Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron," perhaps the most famous ace

The "first ace", Adolphe Pegoud being awarded the Croix de Guerre

A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Adolphe Célestin Pégoud ( 13 June 1889 - 31 August 1915) was a well known French Aviator who became the first Fighter The Croix de Guerre (sometimes lowercase in French Croix de guerre, meaning "Cross of War" is a military decoration of both France and Military aviation is the use of Aircraft and other flying machines for the purposes of conducting or enabling warfare including national airlift ( Cargo) capacity The actual number of air victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied, but is usually considered to be five or more.

History

World War I

See also: List of World War I air aces

Use of the term ace in military aviation circles began in World War I (1914–18), when French newspapers described Adolphe Pegoud, as l'as (French for "ace") after he became the first pilot to down five German aircraft. The following is a list of World War I flying aces. A Flying ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy Aircraft during aerial World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Adolphe Célestin Pégoud ( 13 June 1889 - 31 August 1915) was a well known French Aviator who became the first Fighter Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The term had been popularized in prewar French newspapers when referring to sports stars such as football (soccer) players and bicyclists. Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a Team sport played between two teams of eleven players and is widely considered Bicycle racing encompasses many forms in which Bicycles are used for competition This is the reason why "ace" is also used to refer to non-aviators who have distinguished themselves by sinking ships and destroying tanks. A ship /ʃɪp/ is a large vessel that floats on water Ships are generally distinguished from Boats based on size A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical

The German Empire instituted the practice of awarding the Pour le Mérite ("Der blaue Max"/"The blue Max"), its highest award for gallantry, initially to aviators who had destroyed eight Allied aircraft. The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification The Pour le Mérite, known informally during World War I as the Blue Max (Blauer Max was the Kingdom of Prussia 's highest military order until The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. ^[1] The Germans did not use the term 'ace' but referred to German pilots who had achieved 10 kills as Überkanone and publicised their names and scores, for the benefit of civilian morale. Qualification for the Pour le Mérite was progressively raised as the war went on. ^[2]

In 1914–16, the British Empire did not have a centralised system of recording aerial victories, in fact this was done at squadron level throughout the war. The British Empire was the largest empire in history and for over a century was the foremost global power. Nor did they publish official statistics on the successes of individuals, although some pilots did become famous through press coverage. ^[3] However, after 1916, a (more or less) automatic award of a Military Cross was made to a pilot with five air combats endorsed as "decisive" by the commanding officer of his squadron, although the term "ace" was never used officially by the British. The Military Cross ( MC) is the third level Military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993 other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to

In 1914–18, different air services also had different methods of assigning credit for kills. The German Luftstreitkräfte credited "confirmed" victories only for enemy planes assessed as destroyed or captured after either examining the enemy aircraft (or what was left of it) on the ground, or the capture or confirmed death of enemy aircrew. The Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte or Imperial German Army Air Service ( Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches) was the over-land air arm of the German For instance the shooting down of Albert Ball was credited to Lothar von Richthofen after his death was confirmed by the British, although the wreckage of Ball's SE.5a was in fact never identified, and Richthofen's claim was actually for a Sopwith Triplane! Most aerial fighting was on the German side of the lines so this quite rigorous system worked reasonably well for the Germans themselves, but would have been totally impractical for the Allied air forces. Albert Ball VC, DSO & Two Bars, MC (14 August 1896 - 7 May 1917 was an English First World War fighter pilot and recipient of Lothar-Siegfried Freiherr von Richthofen ( 27 September 1894 &ndash 4 July 1922) was a German First World War WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout British pilots, in particular, on offensive patrol many miles over the German lines, were often not in a position to confirm that an apparently destroyed enemy aircraft had in fact crashed, so that victories were claimed as "driven down", "forced to land", or "out of control". The United States Army Air Service followed a similar practice. The United States Army Air Service was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. For example, Eddie Rickenbacker's 26 official victories included ten planes "out of control" and several "dived east", which would (at best) have been credited as "probables" in later wars. Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (October 8 1890 &ndash July 27 1973 was an American fighter ace in World War I and Medal of Honor recipient

Another feature of the German system was that where several pilots attacked and destroyed a single enemy, only one pilot (often the formation leader) was credited with the kill. Most other nations adopted the French Armee de l'Air system of granting full credit to every pilot or aerial gunner participating in a victory, which could sometimes be six or seven individuals. The French Air Force ( French: Armée de l'Air (ALA literally Air Army) is the Air force of the French Armed Forces. The British did not, crediting fractions of a kill to airmen if multiple aeroplanes shot down an enemy, resulting in the "fractional" scores (say "7½") of some British aces.

While "ace" status was generally won only by fighter pilots; several bomber and reconnaissance crews, on both sides, also destroyed several enemy aircraft, typically in defending themselves from fighter attack. An example was an action on 23 August 1918, in which the Bermudian pilot, Lt Arthur Spurling claimed the destruction of three D.VIIs with his DH-9's fixed, forward-firing machine gun, while his gunner Sgt Frank Bell claimed two more with his rear gun. Events 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan the Roman god of fire Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Ba (officially The Bermuda Islands or The Somers Isles) is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Fokker DVII was a German World War I Fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz The Airco DH9 (from de Havilland 9 also known after 1920 as the de Havilland DH Spurling was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on the strength of this action. The Distinguished Flying Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom 's Royal Air Force and other services, and formerly

World War II

Erich Hartmann, the highest-scoring ace in history, with 352 kills claimed

Ilmari Juutilainen, the highest-scoring non-German ace in history, with 94 kills claimed

See also: List of World War II air aces

In World War II, many air forces adopted the British practice of crediting fractional shares of aerial victories, resulting in fractions or decimal scores, such as 11½ or 26. Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann (19 April 1922 &ndash 20 September 1993 also nicknamed " The Blond Knight of Germany " by friends and " The Black Eino Ilmari Juutilainen ( 21 February 1914– was the top scoring non-German fighter pilot of all time This is a list of the top World War II aces. Fighter aces in World War II had tremendously varying kill scores affected as they were by many factors the pilot's World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including 83. Some U. S. commands also credited aircraft destroyed on the ground as equal to aerial victories. The Soviets distinguished between solo and group kills, as did the Japanese, though the IJN stopped crediting individual victories in 1943. For Combined Fleet, please see that article For Carrier Striking Task Force, please see that article The Luftwaffe continued the tradition of "one pilot, one kill", and now referred to top scorers as experten. ( German 'luftvafe is a generic German term for an Air force. ^[4]

The Soviet Air Force had the world's only female aces. The Soviet Air Force, also known under the abbreviation VVS, transliterated from Russian: ВВС, Военно-воздушные силы ( Voenno-Vozdushnye During World War II, Lydia Litvyak scored 12 victories and Katya Budanova achieved 11. Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak, ( Лидия Владимировна Литвяк, August 18, 1921 &ndash August 1, 1943) also known Yekaterina Vasylievna Budanova, also known as Katya Budanova ( Екатерина Васильевна Буданова) ( December

The huge tallies accrued by German World War II aces are partly explained by the Luftwaffe's technical and tactical superiority over the Allies during the first half of the war. Many kills were over obsolescent aircraft and against either poorly-trained or inexperienced pilots fielded by the Allies, especially the Soviets. In addition, Luftwaffe pilots generally flew many more sorties (sometimes up to 1000 operations) than their Allied counterparts. Sortie is a term for deployment or dispatch of one military unit be it of Aircraft, Ship or in older times of columns of troops from a fort Additionally, national policies differed; Axis pilots tended to return to the cockpit over and over again until killed, captured or incapacitated, while very successful Allied pilots were either progressively promoted to ranks and positions that involved less combat flying, or routinely rotated back to training bases to educate cadet flyers, to equip younger pilots with valuable combat knowledge from the experienced aces to survive battle and improve the overall fighting ability of the aerial fighter force. Having said all this - in spite of theoretically very stringent criteria for crediting "kills" in the Luftwaffe it has to be said that some German claims were over-optimistic (see next section).

Accuracy

Realistic assessment of enemy casualties is important for intelligence purposes^[5] - so most air forces expend considerable effort to ensure accuracy in victory claims. Military intelligence (abbreviated MI int Commonwealth, or intel Despite this, very few recognized aces actually shot down as many aircraft as credited to them. The primary reason for inaccurate victory claims is the inherent confusion of three-dimensional, high speed combat between large numbers of aircraft, but competitiveness and the desire for recognition (not to mention sheer optimistic enthusiasm) also figure in certain inflated claims, especially when the attainment of a specific total is required for a particular decoration or promotion. Consequently, errors of 50 to 100% and more are common in air victory claims. In World War II, the aircraft gun camera came into general usage, partly in hope of alleviating inaccurate victory claims. Gun cameras are Cameras used in Military vehicles to help measure tactical effectiveness In the Korean War, both the U. The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the S. and Communist air arms claimed a 10 to 1 victory-loss ratio.

The most accurate figures usually belong to the air arm fighting over its own territory, where many wrecks can be located, and even identified, and where shot down enemy are either killed or captured. It is for this reason that at least 76 of the 80 planes credited to Manfred von Richthofen can be tied to known British losses — the German Jagdstaffeln flew defensively, on their own side of the lines, in part due to General Hugh Trenchard's policy of offensive patrol. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard 1st Viscount Trenchard GCB OM GCVO DSO (3 February 1873 - 10 February During the 1939-45 conflict night fighter claims (where one fighter would usually detect and attempt to shoot down one bomber aircraft at a time) avoided the confusion of the classic day dogfight to a great extent, and proved among the most reliable and verifiable.

On the other hand, losses (especially in terms of aircraft as opposed to personnel) are sometimes reported inaccurately, for various reasons. Nearly 50% of RAF victories in the Battle of Britain, for instance, do not tally statistically with recorded German losses - but some at least of this apparent over-claiming can be tallied with known wrecks, and aircrew known to have been in British POW camps. The Battle of Britain (German ''Luftschlacht um England'' is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and ^[6] There are in fact a number of legitimate reasons why reported losses may be understated - including poor reporting procedures and loss of records due to enemy action or wartime confusion.

Ace in a day

Muhammad Mahmood Alam is the last pilot to date to become an "ace in a day". Muhammad Mahmood Alam (মুহাম্মদ মাহমুদ আলম Urdu: محمد محمود عالم) or shortly M Pictured here with his F-86 Sabre shortly after the 1965 war and the kill markings of Indian Air Force fighters he shot down.

The term "ace in a day" is used to designate a fighter pilot who has shot down five or more airplanes in a single day. The most notable is Hans-Joachim Marseille of Germany, who was credited with downing 17 Allied fighters in just three sorties over North Africa on September 1, 1942, during World War II. Hans-Joachim Marseille (13 December 1919&ndash30 September 1942 German /hants joːaxɪm maʀsɛj/ was a Luftwaffe fighter pilot and North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Events 462 - Possible start of first Byzantine indiction cycle. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The highest number aerial victories for a single day was claimed by Emil Lang, who claimed 18 Soviet fighters on November 3, 1943. Emil "Bully" Lang ( 14 January, 1909 - 3 September, 1944) was one of the most respected Luftwaffe Experten during Events 644 - Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim Caliph, is killed by a Persian slave in Medina. Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Erich Rudorffer is credited with the destruction of 13 aircraft in a single mission on October 11, 1943. Major Erich Rudorffer (born 1 November 1917) is a German former Luftwaffe Fighter ace, one of a handful who served with Events 1138 - A massive earthquake struck Aleppo, Syria. 1531 - Huldrych Zwingli is killed Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Numerous other Luftwaffe pilots also claimed the title during World War II.

On December 5, 1941, the leading Australian ace of World War II, Clive Caldwell, destroyed five German aircraft in the space of a few minutes, also in North Africa. Events 63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations. Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Group Captain Clive Robertson Caldwell, DSO, DFC and Bar (28 July 1910&ndash5 August 1994 was the leading Australian North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan He received a Distinguished Flying Cross for the feat. The Distinguished Flying Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom 's Royal Air Force and other services, and formerly

During World War II, 68 U. S. pilots—43 Army Air Forces, 18 Navy, and seven Marine Corps—were credited the feat, including David McCampbell, who claimed seven Japanese planes shot down on June 19, 1944 (during the "Marianas Turkey Shoot"), and nine in a single mission on October 24, 1944. The United States Army Air Forces ( USAAF) was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. Captain David S McCampbell (January 16 1910 - June 30 1996 was an American Naval aviator, who became the US Navy ’s all-time leading ace Events 1179 - The Norwegian Battle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Battle of the Philippine Sea (aka "The Marianas Turkey Shoot" was a decisive naval battle of World War II, and the largest aircraft carrier battle in history Events 69 - Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus the commander of the Danube armies loyal to Vespasian, defeat Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Others included Joe Foss, Chuck Yeager and Oscar Francis Perdomo, the last US "ace in a day"^[7]. Joseph Jacob "Joe" Foss (April 17 1915&ndashJanuary 1 2003 was a leading " ace " fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps during Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (born February 13 1923 is a retired Brigadier-General in the United States Air Force and a noted Test pilot. Major Oscar Francis Perdomo ( July 14, 1919 – March 2, 1976) a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, was a United States

Other pilots to have claimed "ace in a day" status during World War II include Antoni Glowacki of Poland, during the Battle of Britain, and Jorma Sarvanto of Finland, during the Winter War. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland The Battle of Britain (German ''Luftschlacht um England'' is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and Jorma Kalevi Sarvanto ( February 22, 1912 &ndash October 16, 1963) was a Finnish Air Force pilot and the foremost Finnish Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. The Winter War (Talvisota Советско-финляндская война - official Зимняя война - unofficial Vinterkriget began when the Captain Hans Wind of HLeLv 24, Finnish Air Force, scored five kills in a day a remarkable five times during the Soviet Summer Offensive 1944, a total of 30 kills in 12 days, of his final tally of 75. Hans Henrik "Hasse" Wind ( July 30 1919, Ekenäs - July 24 1995, Tampere) was a Finnish fighter pilot The Finnish Air Force (FAF ( Finnish: Ilmavoimat, Swedish: Flygvapnet) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces.

The last pilot credited with this feat was Pakistani F-86 pilot Squadron Leader Muhammad Mahmood Alam, during the 1965 war with India. Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Muhammad Mahmood Alam (মুহাম্মদ মাহমুদ আলম Urdu: محمد محمود عالم) or shortly M During the war, he downed nine Hawker Hunters of the Indian Air Force in a single day, four of them reportedly within less than a minute. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout ^[8]

See also

• List of World War II aces by country
• List of Spanish Civil War air aces
• List of Korean War air aces
• List of Vietnam War flying aces
• List of flying aces in Arab-Israeli wars
• List of U-boat aces ("Aces of the Deep")

References

• Hobson, Chris. Vietnam Air Losses, USAF, USN, USMC, Fixed-Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia 1961–1973. North Branch, Minnesota: Specialty Press, 2001. ISBN 1-85780-1156.
• Lake, John The Battle of Britain London, Amber Books 2000 ISBN 1-85605-535-3
• Stenman, Kari and Keskinen, Kalevi. Finnish Aces of World War 2, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces, number 23. London: Osprey Publishing. 1998. ISBN 952-5186-24-5.
• Toliver & Constable. Horrido!: Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe (Aero 1968)
• Toperczer, Istvan. MIG-17 and MIG-19 Units of the Vietnam War. Osprey Combat Aircraft, number 25. (2001).
• _________. MIG-21 Units of the Vietnam War. Osprey Combat Aircraft, number 29. (2001).

External links

• Fighter ace list (10,000+ names)