[Joe 6-pack]

"With the amount of time the R.A.F. was involved in WWII, they seem to have relatively few really high-scoring aces (20+ victories, let's say) as compared to Germany. I know the Germans flew their pilots until they dropped; did the R.A.F. rotate their pilots out of service after a certain number of missions?"

I think the numbers are skewed primarily because a lot of German aces made their bones early in the war against the air forces of nations flying obsolete aircraft with marginally trained pilots (i.e. France, USSR, Poland, etc.) For example the German "Ace of Aces", Erich Hartmann is recorded as having 352 aerial victories. 345 of these were against the Soviets.

[Flag_This]

"For example the German "Ace of Aces", Erich Hartmann is recorded as having 352 aerial victories. 345 of these were against the Soviets."

Thank you for the info. I knew Hartmann fought on both fronts, but I didn't realize the balance was that skewed.

[QualityMan]

Correct you are. Still, there were a fair amount of German aces that racked up some serious kill totals against the western allies.

Marseille got most of his kills in North Africa, against US and Brit fighters..he died there, too....I think he holds the record for most kills in a day, over 5 separate sorties, if my memory serves.

I think Gunther Rall, who had 302 killes (I think) got most of them against the West...(should go back and check my memory... :))

Walther Novotny was another who had alot of kills against US and British targets....he died in air combat flying the ME-262 in early 1945

[Castlebar]

Hartmann did not start flying combat until 1943.