Experte/Experten

[CJE]

Hi!

I was wondering whether these words, standing for "ace/aces", had not been forged by some Anglo-American historian long after the war's end?
I assume German war reporters talked rather of "erfolgreicheste Flugzeugführer/Piloten".

Thanks.

Chris

[Jochen Prien]

Chris,

I don't think that the term "Experte" was coined by some post-war English speaking authors but that it was rather a sort of German fighter pilot slang word expressing the high esteem in which the successful flyers were held among their own crowd, definitely already in use during the war.

The German Propaganda also used that sticky term of Flieger-As or just plain As; although it certainly appeared in the text of some PK-reports, the term you cited was much too clumsy and pretentious to make it into colloquial German speech and was too long for any head-line anyway.

KR

Jochen

[CJE]

Thanks for the explanation, Jochen.

Chris

[VtwinVince]

Jochen is correct, sort of like the term 'Kanone' in the first war.