#Ww ii fighter pilot full#

At the end of his first Pacific tour in January 1944, he had tallied 11 confirmed victories and 11 probables, including a triple on Oct. While only three percent of fighter pilots have become aces, Johnson earned that distinction less than seven weeks after his first confirmed victories–a double–on July 26, 1943. Jerry Johnson soon became known as one of the best shots in Fifth Air Force. George Kenney described Johnson as “little, soft-voiced, black-haired.” Johnson became one of Kenney’s favorite fighter pilots, respected for his gallantry and admired by his squadron mates.Īny World War II fighter pilot will tell you that the ability to shoot accurately at a moving target from a moving platform was more important than piloting finesse. In March 1943, after completing his combat tour in the Aleutians and making the transition to P-38s, Jerry Johnson was assigned to the 49th Fighter Group in the southwest Pacific at the same time as McGuire, who later was transferred to the 457th Group. Johnson, one of the top aces in Europe.) Unlike McGuire, who never saw an enemy plane over Alaska, Jerry Johnson claimed two victories in September 1942, neither officially confirmed. Johnson–cut their combat teeth over the Aleutian Islands.

Nevertheless, two of the highest-ranking AAF aces in the Pacific–second-ranking Tom McGuire and fourth-ranking Gerald R. It was, in fact, the only combat theater that produced not a single ace, due to the lack of enemy targets. Victories were against the Soviet Union.Alaska was not known as the spawning ground of aces during World War II. Triple-ace in a dayĭouble-ace in a day on two different occasionsĪce in each of two wars, first in aviation history with 100 victories Top scoring ace outside the Eastern Front. Jet ace with 12 victories in Me 262, Double-ace in a day First ever with 300 victories, achieved coincident with Double-ace in a dayĭouble-ace in a day on two different occasions. This background, along with the symbol '†', indicates that the pilot was killed in action, missing in action, died of wounds, or was killed in a flying accident during World War II. The most reliable is considered the confirmation of the victories in RAF, which based its counts on comparison of testimonials of participants and – if possible – film material. There are disputes about what is 'shot down' and what is 'air victory', but the most problematic seems to be credibility of reports and reliability of its confirmation, which was substantially different in particular air forces. It is necessary to emphasize that the question of assessing and comparing the success rate of fighters by number of victories is one of the more problematic. Probable kills are usually left out of the list. The Italian Air Force did not officially credit victories to individual pilots, but to their unit as a whole. The Soviets counted only solo kills, while group kills were counted separately, as did the Japanese. commands also credited aircraft destroyed on the ground. British, Finnish and US air forces credited fractional shares of aerial victories, resulting in fractions, such as 11½, which might be for example 10 aircraft and three shares with the second pilot.

#Ww ii fighter pilot full#

Germans credited a shared victory to only one pilot, while the French credited full victory to all participants.

It is not clear what impact each nation's rules for score crediting have on the counts listed below. Additionally, national policies differed German, Italian, and Japanese pilots tended to return to the cockpit over and over again until they were killed. Towards the end of the war, the Axis powers had largely exhausted their supply of skilled pilots and the replacements did not have as much opportunity to gain enough experience to be successful. Fighter aces in World War II had tremendously varying kill scores, affected as they were by many factors: the pilot's skill level, the performance of the airplane the pilot flew and the planes they flew against, how long they served, their opportunity to meet the enemy in the air (Allied to Axis disproportion), whether they were the formation's leader or a wingman, the standards their air service brought to the awarding of victory credits, et cetera.