Why German Aces Might Be Wrong

This video walks us through an interesting study that looks through the verification of German fighter ace kill claims. The results of the study show that there’s a significant difference between notable aces, Erich Hartmann and Gerhard Barkhorn, the number 1 and 2 pilots on the leaderboard.

It also states that among the leading German fighter aces, only 20% of their victories can be potentially verified. There also might be another top scorer.

What’s an Ace?

An Ace is a pilot that shot down five enemy aircraft. Back in WWII, we had Germans topping the rankings.

There were two pilots credited with shooting down more than 300 aircraft. There were also a dozen that were credited with shooting down more than 200.

WWII Kill Verification

Back in WWII, the Germans did have specific rules on how a kill was verified. First, the pilot has to file a claim. Then, they’ll need eyewitnesses. Pilots often wait for weeks, even months to have something verified.

However, by the war’s end, the process got a lot quicker. Previous accomplishments are also taken into consideration when filing a claim. The more kills you get, the quicker things get verified.

The Role of Propaganda

There’s also an element of propaganda to boost the people’s confidence in the war and support the regime. There are contextual reasons why German pilots are so high up on the leaderboard- German pilots didn’t rotate back.

American pilots, on the other hand, were rotated after their tour. Meanwhile, German pilots were stuck in their cockpit until the end of their service when they were shot down.

Different Degrees of Personal Scrutiny

According to the II./JG 52- Analysis of 8 Pilot Claims data based on Horvath (2022,) Verified Victories, showed that German Luftwaffe pilot Helmet Lipfert who was awarded 20 kills, 92% of these kills were verified. Meanwhile, German fighter ace Peter Duetmann who was awarded 150 kills, only 26% of these kills were verified.

We can conclude that many of these people filing reports or claims didn’t file them in bad faith. They probably, for the most part, got into an aerial battle, shot at an enemy plane, and assumed that it had gone down.

Also, these people are in an aircraft in an adrenaline-inducing, confusing, dogfight. There’s a large possibility that some pilots are good at verifying their skills than others.