Thread: Top Jet Aces
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Old 16th August 2007, 03:26
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Top Jet Aces

On the History Channel, the last episode of Dogfights, entitled Desert Aces, which included the air combats of Col. Giora Epstein, 17 kills, of the Israeli Air Force, claimed that he was the top jet ace in history. Anyone who has studied the operational history of the Messerschmitt Me 262 would know that the top jet aces in aerial combat flew this aircraft. These aces would include:

Kurt Welter of NJG 11 with 28 or 29 kills out of a total of 63.
Rudolf Rademacher of JG 7 with 25 of a total of 126.
Franz Schall of JG 7 with 20 of a total of 137.
Georg-Peter Eder of JG 7 with 25 of a total of 78.

For many years it was believed that Heinz Bär was the top jet ace with 16 kills of a total of 221, but research into the records of the Luftwaffe by John Forman and S.E. Harvey in their The Messerschmitt Me 262 Combat Diary would indicate that Bär was number four. There appears to be some controversy regarding the actual scores of these four aces. I also consulted Ernst Obermaier's Die Ritterkreuzträger, Band 1, Jagdflieger, (1966 edition) and Manfred Giehl's German Jets of World War Two.
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