Ace statistics

[UFA_Bagel]

Interesting to know more statistics of top WWII aces. For example, the rating by number of aerial victories per aerial combat or average number of shots per plane down. Does anybody have such information?

Edited July 19, 2020 by elegz

[357th_KW]

https://www.amazon.com/Luftwaffe-Fighter-Aces-Jagdflieger-Techniques/dp/0804116962/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1595351053&sr=8-19
 

That may be as close as you can get.  The book focuses only on the Luftwaffe, but makes some interesting comparisons based on theater and kills/sortie.  
 

Related to the subject I’d also recommend https://www.amazon.com/Alarmstart-East-Fighter-Experience-1941-1945-ebook/dp/B07JJSHS43/ref=sr_1_3?crid=WU00HCOBI92W&dchild=1&keywords=alarmstart&qid=1595351434&s=digital-text&sprefix=Alarmstart%2Caps%2C860&sr=1-3

 

The author digs into some of the minutiae of the Luftwaffe victory claims process.  There are some factors there that you should consider before putting too much weight on victory totals and such.  Both are very fun reads.

 

[PatrickAWlson]

One thing that I find interesting is that Western Allied and German victories per mission are not all that different.  What's different is the number of missions flown.

[Eisenfaustus]

 

3 hours ago, KW_1979 said:

That may be as close as you can get.  The book focuses only on the Luftwaffe, but makes some interesting comparisons based on theater and kills/sortie.  

He also wrote a volume about allied fighter aces - also very interesting. Always hoped he‘d one day also come up with something about „theother“ aces. Soviet, french, Japanese, Italian and so on

his work about lw bomber aces also was a great read. 

[UFA_Bagel]

1 hour ago, PatrickAWlson said:

One thing that I find interesting is that Western Allied and German victories per mission are not all that different.  What's different is the number of missions flown.

 

Yes, exactly. Large number of sorties of German pilots also results from their tactics to relocate units constantly to the hottest areas or to split units and locate them on different airfields for maximum utilisation.