Richard "Dick" Ira Bong was for sure a outstanding pilot. But - his 45 kills aren't that impressive to Europeans where we had pilots that shot down 300 and more enemy planes. I am aware that the American pilots did not had the chance to reach such omnipotent numbers due to the fact that they usually just had short times in combat compared to their German opponents. Their de facto performance was usually very good.
Anyway he didn't leave the world such great books about like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry did. You should read them before you start to stammer about "some french author". Great stuff!
ROTFLMAO! I had to copy your text here to send to some people who I think would enjoy that comment from a German!
Ah...if only that BS History COULD be rewritten...:)
Makes me wonder what WOULD be impressive to "Europeans"?
Americans were only in WW2 for about 3.5 years. The Germans had 6 years of WW2, plus all of the fighting from the Spanish Civil War to WW2 to build up kills. Plus the Germans fought outdated planes with the world's best fighters in those early war years, while the U.S. started the war with obsolete fighters going against the best planes & pilots. And finally, American pilots had more stringent requirements to meet before being credited with a kill than the Germans.
All of that being said, the Germans had some of the greatest fighter pilots in history. I've read a few of their autobiographies [such as Erich Hartmann].
Of curiosity, were these lifetime totals, or by conflict? IIRC, several German pilots began their careers in the Spanish Civil war, so aprox. 9 years of combat?