Rall.

This is coolbert:

"In my experience, the RAF pilot was the most aggressive and capable fighter pilot during the Second World War." - - Rall.

Here with the obituary [4 October] for Generalleutnant Günther Rall. Thanks to the Telegraph.

"Generalleutnant Günther Rall"

German fighter pilot and World War Two ace. Survived the war and had a subsequent successful military career as well. Another German pilot from that conflict [WW2] whose exploits almost defy the imagination. In the same league as Hartmann and Rudel, and perhaps even more so!

"Generalleutnant Günther Rall, who has died aged 91, was one of the few outstanding German fighter leaders to survive the Second World War; by the end of the conflict he was the third-highest-scoring fighter ace of all time with 275 aerial victories."

"He achieved a total of 275 victories during World War II: 272 on the Eastern Front, of which 241 were against Soviet fighters. He flew a total of 621 combat missions, was shot down 8 times and was wounded 3 times"

"In postwar years he was one of the founding fathers of the modern German Air Force and rose to become its chief"

"During his time on the Eastern Front, Rall came up against many excellent Soviet pilots and was himself shot down seven times"

"On May 12 1944 he attacked a large formation and shot down two USAAF P-47 Thunderbolts, but was then himself shot down"

"He flew the P-51 and was amazed at the luxury and quality of the American planes."

"Rall flew against all the major Allied fighters and had a high regard for the Spitfire and the Russian Lavochkin 7, which appeared on the scene as he was leaving the Eastern Front, but he always considered the USAAF's P-51 Mustang to be supreme."

Comments:

* Rall should be considered as the authoritative source concerning WW2 aerial combat? This man of all would know? I think so. When Rall says the British combat fliers were the best, or that the Ameerican P-51 was the best fighter aircraft of WW2, no further comment is required?

* Personally I have a degree of skepticism about those very high number of "kills" the Germans aerial aces of WW2 were able to attain. I am wrong about this? Extraordinary claims of aerial victories were valid and NOT exaggeration nor included planes destroyed on the ground, etc.? Granted, in the early days of combat on the Eastern Front, flying against inferior Soviet aircraft piloted by Russians of inferior training and experience, a high number of "kills" was "easily" possible? Things got stiffer as the war went on however! Rall excelled at all times, regardless of who was the adversary! 275 "kills" is NOT embellishment, exaggeration, or anything other than the truth!!

* The number one American pilot and ace of WW2 was Dick Bong, with forty "kills". An achievement for which Major Bong was awarded the Medal of Honor. Contrast that forty kills figure with the 275 of Rall!!

* Rall was shot down eight times, wounded three times, surviving the war in a miraculous manner! Rall had to bail out eight times while his plane fell from the sky? Rall was very LUCKY too. And not totally omnipotent in the air as a combat pilot. Was human, fallible, and again, very LUCKY!

coolbert.