Probably a better pilot and marksman than Hartmann, but less lucky, was Hans-Joachim Marseille.
From April of 1941 to September of 1942 “The Star Of Afrika” shot down 151 British and Commonwealth aircraft, in addition to seven kills during the Blitz.
He was killed bailing out when the cockpit of his fighter filled with smoke due to a malfunction (not combat with an enemy) and he struck the tailplane.
Many of the surviving Luftwaffe aces named Marseille as the best. It doesn't matter in the end though, does it. You have to rack up the kills and Hartmann did that.
A comparable case in WWI was Werner Voss. Voss shot down 48 Allied planes in less than a year, on track to beat Von Richtofen.
His pride got the best of him when he tangled alone with a flight of between 5 and 8 British aces and refused to take advantage repeated opportunities to break contact after out flying the Brits for ten minutes.
I am amazed by fighter pilots, no matter their nationality or their record.
Michael Frazier
Voss was a member of the same Jasta as Von Richtofen, which had been started early in the war by the leading German "ace" of that time Oswald Boelke, who had been killed in action. Interestingly enough, I went to the movie link to see which *historical* German pilots of that famous group were going to be portrayed, and Voss was there, although I didn't see either Boelke, or Goering, although they should have an appearance in the film...
the infowarrior
I’d agree Marseille was the best ever. Hartmann was on the Eastern Front.
German Jagdeschwaders that had fought on both the Eastern and Western fronts considered the Eastern front a “vacation.”
One of the best, despite less than one hundred kills was Werner Molders, first General of Fighters. Like Boelcke, Molders invented fighter tactics. The finger four formation he developed in Spain is still in use today - by everybody. For great pilots with high numbers, you have Nowotny and Gunther Rall. Some of the night fighters were no sluches, either.