The best pilots of World War 2. Aces of the Luftwaffe: the phenomenon of too large bills

Our aces pilots during the Great Patriotic War terrified the Germans. The exclamation "Akhtung! Akhtung! Pokryshkin is in the sky!" Became widely known. But Alexander Pokryshkin was not the only Soviet ace. We remembered the most productive.

Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub

Ivan Kozhedub was born in 1920 in the Chernigov province. He is considered the most effective Russian fighter pilot in personal combat, having shot down 64 aircraft on his account. The beginning of the career of the renowned pilot was unsuccessful, in the first battle his plane was seriously damaged by the enemy Messerschmitt, and upon returning to the base he was still fired upon by Russian anti-aircraft gunners by mistake, and only by a miracle he managed to land. The plane could not be restored, and they even wanted to re-profile the hapless newcomer, but the regiment commander stood up for him. It was only during his 40th sortie at the Kursk Bulge that Kozhedub, having already become a "baty" - deputy squadron commander, shot down his first "laptese", as ours called the German "Junkers". After that, the score went to tens.

The last battle in the Great Patriotic War, in which he shot down 2 FW-190s, Kozhedub spent in the skies over Berlin. In addition, Kozhedub also credited two American Mustang aircraft shot down in 1945, which attacked him, mistaking his fighter for a German aircraft. The Soviet ace acted according to the principle that he professed even when working with cadets - "any unknown aircraft is an enemy." Throughout the war, Kozhedub was never shot down, although his plane often received very serious damage.

Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin

Pokryshkin is one of the most famous aces of Russian aviation. Was born in 1913 in Novosibirsk. He won his first victory on the second day of the war, shooting down the German Messerschmitt. In total, he has 59 personally shot down planes and 6 in the group. However, this is only official statistics, since, being the commander of an air regiment, and then an air division, Pokryshkin sometimes gave down planes to young pilots in order to encourage them in this way.

His notebook, entitled "Fighter Tactics in Combat", became a real manual for air warfare. They say that the Germans warned about the appearance of a Russian ace with the phrase: “Akhtung! Ahtung! Pokryshkin is in the air. " The one who knocked down Pokryshkin was promised a big reward, but the Russian pilot was too tough for the Germans. Pokryshkin is considered to be the inventor of the "Kuban whatnot" - a tactical technique of air combat, the Germans nicknamed him "the Kuban escalator", since the planes located in pairs resembled a giant staircase. In battle, German aircraft leaving the first stage fell under the blow of the second, and then the third stage. Other of his favorite techniques were "falconry" and "speed swing". It is worth noting that Pokryshkin won most of his victories in the early years of the war, when the Germans had a significant advantage in the air.

Nikolay Dmitrievich Gulaev

Born in 1918 in the village of Aksayskaya not far from Rostov. His first fight is reminiscent of the feat of Grasshopper from the movie "Only Old Men Go to Battle": without an order, for the first time in his life, taking off at night under the howl of an air raid on his Yak, he managed to shoot down the German Heinkel night fighter. For such self-righteousness, they announced a penalty to him, while presenting him for a reward.

In the future, Gulaev usually did not limit himself to one downed plane during the flight, he won four victories three times a day, twice destroyed three planes, and made a double in seven battles. In total, he shot down 57 planes personally and 3 in the group. One enemy plane Gulaev, when he ran out of ammunition, took to the ram, after which he himself got into a tailspin and barely had time to eject. His risky fighting style has become a symbol of the romantic direction in the art of aerial combat.

Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov

Was born in 1920 in the Perm province. On the eve of the war, a mild degree of color blindness was found on the medical-flight commission, but the regiment commander did not even look at the medical report - the pilots were very much needed. He won his first victory on an outdated I-153 biplane at number 13, which was unhappy for the Germans, as he joked. Then he got into Pokryshkin's group and underwent training on the "Airacobra" - an American fighter that became famous for its cool temper - it very easily went into a tailspin at the slightest pilot error, the Americans themselves were reluctant to fly on such. In total, he shot down 56 planes personally and 6 in the group. Perhaps none of our other ace on a personal account has such a variety of types of downed aircraft as Rechkalov, these are bombers, and ground attack aircraft, and reconnaissance aircraft, and fighters, and transport aircraft, and relatively rare trophies - "Savoy" and PZL -24.

Georgy Dmitrievich Kostylev

Born in Oranienbaum, now Lomonosov, in 1914. He began his flight practice in Moscow at the legendary Tushino airfield, where the Spartak stadium is now being built. The legendary Baltic ace, who covered the skies over Leningrad, who won the largest number of victories in naval aviation, personally shot down at least 20 enemy aircraft and 34 in a group.

He shot down his first Messerschmitt on July 15, 1941. He fought on the British "Hurricane" received under the lend-lease, on the left side of which there was a large inscription "For Russia!" In February 1943, he ended up in a penal battalion for having organized a rout in the house of a major of the quartermaster service. Kostylev was amazed at the abundance of food with which he treated his guests, and could not restrain himself, because he knew firsthand what was happening in the besieged city. He was stripped of his awards, demoted to the Red Army and sent to the Oranienbaum bridgehead, to the places where he spent his childhood. The penalties saved the hero, and in April he again raises his fighter into the air and defeats the enemy. Later he was reinstated in rank, the awards were returned, but he never received the second Star of the Hero.

Maresyev Alexey Petrovich

A man-legend, who became the prototype of the hero of Boris Polevoy's story "The Story of a Real Man", a symbol of the courage and resilience of the Russian warrior. Born in 1916 in the city of Kamyshin, Saratov province. In a battle with the Germans, his plane was shot down, the pilot wounded in the legs managed to land on the territory occupied by the Germans. After that, for 18 days he crawled out to his own, in the hospital both legs were amputated. But Maresyev managed to return to duty, he learned to walk on prostheses and again ascended into the sky. At first, they did not trust him, anything can happen in battle, but Maresyev proved that he can fight no worse than others. As a result, 7 more German planes were added to the 4 German planes shot down before being wounded. Polevoy's story about Maresyev was allowed to be published only after the war, so that the Germans, God forbid, would not think that there was no one to fight in the Soviet army, they had to send disabled people.

Popkov Vitaly Ivanovich

This pilot should also be mentioned, because it was he who became one of the most famous incarnations of the ace pilot in cinema - the prototype of the famous Maestro from the film "Only Old Men Go to Battle". The "Singing Squadron" really existed in the 5th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, where Popkov served, it had its own choir, and two planes were presented to it by Leonid Utesov himself.

Popkov was born in Moscow in 1922. He won his first victory in June 1942 over the town of Holm. He took part in battles on the Kalinin Front, on the Don and the Kursk Bulge. In total, he flew 475 sorties, conducted 117 air battles, personally shot down 41 enemy aircraft plus 1 in the group. On the last day of the war, Popkov shot down the legendary German Hartman, the most productive ace of World War II, in the skies over Brno, but he managed to land and stay alive, although this still did not save him from captivity. Popkov's popularity was so great that a monument was erected to him during his lifetime in Moscow.

Actually, the problem is this: 104 German pilots have shot down 100 or more aircraft. Among them are Erich Hartmann (352 wins) and Gerhard Barkhorn (301), who showed absolutely phenomenal results. Moreover, Harmann and Barkhorn won all of 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, 7 of the best Soviet aces: Kozhedub, Pokryshkin, Gulaev, Rechkalov, Evstigneev, Vorozheikin, Glinka were able to overcome the bar of 50 downed enemy aircraft. For example, Ivan Kozhedub, three times Hero of the Soviet Union, 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: "Akhtung! Pokryshkin in der lyuft!", Chalked up "only" 59 air victories. The little-known Romanian ace Konstantin Kontakuzino 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 (8 more victories remained "unconfirmed").

The situation with the Anglo-Saxons is much worse. The best aces were Marmaduke Pettle (about 50 wins, South Africa) and Richard Bong (40 wins, USA). Only 19 British and American pilots managed to shoot down more than 30 enemy aircraft, while the British and Americans fought in the world's best fighters: 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 Utilainen shot down 94 aircraft, and Hans Wind - 75.

What conclusion can be drawn from all these figures? What is the secret to the incredible performance of the Luftwaffe fighters? Maybe the Germans simply did not know how to count?
The only thing that can be said with a high degree of certainty is that the accounts of all aces, without exception, are overestimated. Praising the successes of the best fighters is a standard state propaganda practice that, by definition, cannot be honest.

German Meresiev and his "Stuck"

As an interesting example, I propose to consider the incredible story of 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 flown 2,530 sorties. He was piloted by the Junkers-87 dive bomber, at the end of the war he moved to the controls of the Focke-Wolf 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. He shot down two Il-2 attack aircraft and seven fighters in the air. He landed six times in enemy territory to rescue the crews of the downed Junkers. The Soviet Union has appointed a reward of 100,000 rubles for the head of Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Just the standard of a fascist

He was shot down 32 times by return fire from the ground. In the end, Rudel's leg was blown 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. Climbed the highest peak of the Andes - 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 extraordinary and controversial pilot was a tough ace. But any person accustomed to thoughtfully analyzing events should have one important question: how was it established that Rudel destroyed exactly 519 tanks?

Of course, there were no photo-machine guns or cameras on Junkers. The maximum that Rudel or his gunner-radio operator could notice: covering the column of armored vehicles, i.e. possible damage to tanks. The speed of exit from the dive of the Ju-87 is more than 600 km / h, while the overloads can reach 5g, in such conditions it is unrealistic to see anything accurately on the ground.
Since 1943, Rudel switched to the Ju-87G anti-tank attack aircraft. The characteristics of this "bastard" are simply disgusting: max. speed in level flight - 370 km / h, rate of climb - about 4 m / s. The main weapon of the aircraft was two VK37 cannons (caliber 37 mm, rate of fire 160 rds / min), with only 12 (!) Shells per barrel. Powerful guns installed in the wings created a large turning moment when firing and rocked the light aircraft so that firing in bursts was meaningless - 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 to 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. How can there be a 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 a VK37 cannon penetrated 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, the armor penetration in reality was more by about 5 mm. On the other hand, the thickness of the armored hull of Soviet tanks only in some projections was less than 30-40 mm, and there was nothing to dream of about hitting a KV, IS or a heavy self-propelled gun head-on or side.
In addition, breaking through 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 German bomber squadrons, it was accepted as an incentive to count a difficult sortie for several sorties. For example, the captured Captain Helmut Putz, the commander of the 4th detachment of the 2nd group of the 27th bomber squadron, explained the following during interrogation: was credited to me, as well as to others, for 2-3 departures. " (interrogation protocol of 06/17/1943). Although it is possible Helmut Putz, being captured, lied, trying to reduce his contribution to the attacks on Soviet cities.

Hartmann against all

There is an opinion that the aces pilots filled their accounts and fought "on their own", being an exception to the rule. And the main work at the front was carried out by intermediate-skilled pilots. This is a deep misconception: in a general sense, there are no "average" pilots. There are either Aesir or their prey.
For example, let's take the legendary Normandie-Niemen air regiment, which fought on Yak-3 fighters. Of the 98 French pilots, 60 did not win a single victory, but the "chosen" 17 pilots shot down 200 German aircraft in air battles (the French regiment drove 273 aircraft with a swastika into the ground).
A similar picture 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.
American historian Mike Spike describes the same episode associated with the actions of the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front: "... the squadron lost 80 pilots in a fairly short period of time, of which 60 never shot down a single Russian plane."
So, we found out that the aces pilots are the main force of the Air Force. But the question remains: what is the reason for the huge gap between the performance of the Luftwaffe aces and the pilots of the Anti-Hitler coalition? Even if you split the incredible bills of the Germans in half?

One of the legends about the insolvency of the large accounts of the German aces is associated with an unusual system of counting downed aircraft: by the number of engines. Single-engine fighter - one aircraft shot down. Four-engined bomber - four shot down planes. Indeed, for 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 scored 3 points. He did the bulk 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 prize points? Probably, they were somehow converted into Reichsmarks. But all this had nothing to do with the list of downed planes.

The most prosaic explanation for the Luftwaffe phenomenon: the Germans had no shortage of goals. 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-Wolfe 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 Yakov, Lavochkin, I-16 and MiG-3 passed through the composition of 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 machines were in the Royal Air Force from 1939 to 1945). How many more fighters did Britain receive under the 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 on raids. In 1944, during the Normandy landings, the Allied aircraft had a sixfold numerical superiority. "If there are camouflage planes in the sky, this is the Royal Air Force, if the silver ones are the US Air Force. If there are no planes in the sky, this is the Luftwaffe," the German soldiers joked sadly. Where could the large accounts of British and American pilots come from 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, 36,154 attack aircraft were fired, of which 33,920 Ilov entered the army. By May 1945, 3585 Il-2 and Il-10 were registered in the Air Force of the Red Army, another 200 Il-2 were in the naval aviation.

In short, 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 aces fighters, on the contrary, took time to detect the enemy - according to statistics, even the best Soviet pilots had on average 1 air battle in 8 combat missions: 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 airplanes, air combat was more an unexpected coincidence than a regular event.
It is more objective to calculate the number of downed aircraft, taking into account the number of combat sorties of the pilots. Viewed from this angle, Erich Hartmann's achievement dims: 1,400 sorties, 825 air battles and "only" 352 aircraft shot down. This indicator 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 the aces pilots started their careers. The legendary Pokryshkin demonstrated his aerobatic skills, audacity, flying intuition and sniper shooting in the very first combat missions. 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 not everything went smoothly for Pokryshkin either: his first downed plane was the Soviet Su-2.
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 you should not be so afraid of the high scores of the Luftwaffe pilots. On the contrary, it shows what a formidable enemy the Soviet Union defeated, and why Victory is of such a high value.

The name ace in relation to military pilots first appeared in French newspapers during the First World War. In 1915. journalists nicknamed "aces", and in translation from French the word "as" means "ace", pilots who shot down three or more enemy planes. The first to be called the ace of the legendary French pilot Roland Garros
The most experienced and successful pilots in the Luftwaffe were called experts - "Experte"

Luftwaffe

eric alfred hartman (booby)

Erich Hartmann (German Erich Hartmann; April 19, 1922 - September 20, 1993) - German ace pilot, considered the most successful fighter pilot in the history of aviation. According to German data, during World War II, he shot down "352" enemy aircraft (of which 345 were Soviet) in 825 air battles.

Hartmann graduated from flying school in 1941 and in October 1942 was assigned to the 52nd Fighter Squadron on the Eastern Front. Famous Luftwaffe expert Walter Krupinsky became its first commander and mentor.

Hartmann shot down his first plane on November 5, 1942 (Il-2 from the 7th GShAP), but in the next three months he managed to shoot down only one plane. Hartmann gradually improved his flying skills, focusing on the effectiveness of the first attack.

Oberleutenant Erich Hartman is in the cockpit of his fighter, the famous emblem of the 9th Staffel of the 52nd Squadron is clearly visible - an arrow-pierced heart with the inscription "Karaya", the name of Hartman's bride "Ursel" is written in the upper left segment of the heart (in the picture, the inscription is almost invisible) ...

German ace Hauptmann Erich Hartmann (left) and Hungarian pilot Laszlo Pottiondi. German fighter pilot Erich Hartmann - World War II most prolific ace

Krupinski Walter is Erich Hartmann's first commander and mentor !!

Hauptmann Walter Krupinski commanded the 7th Staffel of the 52nd Squadron from March 1943 to March 1944. The picture shows Krupinski wearing the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, the leaves he received on March 2, 1944 for 177 victories in aerial battles. Shortly after this photo was taken, Krupinski was transferred to the West, where he served in 7 (7-5, JG-11 and JG-26, the ace ended the war on a Me-262 with J V-44.

In the March 1944 photo, from left to right: Commander 8./JG-52 Lieutenant Friedrich Obleser, Commander 9./JG-52 Lieutenant Erich Hartmann. Lieutenant Karl Gritz.

The wedding of Luftwaffe ace Erich Hartmann (1922 - 1993) and Ursula Paetsch. To the left of the couple is Hartman's commander, Gerhard Barkhorn (1919 - 1983). Right - Hauptmann Wilhelm Batz (Wilhelm Batz, 1916 - 1988).

Bf. 109G-6 Hauptmann Erich Hartmann, Buders, Hungary, November 1944

Barkhorn Gerhard "Gerd"

Major / Major Barkhorn Gerhard

Started flying with JG2, transferred to JG52 in the fall of 1940. From 16.01.1945 to 1.04.45 he commanded JG6. He ended the war in the "aces squadron" JV 44, when on 04/21/1945 his Me 262 was shot while landing by American fighters. He was seriously wounded, and was held captive by the allies for four months.

The number of victories - 301. All victories on the Eastern Front.

Hauptmann Erich Hartmann (04/19/1922 - 09/20/1993) with his commander, Major Gerhard Barkhorn (05/20/1919 - 01/08/1983) studying the map. II./JG52 (2nd group of the 52nd fighter squadron). E. Hartmann and G. Barkhorn are the most effective pilots of the Second World War, who had 352 and 301 air victories, respectively. In the lower left corner of the photo - E. Hartmann's autograph.

The Soviet fighter LaGG-3 destroyed by German aviation while still on the railway platform.

The snow melted faster than washed off the white winter color from the Bf 109. The fighter takes off straight through the spring puddle.) !.

Captured Soviet airfield: I-16 stands next to Bf109F from II./JG-54.

The Ju-87D bomber from the StG-2 Immelman and the Friedrich from I./JG-51 are in close formation or the execution of a combat mission. At the end of the summer of 1942, I./JG-51 pilots will transfer to FW-190 fighters.

Commander of the 52nd Fighter Squadron (Jagdgeschwader 52) Lieutenant Colonel Dietrich Hrabak, Commander of the 2nd Group of the 52nd Fighter Squadron (II.Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 52) Hauptman Gerhard Barkhorn and an unknown Luftwaffe fighter officer Bf 109G-6 at Bagerovo airfield.

Walter Krupinski, Gerhard Barkhorn, Johannes Wiese and Erich Hartmann

The commander of the 6th Fighter Squadron (JG6) of the Luftwaffe, Major Gerhard Barkhorn in the cockpit of his Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9 fighter.

Bf 109G-6 "double black chevron" commander I./JG-52 Hauptmann Gerhard Barkhorn, Kharkov-South, August 1943

Pay attention to the aircraft's own name; Christi is the name of the wife of Barkhorn, the second most prolific fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe. The picture shows the plane on which Barkhorn flew when he was the commander of I./JG-52, then he had not yet crossed the milestone of 200 victories. Barkhorn survived, in total he shot down 301 aircraft, all on the eastern front.

Gunther Rall

German ace fighter pilot Major Günther Rall (03/10/1918 - 10/04/2009). Gunther Rall is the third most productive German ace of the Second World War. On account of his 275 air victories (272 on the Eastern Front), scored in 621 sorties. Rall himself was shot down 8 times. On the pilot's neck can be seen the Knight's Cross with oak leaves and swords, which he was awarded on September 12, 1943 for 200 aerial victories won.

"Frederick" of III./JG-52, this group, in the initial phase of Operation Barbarossa, covered the forces of the Si countries operating in the coastal zone of the Black Sea. Pay attention to the unusual angular side number "6" and "sinusoid". Apparently, this aircraft belonged to the 8th staffel.

Spring 1943, Rall looks approvingly as Lieutenant Josef Zwernemann drinks wine from a bottle

Gunther Rall (second from left) after his 200th aerial victory. Second from right - Walter Krupinski

Downed Bf 109 by Gunther Rall

Rall in his Gustav 4th

After severe injuries and partial paralysis, Oberleutenant Gunther Rall returned to 8./JG-52 on 28 August 1942, and two months later he became a Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves. Rall ended the war with an honorable third place among Luftwaffe fighter pilots in terms of performance.
won 275 victories (272 - on the Eastern Front); shot down 241 Soviet fighters. He flew 621 sorties, was shot down 8 times and wounded 3 times. His "Messerschmitt" had a personal number "Devil's Dozen"

The commander of the 8th squadron of the 52nd fighter squadron (Staffelkapitän 8.Staffel / Jagdgeschwader 52) Oberleutenant Günther Rall (1918-2009) with the pilots of his squadron in the break between sorties "plays with the mascot of the squadron dog" ...

Photo in the foreground from left to right: Non-commissioned officer Manfred Lotzmann, Non-commissioned officer Werner Höhenberg, and Lieutenant Hans Funcke.

In the background from left to right: Chief Lieutenant Günther Rall, Lieutenant Hans Martin Markoff, Sergeant Major Karl-Friedrich Schumacher and Chief Lieutenant Gerhard Luety.

The picture was taken by front-line correspondent Reissmüller on March 6, 1943, off the Kerch Strait.

photo of Rall and his wife Gertha, originally from Austria

The third in the triumvirate of the best experts of the 52nd Squadron was Gunther Rall. Rall flew a black fighter with tail number "13" after his return to service on August 28, 1942 after being seriously wounded in November 1941. By this time, Rall had 36 wins. Before being transferred to the West in the spring of 1944, he shot down another 235 Soviet aircraft. Pay attention to the symbolism III./JG-52 - the emblem at the front of the fuselage and the "sinusoid" drawn closer to the tail.

Kittel Otto (Bruno)

Otto Kittel (Otto "Bruno" Kittel; February 21, 1917 - February 14, 1945) - German ace pilot, fighter, participant in World War II. He flew 583 sorties, scored 267 victories, which is the fourth result in history. The Luftwaffe record holder for the number of downed Il-2 attack aircraft - 94. He was awarded the Knight's Cross with oak leaves and swords.

in 1943, luck turned to face him. On January 24, he shot down the 30th plane, and on March 15 - the 47th. On the same day, his plane was seriously damaged and fell 60 km behind the front line. In a thirty-degree frost on the ice of Lake Ilmen, Kittel went out to his own.
So Kittel Otto is back from a four day march !! His plane was shot down behind the front line, at a distance of 60 km !!

Otto Kittel on vacation, summer 1941. Then Kittel was the most common pilot in the Luftwaffe with the rank of non-commissioned officer.

Otto Kittel among his comrades in arms! (marked with a cross)

At the head of the table "Bruno"

Otto Kittel with his wife!

Killed on February 14, 1945 during the attack of the Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft. Shot down by return fire from the shooter, Kittel's Fw 190A-8 (serial number 690 282) fell in a swampy area in the location of the Soviet troops and exploded. The pilot did not use the parachute, as he died in the air.

Two Luftwaffe officers bandaging the hand of a wounded Red Army prisoner at the tent

Airplane "Bruno"

Novotny Walter (Novi)

German ace pilot of World War II, during which he flew 442 sorties, scoring 258 victories in the air, 255 of them on the Eastern Front and 2 over 4-engine bombers. He won the last 3 victories flying the Me.262 jet fighter. He won most of his victories flying the FW 190, and about 50 victories in the Messerschmitt Bf 109. He was the first pilot in the world to win 250 victories. Awarded with the Knight's Cross with oak leaves, swords and diamonds

The huge flow of information that has literally befallen all of us lately, sometimes plays an extremely negative role in the development of the thinking of the guys who are going to replace us. And it cannot be said that this information is deliberately false. But in its "naked" form, without a reasonable explanation, it sometimes carries a monstrous and inherently simply destructive character.

How can this be?

Let me give you one example. More than one generation of boys in our country has grown up with the firm conviction that our famous pilots Ivan Kozhedub and Alexander Pokryshkin are the best aces of the past war. And no one has ever argued with this. Neither here nor abroad.

But one day I bought a children's book "Aviation and Aeronautics" from the encyclopedic series "I Know the World" by a very famous publishing house in a store. The book, published with a circulation of thirty thousand copies, turned out to be really very "informative" ...

Here, for example, in the section "Gloomy arithmetic" there are quite eloquent figures concerning air battles during the Great Patriotic War. I quote literally: “Three times Heroes of the Soviet Union, fighter pilots A.I. Pokryshkin and I.N. Kozhedub shot down 59 and 62 enemy aircraft, respectively. But the German ace E. Hartman shot down 352 aircraft during the war years! And he was not alone. In addition to him, the Luftwaffe included such masters of aerial combat as G. Barkhorn (301 shot down aircraft), G. Rall (275), O. Kittel (267) ... Only 104 pilots of the German Air Force had more than a hundred downed aircraft each, and the top ten have destroyed a total of 2,588 enemy aircraft! "

Soviet ace, fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Baranov. Stalingrad, 1942 Mikhail Baranov - one of the best fighter pilots of the Second World War, the most productive Soviet ace, fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Baranov. Stalingrad, 1942 Mikhail Baranov - one of the best fighter pilots of the Second World War, the most productive at the time of his death, and many of his victories were won in the initial, most difficult period of the war. If not for his accidental death, he would have been the same glorified pilot as Pokryshkin or Kozhedub - aces of the Second World War.

It is clear that any child who sees such numbers of aerial victories will immediately come to the idea that not ours, but German pilots were the best aces in the world, and our "Ivans" were oh so far away from them (by the way, the authors For some reason, the aforementioned publications did not provide data on the achievements of the best aces pilots in other countries: American Richard Bong, British James Johnson and French Pierre Klosterman with their 40, 38 and 33 aerial victories, respectively). The next thought that flashes in the minds of the guys, naturally, will be that the Germans flew on much more advanced aircraft. (It must be said that not even schoolchildren, but students of one of the Moscow universities reacted to the presented figures of aerial victories in a similar way during the survey).

But how should one generally relate to such, at first glance, blasphemous numbers?

It is clear that any schoolchild, if he is interested in this topic, will go to the Internet. What will he find there? It's easy to check ... Let's type in the search engine the phrase "The best ace of the Second World War."

The result appears quite expected: a portrait of a blond Erich Hartman, hung with iron crosses, is displayed on the monitor screen, and the entire page is replete with phrases like: "The best aces of the Second World War are German pilots, especially those who fought on the Eastern Front ..."

Here are the ones on! Not only did the Germans turn out to be the best aces in the world, but most of all they killed not just some Englishmen, Americans or Frenchmen with Poles, but our guys.

So is it really the true truth laid out in an informative book and on the covers of notebooks that carry the knowledge of an uncle and aunt to children? Is that just what they wanted to say with that? That we had such careless pilots? Probably not. But why the authors of many printed publications and information hanging on the pages of the Internet, citing a mass of seemingly interesting facts, did not bother to explain to readers (especially young ones): where did such numbers come from and what they mean.

Perhaps some of the readers will find the further story uninteresting. After all, this topic has already been discussed more than once on the pages of serious aviation publications. And with this everything is clear. Is it worth repeating? But this information never reached ordinary boys of our country (given the circulation of specialized technical magazines). And it won't. Why are there boys. Show the above numbers to your school history teacher and ask him what he thinks about it and what will he say to the children about it? But the boys, seeing on the back of the student's notebook the results of the aerial victories of Hartman and Pokryshkin, will probably ask him about it. I am afraid that the result will shake you to the core ... That is why the material below is not even an article, but rather a request to you, dear readers, to help your children (and maybe even their teachers) deal with some "stunning" numbers ... Moreover, on the eve of May 9, we will all again remember that distant war.

Where did these numbers come from?

And really, where did such a figure as 352 victories of Hartmann in air battles come from? Who can confirm it?

It turns out no one. Moreover, the entire aviation community has long known that historians took this figure from Erich Hartmann's letters to his bride. So the first thing that arises is the question: did the young man embellish his military achievements? There are also known statements by some German pilots that at the final stage of the war, air victories were simply attributed to Hartman for propaganda purposes, because the collapsing Hitlerite regime needed a superhero along with a mythical miracle weapon. Interestingly, many of Hartman's claimed victories are not confirmed by losses on our side that day.

A study of archival documents from the Second World War period has convincingly proved that absolutely all branches of the armed forces in all countries of the world sinned with subscripts. It is no coincidence that shortly after the outbreak of the war, our army introduced the principle of the strictest record of downed enemy aircraft. The plane was considered shot down only after ground forces discovered its wreckage and thereby confirmed the air victory.

The Germans, as well as the Americans, did not need confirmation of the ground forces. The pilot could fly in and report: "I shot down the plane." The main thing is that the cine gun should record at least bullets and shells hitting the target. Sometimes this allowed to gain a lot of "points". It is known that during the "Battle of England" the Germans reported 3050 British aircraft shot down, while the British actually lost only 910.

Hence, the first conclusion should be drawn: our pilots were credited with actually shot down planes. The Germans - aerial victories, sometimes not even leading to the destruction of an enemy aircraft. And often these victories were mythical.

Why did our aces not have 300 or more aerial victories?

All that we mentioned a little above does not in any way apply to the very skill of the aces pilots. Let's consider this question: could the German pilots even shoot down the declared number of aircraft? And if so, why?

A.I. Pokryshkin, G.K. Zhukov and I.N. Kozhedub

Oddly enough, Hartmann, Barkhorn, and other German pilots, in principle, could have over 300 air victories. And I must say that many of them were doomed to become aces, since they were the real hostages of the Hitlerite command, which threw them into the war. And they fought, as a rule, from the first to the last day.

The aces pilots of England, the USA and the Soviet Union were cherished and appreciated by the command. The leadership of the listed air forces believed that since a pilot shot down 40-50 enemy aircraft, it means that he is a very experienced pilot who can teach flying skills to a dozen talented young guys. And let each of them shoot down at least ten enemy planes. Then the total number of destroyed planes will turn out to be much more than if they were shot down by a professional who remained at the front.

Recall that our best fighter pilot, Alexander Pokryshkin, already in 1944, the Air Force command banned him from participating in air battles altogether, entrusting him with the command of an aviation division. And it turned out to be correct. By the end of the war, many pilots from his unit had more than 50 confirmed air victories in their combat accounts. So, Nikolai Gulaev shot down 57 German aircraft. Grigory Rechkalov - 56. Dmitry Glinka chalked up fifty enemy aircraft.

The command of the American Air Force did the same, recalling from the front its best ace, Richard Bong.

I must say that many Soviet pilots could not become aces only for the reason that often there was simply no enemy in front of them. Each pilot was attached to his own unit, and therefore to a specific section of the front.

For the Germans, everything was different. Experienced pilots were constantly transferred from one sector of the front to another. Each time they found themselves in the hottest spot, in the thick of things. For example, Ivan Kozhedub during the entire war only took to the skies 330 times and conducted 120 air battles, while Hartman made 1425 sorties and participated in 825 air battles. Yes, our pilot, with all his might, could not even see in the sky as many German planes as Hartman caught sight of!

By the way, having become famous aces, Luftwaffe pilots did not receive indulgence from death. Literally every day they had to participate in air battles. So it turned out that they fought until their death. And only captivity or the end of the war could save them from death. Few of the Luftwaffe aces survived. Hartman and Barkhorn were just lucky. They became famous only because they miraculously survived. But the fourth most productive ace of Germany, Otto Kittel, died during an air battle with Soviet fighters in February 1945.

A little earlier, the most famous ace of Germany, Walter Novotny, met his death (in 1944 he was the first of the Luftwaffe pilots to bring his combat score to 250 air victories). The Hitlerite command, having awarded the pilot with all the highest orders of the Third Reich, instructed him to lead the formation of the first (still "raw" and undelivered) Me-262 jet fighters and threw the famous ace into the most dangerous area of the air war - to repel raids on Germany by American heavy bombers. The pilot's fate was a foregone conclusion.

By the way, Hitler also wanted to put Erich Hartman on a jet fighter, but the smart guy got out of this dangerous situation, having managed to prove to his superiors that there would be more sense from him if he was put back on the old reliable Bf 109. This decision allowed Hartman to save his life from inevitable death and become, in the end, the best ace in Germany.

The most important proof that our pilots were in no way inferior in the skill of conducting air battles to the German aces, eloquently speak of some figures, which abroad are not very fond of recalling, and some of our journalists from the "free" press who undertake to write about aviation, they just do not know.

For example, aviation historians know that the most effective fighter squadron of the Luftwaffe that fought on the Eastern Front was the elite 54th Green Heart Air Group, which brought together the best German aces on the eve of the war. So, of the 112 pilots of the 54th squadron who invaded the airspace of our Motherland on June 22, 1941, only four survived until the end of the war! A total of 2,135 fighters from this squadron were left lying in the form of scrap metal in the vast area from Ladoga to Lvov. But it was the 54th squadron that stood out among the other fighter squadrons of the Luftwaffe in that during the war years it had the lowest level of losses in air battles.

It is interesting to note another little-known fact, which few people pay attention to, but which characterizes both our and German pilots very well: already at the end of March 1943, when air supremacy still belonged to the Germans, bright "green hearts" proudly shining on the sides of "Messerschmitts" and "Focke-Wulfs" of the 54th squadron, the Germans painted over with matte gray-green paint, so as not to lead into the temptation of Soviet pilots, who considered it a matter of honor to "fill up" some vaunted ace.

Which plane is better?

Anyone who, to one degree or another, was interested in the history of aviation, probably had to hear or read the statements of "specialists" that the German aces had more victories not only because of their skill, but also because they flew the best planes.

No one argues that a pilot flying a more advanced aircraft will have a certain advantage in combat.

In any case, the pilot of a faster aircraft will always be able to catch up with the enemy, and, if necessary, get out of the battle ...

But here's what's interesting: the entire world experience in air warfare suggests that in an air battle, it is usually not the aircraft that is better that wins, but the one in which the best pilot sits. Naturally, all this applies to aircraft of the same generation.

Although in a number of technical indicators the German Messerschmitts (especially at the beginning of the war) were superior to our MiGs, Yaks and LaGGs, it turned out that in the real conditions of the total war that was fought on the Eastern Front, their technical superiority was not so obvious.

The German aces gained their main victories at the beginning of the war on the Eastern Front thanks to the experience gained during previous military campaigns in the skies over Poland, France, and England. At the same time, the bulk of Soviet pilots (with a small exception of those who managed to fight in Spain and on Khalkhin Gol) had no combat experience at all.

But a well-trained pilot, who knows the merits of both his aircraft and the enemy's aircraft, could always impose his air combat tactics on the enemy.

On the eve of the war, our pilots had just begun to master the latest fighters such as Yak-1, MiG-3 and LaGG-3. Not having the necessary tactical experience, solid skills in aircraft control, not being able to shoot properly, they still went into battle. Therefore, they suffered heavy losses. Neither their courage nor their heroism could help. You just had to gain experience. And that took time. But there was no time for this in 1941.

But those of the pilots who survived the fierce air battles of the initial period of the war later became famous aces. They not only beat the Nazis themselves, but also taught young pilots to fight. Now you can often hear statements that during the war years, poorly trained youth came to the fighter regiments from flight schools, which became easy prey for the German aces.

But at the same time, for some reason, such authors forget to mention that already in the fighter regiments, senior comrades continued to train young pilots, sparing neither effort nor time. They tried to make them experienced air fighters. Here is a typical example: from the middle of autumn 1943 to the end of winter 1944 in the 2nd Guards Aviation Regiment, about 600 sorties were carried out just to train young pilots!

For the Germans, at the end of the war, the situation turned out to be worse than ever. In the fighter squadrons, which were armed with the most modern fighters, untreated, hastily prepared boys were sent, who were immediately sent to their death. The "horseless" pilots from the defeated bomber air groups also got into fighter squadrons. The latter had vast experience in aerial navigation and knew how to fly at night. But they could not conduct maneuverable air battles on equal terms with our fighter pilots. Those few experienced "hunters" who still remained in the ranks could in no way change the situation. No, even the most perfect, technique could save the Germans.

Whom and how were they shot down?

People far from aviation have no idea that the Soviet and German pilots were placed in completely different conditions. German fighter pilots, and Hartmann among them, very often engaged in the so-called "free hunt". Their main task was to destroy enemy aircraft. They could fly when they saw fit, and wherever they saw fit.

If they saw a single plane, they rushed at it like wolves at a defenseless sheep. And if they faced a strong enemy, they immediately left the battlefield. No, this was not cowardice, but an accurate calculation. Why run into trouble if in half an hour you can again find and calmly "fill up" another defenseless "sheep". This is how the German aces earned their awards.

It is interesting to note the fact that after the war, Hartman mentioned that more than once he hastily left for his territory after he was informed by radio that a group of Alexander Pokryshkin appeared in the air. He clearly did not want to compete with the famous Soviet ace and run into trouble.

And what happened with us? For the command of the Red Army, the main goal was to inflict powerful bombing strikes on the enemy and cover the ground forces from the air. Bomb strikes on the Germans were carried out by attack aircraft and bombers - relatively slow-moving aircraft and representing a tidbit for German fighters. Soviet fighters constantly had to accompany bombers and attack aircraft in their flight to the target and back. And this meant that in such a situation it fell out to them to conduct not an offensive, but a defensive air battle. Naturally, all the advantages in such a battle were on the side of the enemy.

Covering ground forces from German air raids, our pilots were also placed in very difficult conditions. The infantry constantly wanted to see red star fighters overhead. So our pilots were forced to "hum" over the front line, flying back and forth at low speed and at low altitude. And at this time, the German "hunters" from a great height only chose their next "victim" and, having developed a tremendous dive speed, instantly shot down our planes, whose pilots, even seeing the attacker, simply did not have time to turn around or pick up speed.

Compared to the Germans, our fighter pilots were allowed to fly free hunting less often. Therefore, the results were more modest. Unfortunately, free hunting for our fighter aircraft was an unaffordable luxury ...

The fact that free hunting made it possible to gain a significant number of "points" is evidenced by the example of the French pilots from the Normandie-Niemen regiment. Our command took care of the "allies" and tried not to send them to cover the troops or in deadly raids to escort attack aircraft and bombers. The French were given the opportunity to engage in free hunting.

And the results speak for themselves. So, in just ten days in October 1944, French pilots shot down 119 enemy aircraft.

In Soviet aviation, not only at the beginning of the war, but also at its final stage, there were a lot of bombers and attack aircraft. But in the composition of the Luftwaffe during the course of the war, there were serious changes. To repel the raids of enemy bombers, they constantly needed more and more fighters. And the moment came that the German aviation industry was simply not able to produce both bombers and fighters at the same time. Therefore, at the end of 1944, the production of bombers in Germany almost completely stopped, and only fighters began to leave the shops of aircraft factories.

This means that the Soviet aces, unlike the Germans, no longer met large slow-moving targets in the air so often. They had to fight exclusively with high-speed Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters and the newest Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bombers, which were much more difficult to shoot down in air combat than a hulking bomb carrier.

Walter Novotny, who at one time was the No. 1 ace in Germany, had just been removed from this Messerschmitt, which was overturned at the landing and damaged in battle. But his flying career (as, indeed, life itself) could well have ended on this episode…

Moreover, at the end of the war, the skies over Germany were literally swarming with Spitfires, Tempest, Thunderbolts, Mustangs, Silts, Pawns, Yaks, and Shopkeepers. And if each flight of the German ace (if he managed to take off at all) ended with the accrual of points (which then no one really considered), then the pilots of the Allied aviation still had to look for the air target. Many Soviet pilots recalled that already from the end of 1944, their personal air victory score had ceased to grow. In the sky, German aircraft were no longer encountered so often, and combat sorties of fighter aviation regiments were mainly carried out for the purpose of reconnaissance and ground attack of enemy ground forces.

What is a fighter for?

At first glance, this question seems very simple. Anyone, even not familiar with aviation, will answer without hesitation: a fighter is needed in order to shoot down enemy planes. But is it that simple? As you know, fighter aircraft are part of the air force. The Air Force is a constituent part of the army.

The task of any army is to defeat the enemy. It is clear that all the forces and means of the army must be united and directed towards the defeat of the enemy. The army is led by its command. And the result of hostilities depends on how the command is able to organize the management of the army.

The approach of the Soviet and German command turned out to be different. The Wehrmacht command instructed its fighter aircraft to gain air supremacy. In other words, the German fighter aircraft had to stupidly shoot down all enemy aircraft seen in the air. The hero was considered to be the one who would shoot down more enemy planes.

I must say that this approach was very impressed by the German pilots. They gladly joined this "competition", considering themselves to be real hunters.

And all would be good, but only the task set by the German pilots did not fulfill. They shot down a lot of planes, but what's the point? Every month there were more and more Soviet planes, as well as Allied planes in the air. The Germans still could not cover their ground forces from the air. And the loss of bomber aircraft only made their life even more difficult. This alone suggests that the Germans in the strategic plan completely lost the air war.

The command of the Red Army saw the mission of fighter aviation in something completely different. Soviet fighter pilots were primarily supposed to cover the ground forces from attacks by German bombers. And they also had to protect the attack and bomber aircraft during their raids on the positions of the German army. In other words, fighter aircraft did not act on their own, like the Germans, but exclusively in the interests of the ground forces.

It was hard, thankless work, during which our pilots usually received not glory, but death.

Unsurprisingly, the losses of Soviet fighters were enormous. However, this does not mean at all that our aircraft were much worse, and the pilots were weaker than the German ones. In this case, the outcome of the battle was determined not by the quality of the equipment and the skill of the pilot, but by the tactical necessity, the strict order of the command.

Here, probably, any child will ask: "And what is this such stupid tactic of battle, what are the idiotic orders, because of which both planes and pilots were killed in vain?"

This is where the most important thing begins. And you need to understand that in fact, this tactic is not stupid. After all, the main striking force of any army is its ground forces. A bomb attack on tanks and infantry, on warehouses with weapons and fuel, on bridges and crossings can greatly weaken the combat capabilities of the ground forces. One successful air strike can fundamentally change the course of an offensive or defensive operation.

If a dozen fighters are lost in an air battle while protecting ground targets, but not a single enemy bomb, for example, gets into the ammunition depot, this means that the combat mission has been completed by the fighter pilots. Even at the cost of their lives. Otherwise, an entire division, left without shells, may be crushed by the advancing enemy forces.

The same can be said about flights to escort strike aircraft. If they destroyed an ammunition depot, bombed a railway station full of echelons with military equipment, destroyed a stronghold of defense, then this means that they made a significant contribution to the victory. And if, at the same time, fighter pilots provided bombers and attack aircraft with the opportunity to break through to the target through the enemy's air screens, even if they lost their comrades in arms, then they also won.

And this is truly a real aerial victory. The main thing is to fulfill the task set by the command. A task that can radically change the entire course of hostilities in a given sector of the front. From all this, the conclusion suggests itself: German fighters are hunters, fighters of the Red Army Air Force are defenders.

With the thought of death ...

Whoever says anything, there are no fearless pilots (as, incidentally, tankers, infantrymen or sailors) who are not afraid of death. In war, there are enough cowards and traitors. But for the most part, our pilots, even in the most difficult moments of air combat, adhered to the unwritten rule: "die yourself, but help your comrade." Sometimes, no longer having ammunition, they continued to fight, covering their comrades, went to ram, wanting to inflict maximum damage on the enemy. And all because they defended their land, their home, their relatives and friends. They defended their homeland.

The fascists who attacked our country in 1941 consoled themselves with the thought of world domination. At that time, the German pilots could not even think that they would have to sacrifice their lives for the sake of someone or for the sake of something. Only in their patriotic speeches were they ready to give their lives for the Fuhrer. Each of them, like any other invader, dreamed of receiving a good reward after the successful conclusion of the war. And to get a tidbit, you had to live until the end of the war. In this state of affairs, it was not heroism and self-sacrifice for the sake of achieving a great goal that came to the fore, but cold calculation.

Do not forget that the boys of the Soviet country, many of whom later became military pilots, were brought up somewhat differently than their peers in Germany. They took an example from such disinterested defenders of their people as, for example, the epic hero Ilya Muromets, Prince Alexander Nevsky. Then, in the memory of the people, the military exploits of the legendary heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812, the heroes of the Civil War were still fresh. And in general, Soviet schoolchildren were brought up mainly on books, the heroes of which were true patriots of the Motherland.

The end of the war. Young German pilots receive a combat mission. Doom is in their eyes. Erich Hartmann said about them: “These young men come to us, and they are almost immediately shot down. They come and go like the waves of the surf. This is a crime ... I think our propaganda is to blame. "

Their peers from Germany also knew what friendship, love, what patriotism and native land are. But do not forget that in Germany, with its centuries-old history of chivalry, the latter concept was especially close to all boys. Knightly laws, knightly honor, knightly glory, fearlessness were put at the forefront. It is no coincidence that even the main award of the Reich was the knight's cross.

It is clear that any boy in his heart dreamed of becoming a famous knight.

However, one should not forget that the entire history of the Middle Ages testifies to the fact that the main task of a knight was to serve his master. Not to the Motherland, not to the people, but to the king, duke, baron. Even the legendary independent errant knights were, at their core, the most common mercenaries, making money with the ability to kill. And all these crusades celebrated by chroniclers? Robbery of clean water.

It is no coincidence that the words knight, profit and wealth are inseparable from each other. It is also well known that knights rarely died on the battlefield. In a desperate situation, they, as a rule, surrendered. Subsequent ransom from captivity was quite common for them. Ordinary commerce.

And is it any wonder that the chivalrous spirit, including in its negative manifestations, directly affected the moral qualities of future Luftwaffe pilots.

The command was well aware of this, because they themselves considered themselves modern chivalry. With all its desire, it could not force its pilots to fight the way Soviet fighter pilots fought - sparing neither strength nor life itself. This may seem strange to us, but it turns out that even in the charter of the German fighter aviation it was written that the pilot himself determines his actions in air combat and no one can forbid him to leave the battle if he deems it necessary.

The faces of these pilots show that we are facing victorious warriors. The picture shows the most productive fighter pilots of the 1st Guards Fighter Aviation Division of the Baltic Fleet: Senior Lieutenant Selyutin (19 victories), Captain Kostylev (41 victories), Captain Tatarenko (29 victories), Lieutenant Colonel Golubev (39 victories) and Major Baturin (10 victories)

That is why the German aces never covered their troops over the battlefield, and why they did not defend their bombers as selflessly as our fighters did. As a rule, German fighters only cleared the way for their bomb carriers, tried to hinder the actions of our interceptors.

The history of the past world war is replete with facts of how the German aces, sent to escort the bombers, abandoned their charges when the air situation was not in their favor. The hunter's prudence and self-sacrifice turned out to be incompatible concepts for them.

As a result, it was aerial hunting that became the only acceptable solution that suited everyone. The leadership of the Luftwaffe proudly reported on their successes in the fight against enemy aircraft, Goebbels propaganda enthusiastically told the German people about the military merits of the invincible aces, and those, working out the chance given to them to stay alive, scored points with all their might.

Perhaps something changed in the heads of the German pilots only when the war came to the territory of Germany itself, when the Anglo-American bomber aviation began to literally wipe entire cities off the face of the earth. Tens of thousands of women and children were killed by Allied bombs. Horror paralyzed the civilian population. Only then, gripped by fear for the lives of their children, wives, mothers, the German air defense pilots selflessly began to rush into deadly air battles with an outnumbered enemy, and sometimes even rammed the “flying fortresses”.

But it was already too late. By that time, there were almost no experienced pilots left in Germany, nor a sufficient number of aircraft. Individual aces pilots and hastily trained boys, even with their desperate actions, could no longer save the situation.

The pilots who fought on the Eastern Front at that time, one might say, were still lucky. Practically deprived of fuel, they almost did not rise into the air, and therefore at least survived until the end of the war and remained alive. As for the famous fighter squadron "Green Heart" mentioned at the beginning of the article, its last aces acted quite chivalrously: on the remaining aircraft they flew to surrender to the "friends-knights" who understood them - the British and Americans.

I think, after reading all of the above, you can probably answer the question of your children about whether the German pilots were the best in the world? Were they really superior to our pilots in their skills?

Sad note

Not so long ago, I saw in a bookstore a new edition of the same children's book on aviation, with which I started the article. In the hope that the second edition will differ from the first one not only with a new cover, but will also give the children some intelligible explanation of such a fantastic performance of the German aces, I opened the book on the page of interest to me. Unfortunately, everything remained unchanged: the 62 aircraft shot down by Kozhedub looked ridiculous against the background of Hartman's 352 air victories. Such is the gloomy arithmetic ...

... the squadron lost 80 pilots in a fairly short period of time,
of which 60 never shot down a single Russian plane
/ Mike Speke "Aces of the Luftwaffe" /

The Iron Curtain collapsed with a deafening roar, and a storm of exposing Soviet myths arose in the media of independent Russia. The most popular was the theme of the Great Patriotic War - an inexperienced Soviet man was shocked by the results of German aces - tankers, submariners and, especially, Luftwaffe pilots.
Actually, the problem is this: 104 German pilots have shot down 100 or more aircraft. Among them are Erich Hartmann (352 wins) and Gerhard Barkhorn (301), who showed absolutely phenomenal results. Moreover, Harmann and Barkhorn won all of 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, 7 of the best Soviet aces: Kozhedub, Pokryshkin, Gulaev, Rechkalov, Evstigneev, Vorozheikin, Glinka were able to overcome the bar of 50 downed enemy aircraft. For example, Ivan Kozhedub, three times Hero of the Soviet Union, 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 lyuft! ", Chalked up" only "59 aerial victories. The little-known Romanian ace Konstantin Kontakuzino 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 (8 more victories remained "unconfirmed").

What conclusion can be drawn from all these figures? What is the secret to the incredible performance of the Luftwaffe fighters? Maybe the Germans simply did not know how to count?
The only thing that can be said with a high degree of certainty is that the accounts of all aces, without exception, are overestimated. Praising the successes of the best fighters is standard government propaganda practice that, by definition, cannot be honest.

German Meresiev and his "Stuka"

As an interesting example, I propose to consider the incredible 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 flown 2,530 sorties. He was piloted by the Junkers-87 dive bomber, at the end of the war he moved to the controls of the Focke-Wolf 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. He shot down two Il-2 attack aircraft and seven fighters in the air. He landed six times in enemy territory to rescue the crews of the downed Junkers. The Soviet Union has appointed a reward of 100,000 rubles for the head of Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Just the standard of a fascist

Of course, there were no photo-machine guns or cameras on Junkers. The maximum that Rudel or his gunner-radio operator could notice: covering the column of armored vehicles, i.e. possible damage to tanks. The speed of exit from the dive of the Ju-87 is more than 600 km / h, while the overloads can reach 5g, in such conditions it is unrealistic to see anything accurately on the ground.
Since 1943, Rudel switched to the Ju-87G anti-tank attack aircraft. The characteristics of this "bastard" are simply disgusting: max. speed in level flight - 370 km / h, rate of climb - about 4 m / s. The main aircraft were two VK37 cannons (caliber 37 mm, rate of fire 160 rds / min), with an ammunition load of only 12 (!) Shells per barrel. Powerful guns installed in the wings created a large turning moment when firing and rocked the light aircraft so that firing in bursts was meaningless - only single sniper shots.

Another question for Rudel is related to his 2530 sorties. According to some reports, in German bomber squadrons, it was accepted as an incentive to count a difficult sortie for several sorties. For example, the captured Captain Helmut Putz, the commander of the 4th detachment of the 2nd group of the 27th bomber squadron, explained the following during interrogation: , like others, in 2-3 departures. " (interrogation protocol of 06/17/1943). Although it is possible Helmut Putz, being captured, lied, trying to reduce his contribution to the attacks on Soviet cities.

Hartmann against all

There is an opinion that the aces pilots unrestrainedly filled their accounts and fought "on their own", being an exception to the rule. And the main work at the front was carried out by intermediate-skilled pilots. This is a deep misconception: in a general sense, there are no “average” pilots. There are either Aesir or their prey.
For example, let's take the legendary Normandie-Niemen air regiment, which fought on Yak-3 fighters. Of the 98 French pilots, 60 did not win a single victory, but the "chosen" 17 pilots shot down 200 German aircraft in air battles (the French regiment drove 273 aircraft with a swastika into the ground).
A similar picture 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.
American historian Mike Spike describes the same episode associated with the actions of the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front: "... the squadron lost 80 pilots in a fairly short period of time, of which 60 never shot down a single Russian plane."
So, we found out that the aces pilots are the main force of the Air Force. But the question remains: what is the reason for the huge gap between the performance of the Luftwaffe aces and the pilots of the Anti-Hitler coalition? Even if you split the incredible bills of the Germans in half?

One of the legends about the insolvency of the large accounts of the German aces is associated with an unusual system of counting downed aircraft: by the number of engines. Single-engine fighter - one aircraft shot down. Four-engined bomber - four shot down planes. 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 scored 3 points. The main part of the work was done by him - it is much more difficult to break through the hurricane fire of the Flying Fortresses than to shoot 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 prize points? Probably, they were somehow converted into Reichsmarks. But all this had nothing to do with the list of downed planes.

The most prosaic explanation for the Luftwaffe phenomenon: the Germans had no shortage of goals. 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-Wolfe 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 Yakov, Lavochkin, I-16 and MiG-3 passed through the composition of 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 machines were in the Royal Air Force from 1939 to 1945). How many more fighters did Britain receive under the Lend-Lease?
Since 1943, American fighters have appeared over Europe - thousands of Mustangs, P-38s and P-47s roamed the skies of the Reich, escorting strategic bombers on raids. In 1944, during the Normandy landings, the Allied aircraft had a sixfold numerical superiority. “If the camouflage planes in the sky are the Royal Air Force, if the silver ones are the US Air Force. If there are no planes in the sky, this is the Luftwaffe, ”the German soldiers joked sadly. Where could the large accounts of British and American pilots come from 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, 36,154 attack aircraft were fired, of which 33,920 Ilov entered the army. By May 1945, 3585 Il-2 and Il-10 were registered in the Air Force of the Red Army, another 200 Il-2 were in the naval aviation.

In short, 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 aces fighters, on the contrary, took time to detect the enemy - according to statistics, even the best Soviet pilots had on average 1 air battle per 8 combat missions: 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 airplanes, air combat was more an unexpected coincidence than a regular event.
It is more objective to calculate the number of downed aircraft, taking into account the number of combat sorties of the pilots. Viewed from this angle, Erich Hartmann's achievement dims: 1,400 sorties, 825 air battles and "only" 352 aircraft shot down. This indicator 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

Aces of the Luftwaffe of World War II

The film tells about the famous German aces pilots: Erich Hartmann (352 shot down enemy aircraft), Johan Steinhoff (176), Werner Mölders (115), Adolf Galland (103) and others. Presented are rare footage of interviews with Hartman and Galland, as well as a unique newsreel of air battles.

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