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This is a list of fighter aces in World War II from Germany. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat.[1] It is relatively certain that 2,500 German fighter pilots attained ace status, having achieved at least five aerial victories.[2]
German day and night fighter pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories during World War II, over 25,000 British or American and over 45,000 Soviet aircraft. 103 German fighter pilots each shot down 100 or more enemy aircraft, for a total of approximately 15,400 victories. Approximately 360 German fighter pilots shot down from 40 to 99 enemy aircraft for a total of approximately 21,000 victories. Approximately 500 German fighter pilots shot down from 20 to 39 enemy aircraft for a total of approximately 15,000 victories. These achievements were honored with 453 German day fighter pilots and Zerstörer (destroyer) fighter pilots and 85 German night fighter pilots (including 14 crew members), for a total of 538 German fighter pilots, receiving the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.[3]
German losses, on the other hand, were very high as well. Roughly 12,000 German day fighter pilots were killed or are still missing in action, with a further 6,000 being wounded. The Zerstörer (destroyer) pilots suffered about 2,800 casualties, either killed or missing in action, plus another 900 wounded in action. German night fighter losses were also high, in the magnitude of 3,800 pilots or crew members killed or missing and 1,400 wounded. Hans-Ulrich Rudel was the most decorated flying ace in the Luftwaffe, primarily as a ground-attack bomber pilot with over 800 vehicles destroyed in addition to his victories over opposing aircraft.[4]
There are a number of reasons why Germany's highest-scoring pilots shot down many more aircraft than the most successful Allied pilots. During the first years of the war, German day fighter pilots tended to enjoy favourable tactical circumstances; for instance, during the Battle of Britain British pilots generally tried to attack the German bombers rather than the fighters protecting them. German combat tactics during this period also tended to be superior to those of the Allies, with formation leaders in particular often having a higher chance of success.[5]
Formal and informal Luftwaffe practices also contributed to the high numbers of victories achieved by some pilots. The normal practice in fighter units was for the highest-scoring pilot to lead formations, regardless of their rank, which placed them in the best position to shoot down Allied aircraft. The German pilots also typically conducted much more combat flying than their Allied equivalents: while the western Allied air forces frequently rested their fighter pilots or rotated them out of combat zones after a certain number of missions or flying hours, German pilots were required to fly until they became casualties.[6]
During the 1990s, the German archives made available to the public, including microfilm rolls of wartime records not seen since January 1945.[7] They show that although the Luftwaffe generally did not accept a "kill" without a witness (in which instance it was considered only a probable and didn't count in the victory scoring process), some pilots habitually submitted unwitnessed claims and these sometimes made it through the verification process, particularly if they were made by pilots with established records.[7] Unlike all of the other air forces that fought during World War II, the Luftwaffe did not accept shared claims, but sometimes it happened. Each claim should have referred to a particular aircraft, but some victories were awarded to other pilots who had claimed the destruction of the same aircraft.[7] From mid-year 1943 through 1944, the OKW communiques often overstated Allied bomber losses by a factor of up to two; these claims existed only in the communiques and weren't used in victory scoring. Defenders of the German fighter pilots maintain that overclaims were eliminated during the confirmation process, but the microfilms show that this wasn't always the case.[7] Stringent reviews and comparisons of Allied archives and German archives show that 90 percent of the claims submitted were confirmed, or found to be "in order" for confirmation, up to the time the system broke down altogether in 1945.[7]
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According to Obermaier, 103 Luftwaffe pilots were credited with more than 100 aerial victories.[9] Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces – Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and list 94 Luftwaffe pilots in this category. The authors differentiate between confirmed and unconfirmed claims. In consequence the following pilots were not listed by Mathews and Foreman.[10]
Additionally, Spick lists Horst-Günther von Fassong with 136 aerial victories, Rudolf Rademacher with 126 aerial victories, and Herbert Rollwage with 102 aerial victories.[20] Further more, the US historian David T. Zabecki states that Friedrich Wachowiak was credited with 140 aerial victories,[21] and Paul-Heinrich Dähne with 100 aerial victories.[22] Lastly, the authors Raymond F. Toliver and Trevor James Constable list Rudolf Müller with 101 aerial victories.[23]
| Name | 100th Claim | 150th Claim | 200th Claim | 250th Claim | 300th Claim |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Werner Mölders | 15 July 1941![24] | ||||
| Günther Lützow | 24 October 1941[25] | ||||
| Walter Oesau | 26 October 1941[26] | ||||
| Hans Philipp | 31 March 1942[27] | 14 January 1943[28] | 17 March 1943[29] | ||
| Herbert Ihlefeld | 22 April 1942[30] | ||||
| Max-Hellmuth Ostermann | 12 May 1942[31] | ||||
| Hermann Graf | 14 May 1942[32] | 4 September 1942[33] | 26 September 1942![34] | ||
| Adolf Dickfeld | 18 May 1942[35] | ||||
| Heinrich Bär | 19 May 1942[36] | 27 January 1943[37] | 22 April 1944[38] | ||
| Gordon Gollob | 20 May 1942[39] | 29 August 1942![40] | |||
| Hans-Joachim Marseille | 17 June 1942[41] | 15 September 1942[42] | |||
| Erwin Clausen | 22 July 1942[43] | ||||
| Heinrich Setz | 24 July 1942[44] | ||||
| Viktor Bauer | 25 July 1942[45] | ||||
| Franz-Josef Beerenbrock | 1 August 1942[46] | ||||
| Anton Hackl | 5 August 1942[47] | 9 July 1944 | |||
| Kurt Brändle | 22 August 1942[48] | 5 July 1943[49] | |||
| Johannes Steinhoff | 31 August 1942[50] | 2 February 1943[51] | |||
| Joachim Müncheberg | 5 September 1942[52] | ||||
| Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke | 6 September 1942[53] | 17 December 1942[54] | |||
| Heinz Schmidt | 15 September 1942[50] | 12 August 1943[55] | |||
| Friedrich-Karl "Tutti" Müller | 19 September 1942[56] | ||||
| Wilhelm Crinius | 22 September 1942[57] | ||||
| Wolfgang Tonne | 22 September 1942[57] | ||||
| Hans Beißwenger | 30 September 1942[58] | 5 March 1943[59] | |||
| Ernst-Wilhelm Reinert | 3 October 1942[60] | 25 April 1943[61] | |||
| Günther Rall | 22 October 1942[62] | 7 August 1943[63] | 29 August 1943[64] | 28 November 1943[65] | |
| Josef Zwernemann | 25 October 1942[62] | ||||
| Max Stotz | 29 October 1942[66] | 26 January 1943[67] | |||
| Friedrich Geißhardt | 10 November 1942[68] | ||||
| Gerhard Barkhorn | 19 December 1942[69] | 8 August 1943[55] | 30 November 1943[70] | 12 February 1944[71] | 5 January 1945[72] |
| Hartmann Grasser | 2 January 1943[73] | ||||
| Kurt Ubben | 14 January 1943[74] | ||||
| Hans "Assi" Hahn | 26 January 1943[67] | ||||
| Wilhelm Lemke | 16 March 1943[75] | ||||
| Alfred Grislawski | 27 April 1943[76] | ||||
| Joachim Kirschner | 27 April 1943[77] | 5 July 1943[49] | |||
| Hans Dammers | 5 May 1943[78] | ||||
| Wolf-Udo Ettel | 6 May 1943[77] | ||||
| Heinrich Ehrler | 8 June 1943[79] | 25 May 1944[80] | 20 November 1944[81] | ||
| Rudolf Miethig | 8 June 1943[82] | ||||
| Walter Nowotny | 15 June 1943[83] | 18 August 1943[84] | 8 September 1943[85] | 14 October 1943![86] | |
| Theodor Weissenberger | 4 July 1943[87] | 25 March 1944[88] | 25 July 1944[89] | ||
| Reinhard Seiler | 6 July 1943[90] | ||||
| Johannes Wiese | 17 July 1943[91] | ||||
| Emil Bitsch | 21 July 1943[92] | ||||
| Werner Lucas | 21 July 1943[93] | ||||
| Dietrich Hrabak | 2 August 1943[94] | ||||
| Karl-Heinz Weber | 12 August 1943[95] | ||||
| Berthold Korts | 17 August 1943[96] | ||||
| Walter Krupinski | 18 August 1943[96] | 12 October 1943[97] | |||
| Günther Schack | 3 September 1943[98] | 13 August 1944[99] | |||
| Otto Kittel | 14 September 1943[100] | 4 April 1944[101] | 26 August 1944[102] | 27 October 1944[103] | |
| Erich Hartmann | 20 September 1943[104] | 13 December 1943[65] | 26 March 1944[105] | 4 June 1944[106] | 24 August 1944![107] |
| Erich Rudorffer | 11 October 1943[108] | 26 July 1944[109] | 28 October 1944[110] | ||
| Anton Hafner | 15 October 1943[111] | 16 July 1944[112] | 16 October 1944[113] | ||
| Albin Wolf | 25 October 1943[114] | ||||
| Emil Lang | 2 November 1943[115] | 14 June 1944[116] | |||
| Erich Leie | 6 November 1943[117] | ||||
| Joachim Brendel | 22 November 1943[117] | 22 October 1944[118] | |||
| Otto Fönnekold | 12 January 1944[119] | ||||
| Horst Ademeit | 15 January 1944[120] | 28 May 1944[121] | |||
| Egon Mayer | 5 February 1944[122] | ||||
| Wilhelm Batz | 22 March 1944[123] | 31 May 1944[124] | 17 August 1944[125] | ||
| Heinrich Sturm | 23 March 1944[126] | December 1944?[Note 1] | |||
| Heinrich Sterr | 31 March 1944[128] | ||||
| Helmut Lipfert | 11 April 1944[129] | 24 October 1944[129] | 8 April 1945[129] | ||
| Hans Waldmann | 11 April 1944[130] | ||||
| Gerhard Hoffmann | 22 April 1944[131]?[Note 2] | ||||
| Fritz Tegtmeier | 3 May 1944[133] | ||||
| Karl Gratz | 6 May 1944[134] | ||||
| Robert Weiß | 19 May 1944[135] | ||||
| Werner Schröer | 24 May 1944[136] | ||||
| Walter Wolfrum | 1 June 1944[137] | ||||
| Kurt Bühligen | 7 June 1944[138] | ||||
| Heinz Sachsenberg | 8 June 1944[139] | ||||
| Josef Wurmheller | 8 June 1944[140]?[Note 3] | ||||
| Siegfried Freytag | 13 June 1944[142]?[Note 4] | ||||
| Josef Priller | 15 June 1944[143] | ||||
| Walter Schuck | 15 June 1944[144] | 23 August 1944[145] | 24 March 1945[146] | ||
| Helmut Lent | 16 June 1944[147] | ||||
| Kurt Tanzer | June 1944[141] | ||||
| Rudolf Trenkel | 14 July 1944[148] | ||||
| Jakob Norz | 17 July 1944[149] | ||||
| Franz Woidich | July 1944[141] | ||||
| Günther Josten | 20 July 1944[150] | 17 February 1945[151] | |||
| Friedrich Obleser | 21 July 1944[152]?[Note 5] | ||||
| Adolf Borchers | 24 July 1944[153] | ||||
| Franz Dörr | 23 August 1944[154] | ||||
| Franz Schall | 31 August 1944[155] | ||||
| Franz Eisenach | 14 September 1944[156] | ||||
| Heinz Wernicke | 14 September 1944[157] | ||||
| Peter Düttmann | 24 September 1944[158] | 15 April 1945[159] | |||
| Gerhard Thyben | 30 September 1944[160] | 23 February 1945[161] | |||
| Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer | 9 October 1944[132] | ||||
| Hans-Joachim Birkner | 16 October 1944[162] | ||||
| Eberhard von Boremski | January 1945[132] | ||||
| Walther Dahl | 28 February 1945[132] | ||||
| Bernhard Vechtel | 25 March 1945[163] | ||||
| Ulrich Wernitz | 26 March 1945[164] | ||||
| August Lambert | April 1945[132] | ||||
| Heinz Marquardt | 14 April 1945[165] | ||||
| Adolf Galland | 21 April 1945[132] |
The Luftwaffe fighter force defended the airspace of German-occupied territory against attack, first by RAF Bomber Command and then against the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the Combined Bomber Offensive. In particular, combating the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, flying in a combat box, posed a challenge to the Luftwaffe daytime fighter force. In consequence, the destruction of a heavy bomber, or the Herausschuss (separation shot)—a severely damaged heavy bomber forced to separate from its combat box which was counted as an aerial victory—was considered an exceptional achievement.[166] The Luftwaffe introduced a point system in 1943 which accounted for the difficulties in shooting down a heavy bomber. Although a single heavy bomber shot down or damaged still counted as one aerial victory, the accumulated points earned a fighter pilot awards, medals and promotions. The point system worked as follows:[167]
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