[david cotton]

For me it has to be Don Blakeslee for his leader ship. . He did not worry about getting a personnel high score, he concentrated on making his group into an efficient fighting machine.

He even studied the strategic situation and worked with his superiors to over come the problems.

He inspired his men so that they became hunters of German Fighters, and confident that they could beat any German that they came across. Blakeslee also showed that skills such as Navigation could be a powerful weapon when done correctly.


He also worked with his officers and men at a tactical level. Their tactics exploited the weaknesses in the Luftwaffe and resulted in a kill Ratio of nearly 7:1.

[CKS1]

A very good read Mr Sergey.

Ta and cheers, CKS1.

P.S. Would love to see some home grown Russian WWII aircraft produced in diecast?????

[Captain Eddie]

Very interesting read, Sergey. Thanks for sharing it.

[FormerViperDriver]

I'll nominate Hans-Joachim Marseille, the "Star of Africa." His story is well known, so I won't repeat it.

I do think he may have been the greatest fighter pilot ever, but to tell the truth, there's no way to really make the difference between all the top aces in the various Air Forces and Navies in WW II. They fought under various conditions, and using equipment of varying quality, so who's to say.

I admire them all.

Berkut76's story, though, could only remind me of how much I want some 1/48 WW II Russian planes in my collection. I may have to resort to plastic kits.

FVD

[AVRO ARROW]

Hello;

Well my vote goes to a Great RAF Bomber pilot and squadron leader.

Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson VC, DFC, DSO 1 bar (39438) Leader of 617 Squadron ( The Dambusters ).

[Shawn 507]

Any pilot that entered a cockpit against the Nazi's, or Imperial Japanese. Sorry, I'll take Chuck U. Farley and his one kill to admire over any pilot that fought for Germany/Japan during WW 2.
- Shawn

[chiefs70]

Great post, Sergey. I always learn a great deal when you share your knowledge of the Eastern Front with us. I too would love to see a lot more of the Soviet birds.

[mustangdriver]

Originally Posted by Shawn 507

Any pilot that entered a cockpit against the Nazi's, or Imperial Japanese. Sorry, I'll take Chuck U. Farley and his one kill to admire over any pilot that fought for Germany/Japan during WW 2.
- Shawn

Hear hear!

[Berkut76]

Thanks for the support guys. I'm planning a research into the Soviet sturmovik pilots like Talgat Begeldinov who on February 21st, 1943 shot down Hans "Assi" Hahn. Generally speaking, the Soviets respected Luftwaffe pilots, but always questioned their motivation. When pilots of the Normandy squadron were given their first instructions on the Soviet soil, it was made clear to them that they are here to win the war and not engage in sports-like competition on who's going to have the biggest tally.

From 1943 onward it was prevalent for Luftwaffe pilots to engage the Soviet bombers and ground attack aircraft only after the Soviets completed their bombing runs picking on planes already heavily damaged by AA fire. This behavior was especially common among pilots transferred from the West, who were chasing the kill scores of those who fought in the East early in the campaign.

Regards,

Sergey

[parsig9]

I guess my favorite is Bob Tuck. I like his book by Larry Forester the best of those I've read. Clostermann b/c of the book is another great story.


Need to read more Navy/PTO books and it would seem Joe Foss and Butch O'hare should be on the list. So many bokks I've yet to read. Must be a Bong book out there but I've never tried to find it yet. Geeze, looks like this hobby will keep me busy a while....