Top ace of the calendar year

[knusel]

Good evening Gentlemen,

I have 39 kills for Josten in 1945, too.

I have 71 JG3 kills for Dahl (1941-1944), 14 kills for Dahl between 7Jul44 and 5Dec44 in JG300, 11 kills between 27Jan45 and 21Feb45 in JG300, and 7 kills in Mar/Apr with EJG2. This is nearly analogous to your findings and it leaves at least 25 kills of the calendar year 1945 open to debate.
Interestingly, these authors seem to have believed him:

• Toliver/Constable (1968): 128 kills total
• Musciano (1982): 128 kills total
• Forsyth (2011): 126 kills total
• Weal (2013): 129 (!) kills total
• Schumann: 128 kills total

Cheers,

Michael

[Alfred.MONZAT]

Dahl's (14) victories between 7 July 1944 and 5 December 1944 in JG300 are dubious but we can assume he flew the combat missions.

For the (11) victories between 27 January 1945 and 21 February 1945 it is highly unlikely he was still flying with JG 300, the unit was still on the Westfront in January 1945 and Dahl claims from 27 to 29 January were against russian aircraft. His claims for the 30th were even dubious as the 8th and 15th Air Forces were grounded on that day...
I am surprised Lorant & Goyat mention these victories (I have not my books on hands).

Then he claimed to have served with III./EJG 2 and scored his first jet victories in late March 1945. So in one month he scored 25+ victories and then converted to the Me 262 ?
I am also surprised that Foreman credits Dahl with 7 jet victories.

That's sad that all these researchers, due to the scarce of sources, have to trust the pilots. In most cases, that's not a problem as most talk in good faith. That would not be the first time (during or post-War) that Dahl took advantage of the situation to increase his fame.

It make me being suspicious when hearing from some pilots such as Dahl, Stigler or Galland, so maybe I'm overreacting but for me it make no sense to just copy and past the "128" Dahl wrote in his book. If no original source other than Dahl's book mention victories for Dahl in 1945, for me his score for 1945 is at 0. After all, he was Inspekteur der Tagjäger, a staff post, from 26 January 1945 to the end of the War. But feel free to contradict me.

[focusfocus]

Hello

The list of ACE in a day can be long!
Among the "lesser known",one can add:

Korner 5
Stahlschmidt 5
Langanke 7
Schultz 5
Bendert 5
F. K. Muller 5
Loschenkohl 5
Drdla 5
Bauer 5(X3)
Sochatzy 5(X2)
Ohlrogge 8
Von Einsiedel 5
Lemke 6
Ewald 5
Arnold 9
Schumacher 6
Neumann 8
Reuter 6 ( ALL verifiable and verified: on 23 claims,19 are verified,it's quite remarkable )

etc...etc...

best regards
michel

[Johannes]

Hi Guys

I believe Dahl had unconfirmed claims amongst his alleged 129, I have found thirteen unconfirmed for him. I would say his confirmed was ninety+ of which eighteen+ for 1945. I also agree that Josten was the top ace of 1945, Brendel a close second with thirty-five, Josten also had many unconfirmed during 1945, at least seven including four on 20th February due to no witness.

For 1943 Nowotny had 194 confirmed claims Nr.62-255.

For 1944 Hartmann had 177 confirmed claims Nr.160-336

Best month Emil Lang with sixty-eight in October 1943 Nr.22-89

Best day seventeen by Marseille 1st September 1942 Nr.99-115, and Lang 3rd November 1943 Nr.98-114, possibly also August Lambert during 1944(evidence lacking)

Don't think Nowotny Hartmann and Lang were very honest, but Josten, Marseille and Brendel were.....perhaps Marseille was the best ever.

Kind Regards

Johannes

[knusel]

Hello Johannes,

nice to hear from you. Very interesting post.
You're right, Hartmann has 177 in 1944, not 172.
I didn't know for sure that Lang holds the record for the most kills in any month. He is also the top-scorer of all those who have not scored in the Bf109, isn't he ?

Cheers,

Michael

[Johannes]

Hi Michael

surely Nowotny and Kittel outscored Lang in the Fw190, not sure when each stopped flying the Bf109.

Another statistic for you.......ACE in a day i.e pilots that had five or more confirmed claims in a day, unfortunately it looks like the majority are those deemed "overclaimers", but the most such days is seventeen by both Nowotny and Hartmann, others are:-

Rudorffer 13
Weissenberger 12
Batz 12
Kirscher 11
Schuck 9
Hans Phillip 9
Franz Dorr 9
Kittel 8
Marseille 8
Graf 8
Wolfrum 7
Norz 7
Emil Lang 7
Hafner 7
Ehrler 6
Oskar-Heinz Bär 6
Barkhorn 6
Gollob 6
Stotz 6
Jennewein 5
Josten 5
Gerhard Hoffmann 5
Dickfeld 5
Birkner 5
Oskar Romm 5

For the biggest days, again the majority are by those deemed "overclaimers"

No details about August Lambert's, but we are led to believe 17, 14, and 12(17th April 1944) SG units seemed not to add there claims to the daily sheets at the exact time they were claiming lots, but a couple of flugbuch suggest Lamberts possible.

After Marseille and Lang's seventeens:-

Hubert Strassel 15 on 5th July 1943 (nr.38-52)
Wilhelm Batz 15 on 31st May 1944 (nr.141-155)
Erich Rudorffer 14 on 6th November 1943(nr.104-117)
Franz Schall 13 on 31st August 1944(nr.97-109)
Johannes Wiese 12(plus 1 unconfirmed) on 5th July 1943 (nr.70-81)
Lang 12 on 21st October 1943 (nr.57-68)
Adolf Dickfeld ~11 on 8th May 1942 (nr.63-73)
Walter Wolfrum 11 on 30th May 1944 (nr.79-89)
Walter Schuck 11 on 17th June 1944 (nr.102-112)
Erich Hartmann 11 on 24th August 1944 (nr.291-301)
Schall 11 on 26th August 1944 (nr.83-93)
Rudorffer 11 on 28th October 1944 (nr.194-204)
Hermann Graf 10 on 23rd September 1944 (nr.188-197)
Maximilian Stotz 10 on 30th December 1942 (nr.120-129)
Nowotny 10 on 24th June 1943 (nr.115-124)
Nowotny 10 on 1st September 1943 (nr.174-183)
Lang 10 on 13th October 1943 (nr.47-56)
Hartmann 10 on 26th February 1944 (nr.193-202)
Wolfrum 10 on 16th July 1944 (Nr.114-123)

Hopefully someday we will come across some useful documents regarding Lambert.

Kind Regards

Johannes

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi Johannes,

Regarding your last sentence, 4./J.G. 54 was flying FW 190 fighter-bomber missions in the northern sector at the time, so it had very few opportunities to claim aerial victories, hence why it wasn't claiming like the 5. Staffel.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

[Johannes]

Hi Michael

Almost all claims sheets I have viewed have but a single witness, a little story about the attack, and information about ammunition used, but yes one witness.

Most likely is that these guys were opportunists. But I know Lang took Hoffmann to 9./JG 54 with him. III./JG 54 generally made accurate claims, but with Hoffmann as his wingman I assume the same thing continued, though more likely the opportunity to do so was less often due to larger groups flying together.

Again not so sure about Groß, but he was Lang's wingman at JG 26. This Geschwader was generally very accurate in it's claims, though I do recount a former JG 2 pilot and Ritterkreuzträger continuing his bad habits with them.

Kind Regards

Johannes

[knusel]

Hello Johannes,

thanks for your post.
Cross-checking I found Adolf Galland's 1940 score rather to be 57, not 58, unless his 20May1940 claim was confirmed after 1941, was it ?

Cheers,

Michael

[knusel]

Good morning Gentlemen,

the list needs an update with all the corrections and additions gathered so far:

Year / Top ace of the calendar year / victories
1915 Max Immelmann & Lanoe Hawker 7
1916 Oswald Boelcke 34
1917 Manfred von Richthofen 48
1918 René Fonck 56

1936 Joaquin Garcia-Morato 15,5
1937 Joaquin Garcia-Morato 13
1938 Werner Mölders & Tetsuzo Iwamoto 14 and/or Sergei Gritsevets 7+24
1939 Hiromichi Shinohara 58
1940 Adolf Galland 57
1941 Günther Lützow 83
1942 Hermann Graf 160
1943 Walter Nowotny 194
1944 Erich Hartmann 177
1945 Walther Dahl 43 (dubious), maybe rather Günther Josten 39

1950 Stepan Naumenko & Li Don Gu 5
1951 Nikolai Sutyagin 19
1952 Frederick Blesse 10
1953 Joseph McConnell 16

1967 Nguyen Van Coc 6

1970 Abraham Shalmon 5,5

1972 Richard Ritchie & Randall Cunningham 5
1973 Giora Epstein 12

1980 Yadollah Sharifirad 5

1982 Amir Nahumi 6

Cheers,

Michael