Heinkel He 177 top pilot Herbert Kuntz ?

[knusel]

Good evening Gentlemen,

the Heinkel He 177 failed as a bomber due to technical and tactical reasons. Though it was built in quite large numbers, only few He 177 actually saw any service. I wonder if it is possible to find out the pilot, who flew the most missions in that unpopular airplane. One candidate might be Herbert Kuntz. He had a high mission total and flew the Heinkel He 177 for nearly the whole duration of 1944. Does anybody know his definite mission total, the number of his He 177 missions or another pilot with a lot of missions in that aircraft type ?

Cheers,

Michael

[Chris Goss]

He had 366 flights of which 236 were in the east. He did not go operational with the He 177 until 16 May 44 with 2./KG 100 and then flew his last mission in July 1944 with 8./KG 1 so hard to say how many and if he was the top pilot

[knusel]

A total of 366 missions is indicated at tracesofwar.com and aircrewremembered.com. However, in "Das waren die deutschen Kampfflieger-Asse 1939-1945" p223 Georg Brütting writes that Kuntz had 365 combat missions when he received the Knight's Cross in March 1943. Therefore, I thought that his total was much higher.