German fighter pilot who flew the most combat missions?

[krichter33]

I was wondering which German fighter pilot flew the most combat missions. I know Hartmann flew around 1400, Barkhorn around 1100, and Bar over 1000. Does anyone have any more info? Thanks.

[Delmenhorst]

Erich Hartmann 825 Feindflüge, Barkhorn 1104 FF and Bär around 1000. Herbert Ihlefeld also had over 1000 FF. Hrabak, Hackl and Rudorffer also had around that number.
Schlachtfliegerpilots also had a lot of missions behind them. Nordmann had around 1300 FF, Lang 1008, Boerst 1060, Stähler around 1100, Ålenzat 1234, Gläser 1123 and Pölz 1055.

[krichter33]

About Hartmann. I'm confused about his total. Some sources say he flew over 1400 combat missions, being awarded the flight clasp with pendant for 1300, and that during these combat missions he "engaged in aerial combat" 825 times. What is the truth. Did he fly 1400 FF or 825? Considering he started flying towards the middle of the war 1400 did sound a bit high.

[krichter33]

...as far as Schlachtfliegerpilots, other than Rudel of course, Nordmann had the most.

[Rob Romero]

Hartmann had some 1400 flights -of these 825 were FFs or FrontFlugs or combat flights/missions.

[Ota Jirovec]

Hello krichter33,

Hartmann´s alleged total of 1404 combat flights is almost certainly not correct and might be a confusion with a total of flights flown by him by 8 May 1945, including training etc. I´d say that there are at least two hints that lead to 825 as stated e.g. in Obermaier´s Ritterkreuzträger der Luftwaffe, Jagdflieger 1939 - 1945:
- According to Toliver + Constable´s Holt Hartmann vom Himmel Erich Hartmann claimed his 150th victory on 13 December 1943 during his 391st combat flight (this information should come from his 1st logbook that survived the war), than means 391 combat flights in some 14 months. It is hard to believe that he managed to fly next 1000+ combat flights in the following 17 months till the war´s and (and that in these hypothetical 1000 sorties he would add "only" 202 more claims) - moreover several Hartmann´s Flugverbote and home leaves took place during 1944-1945 period.
- Other JG 52´s high-scoring Experten who commenced their combat careers just a little later than Hartmann and spent similar time in combat on the Eastern Front (such as Lipfert, Batz, Wolfrum...) have their sortie totals well within 400 - 700 range.

Hope this helps,

Ota

[krichter33]

Thanks for the reply. 825 combat missions makes a lot more sense. Is Barkhorn, then, the Luftwaffe jagdflieger who flew the most combat missions, or is there someone else?

[Csaba B. Stenge]

krichter33,

To me, 1400+ combat sorties sounds certainly impossible by Hartmann, I agree with Ota. Just look for a similar pilot, who joined JG 52 just a bit later, than Hartmann, Helmut Lipfert. His career is well documented by the remained contemporary sources and he logged less, than 700 combat sorties. It is simply impossible to fly more, than twice in the same period by a similar pilot in the same unit. (Lipfert was an instructor for a while but still - they both were not hospitalized for a long time or whatever).

Possible it was Barkhorn, who flew the most sorties among German fighter pilots. Among Schlachtfliegers, many of them breached the 1000 sortie mark, partly with Fw 190s (I suppose one of them, Willi Noller is still with us).

[Thimmig]

Which Stuka-pilot had the most combat sorties? Did they usually have more or less sorties than that of their brothers in arms who flew fighters?

[G.R.Morrison]

To quote from the late Ernst Obermaier:

The crews of the Stuka and assault aircraft (Hs 123, Hs 129, Bf 109, FW 190) achieved mission counts not even remotely reached by any other air forces, or within the Luftwaffe. About two hundred crewmen are known to have flown over 500 missions - and twenty-three flew more than 1,000 missions. Hans-Ulrich Rudel of the St.G. 2 flew over 2,500 missions. Crews of both the St.G. 2 and the St.G. 77 flew over 100,000 sorties on the Ju 87 by the spring of 1944, before converting to the FW-190.

GRM