evstigneev. But from his own he got twice. For the first time, the Yak-1 pilot, who was carried away by air combat, crashed into his plane from above. The Yak-1 pilot immediately jumped out of the plane, which lost one wing, with a parachute. But Evstigneev's La-5 suffered less, and he managed to reach the positions of his troops by landing the fighter next to the trenches. The second case, more mysterious and dramatic, occurred over its territory in the absence of enemy aircraft in the air. The fuselage of his plane was burst through, damaging Yevstigneev's legs, the car caught fire and went into a dive, and the pilot had to jump out of the plane with a parachute. At the hospital, doctors were inclined to amputate the pilot's foot, but he overtook them with such fear that they abandoned their idea. And after 9 days, the pilot escaped from the hospital and with crutches got to the location of his native part of 35 kilometers.
Kirill Evstigneev constantly increased the number of his air victories. Until 1945, the pilot was ahead of Kozhedub. At the same time, the doctor of the unit periodically sent him to the hospital to treat an ulcer and a wounded leg, which the ace pilot terribly opposed. Kirill Alekseevich was seriously ill from the pre-war times, in his life he underwent 13 surgical operations. Very often, the famous Soviet pilot flew, overcoming physical pain. Evstigneev, as they say, was obsessed with flying. AT free time he tried to train young fighter pilots. He was the initiator of training air battles. For the most part, Kozhedub turned out to be his opponent in them. At the same time, Evstigneev was completely devoid of a sense of fear, even at the very end of the war he calmly went into a frontal attack on the six-gun Fokkers, winning victories over them. Kozhedub spoke of his comrade-in-arms like this: "Flint pilot."
Captain Kirill Evstigneev finished the war of the Guards as a navigator of the 178th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. The pilot spent his last battle in the sky of Hungary on March 26, 1945, on his fifth La-5 fighter during the war. After the war, he continued to serve in the USSR Air Force, in 1972 he retired with the rank of Major General, and lived in Moscow. He died on August 29, 1996 at the age of 79, was buried at the Kuntsevsky cemetery of the capital.
Sources of information:
http://svpressa.ru
http://airaces.narod.ru
http://www.warheroes.ru
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Although in itself a rough count of the number of downed enemy aircraft cannot serve as a measure of the pilot's skill. Without questioning the number of downed aircraft, in this article we are talking specifically about the best aces of the Luftwaffe of Germany.
Of course, there will be articles about our Russian pilots, who, without such impressive scores, were undoubtedly the best aces of the Second World War.
The contribution of our grandfathers to the victory is much more significant than the Western allies.
45 0000
Enemy AIRCRAFT WERE DESTROYED EXACTLY BY OUR PILOT, against 25 000
shot down by our Western allies. And so that these numbers are not just numbers, a small digression.
The most effective fought on the eastern front, equipped the best aces of the German Luftwaffe was the air group JG54.
At the beginning of the war on June 22, 1941, this elite unit "Green Heart" had 112 pilots of the highest flight qualification. By the end of the war, of these aces pilots, only four remained alive.
For reference, the table of victories and losses of the Luftwaffe.
| The best German aces | Number of aircraft shot down | Comments | Awards | Air connection name | East | West | Pilot's plane |
| Erich Hartmann | 352 | First shot down November 1942, was shot down on the third sortie, 11 shot down in one day | KCOSD | JG 52 | 352 | - | Bf 109 |
| Gerhard Barkhorn | 301 | KCOs | JG 52, 6, SP 44 | 301 | - | Bf 109 | |
| Gunther Rall | 275 | two wounds | KCOs | JG 52, 11, 300 | 272 | 3 | Bf 109 |
| Otto Kittel | 267 | 583 sorties, shot down and killed February 45 by our fighter | KCOs | JG 54 | 267 | - | Fw 190 |
| Walter Novotny | 258 | died november 44 | KCOSD | JG 54, Kdo.November | 255 | 3 | Fw 190 |
| Wilhelm Batz | 237 | - | KCOs | JG 52 | 232 | 5 | Bf 109 |
| Erich Rudorffer | 222 | 1000+ sorties, shot down 16 times | KCOs | JG 2, 54, 7 | 136 | 86 | Fw 190 |
| Heinz Baer | 220 | knocked down 18 times | KCOs | various | 96 | 124 | different |
| Herman Graf | 211 | 830+ sorties | KCOSD | various | 201 | 10 | Fw 190 |
| Heinrich Ehler | 209 | - | KCO | JG, 5, 7 | 209 | - | Bf 109 |
| Theodor Weissenburger | 208 | 500+ departures | KCO | JG 77, 5, 7 | 175 | 33 | Bf 109 |
| Hans Philipp | 206 | October 43rd, shot down by Robert S. Johnson | KCOs | JG 76, 54, 1 | 177 | 29 | Fw 190 |
| Walter Shuk | 206 | - | KCO | JG 5, 7 | 198 | 8 | Bf 109 |
| Anton Hafner | 204 | -795 sorties, died October 44th | KCO | JG 51 | 184 | 20 | - |
| Helmut Lipfert | 203 | - | KCO | JG 52, 53 | 199 | 4 | Bf 109 |
| Walter Krupinksi | 197 | - | KCO | JG 52 | 177 | 20 | Bf 109 |
| Anton Hackl | 192 | - | KCOs | JG 77 | 130 | 62 | Bf 109 |
| Joachim Brendel | 189 | - | KCO | JG 51 | 189 | - | Fw 190 |
| Max Stotz | 189 | -August 43 shot down near Vitebsk | KCO | JG 54 | 173 | 16 | Fw 190 |
| Joachim Kirchner | 188 | - | KCO | JG 3 | 167 | 21 | Bf 109 |
| Kurt Br? ndle | 180 | - | KCO | JG 53, 3 | 160 | 20 | Bf 109 |
| Günther Josten | 178 | - | KCO | JG 51 | 178 | - | - |
| Johannes "Maki" Steinhoff | 176 | - | KCOs | JG 52 | 148 | 28 | Bf 109 |
| Günter Shack | 174 | - | KCO | JG 51 | 174 | - | - |
| Heinz Schmidt | 173 | - | KCO | JG 52 | 173 | - | Bf 109 |
| Emil "Bully" Lang | 173 | 18 in one day | KCO | JG 54 | 148 | 25 | Fw 190 |
| Hans-Joachim Marcel | 158 | 388 sorties - killed in September 1942 | KCOSD | JG 27 | - | 158 | Bf 109 |
| Adolf Galland | 104 | - | KCOSD | JG.26, JG.27, JV.44 | - | 104 | Bf 109, Me 262 |
| Knight's Cross (KS) with oak leaves (O), swords (S), and diamonds (D). | |||||||
There were about 2,500 aces - pilots who shot down five or more enemy aircraft. And the most successful Allied pilot, Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub, shot down 62 German aircraft, while the personal account of eight German pilots exceeded 100 aircraft. This partly explains the fact that the Luftwaffe pilots fought continuously for years, unlike opponents, who, as usual, were shot down after 30-40 sorties.
Walter Novotny, 1920-1944, Günther Rall, Heinrich zu Sein-Wittgenstein
Walter Nowotny became the first fighter pilot to score 250 downed aircraft in 442 sorties. In February 1944, he was transferred from the Eastern Front to lead a flight school. He was then given command of the world's first jet aircraft unit. On November 8, 1944, he flew out on his Me-262 against a group of bombers. The jet plane was shot down in battle, Novotny's parachute did not fully open.
Erich - "Bubi" Hartman,
1922-1993 on the left, and commander Gerhard Barkhorn
The best ace of the Luftwaffe
, the most successful fighter pilot in history, scored 352 victories in 1,425 sorties. Notably, he won most of his victories in the last two years of the war.
His plane was hit 16 times, he was parachuted twice, but he was never wounded himself.
After receiving ten years of strict regime, after his release, he returns to the Air Force and becomes the commander of the first wing of jet aircraft in Germany.
Hans Schnaufer, 1922-1950 With 126 victories, Schnaufer became the highest scoring night fighter ace in the world. Known as the "Night Ghost", he flew the Me-110, and his squadron shot down about 700 Allied bombers. His fighter with victory marks was put on display in Hyde Park after the war.
Schnaufer died in a car accident near Biaritz.
Joachim Marseille, 1920-1942
The most talented ace, seven of his 158 victories were in North Africa. He was awarded with diamonds to the Knight's Cross after the destruction of 17 (!) British aircraft in one day. On September 30, 1942, the engine of his Bf-109G-2 caught fire. Marseille directed the plane away from its territory. Then he left the car. Having hit the tail of the plane, in an unconscious state, he never opened his parachute.
Adolf Galland, 1911-1994
Galland honed his skills in Spain, flying 280 missions with the Condor Legion. He switched from attack aircraft to fighter and became an ace in the Battle of Britain, achieving 57 victories. he had 96 victories and continued to personally fly on fighter operations against orders.He was known for his penchant for fine brandy, expensive cigars, and women who were attracted to his fame.After dismissed by Hitler as a "scapegoat" for German air defense failures , he commanded a squadron of jet fighters. Their belated success proved that Galland was right in defending their production in his time.
Werner Mölders, 1913-1941
Upon entering, Mölders became an ace with 14 victories in the Condor Legion. He is also the first fighter pilot to achieve 100 victories during World War II. An outstanding leader and super pilot, Mölders created a new fighter combat tactic that Luftwaffe a clear advantage over the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain In 1941 he became the first person to be awarded the Knight's Cross Diamond and oak leaves and Swords. Appointed fighter aviation inspector in 1941, died in a plane crash on his way to the funeral of General Ernst Udet.
