Galahad wrote:Rickenbacker had 26 kills, and flew in combat a shorter time than did Goering.
And Udet publicly said that Goering had falsified his kill record.
You may think Goering was a fantastic pilot--I don't.
Do you have any other opinionated nits you want to pick?
So, now Göring falsified his war-record? Wow, he must have had some gnarly powers to pull that one off. :roll:
Anyway, it is a mystery to my why you want to say that a German pilot with the Blue Max was not a GREAT pilot, just a GOOD pilot.
Even Max Immelmann himself only had 15 kills and ranks 102 out of 393 German aces, to Göring’s 56th place with 22 kills!
The great Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen ended his WWI career with only 8 kills.
And the great Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim, who succeeded Göring as Luftwaffe chief, slightly beats “Fat” Hermann with 28 kills and 38th place.
I stand corrected. Eddie Rickenbacker did have 26 kills, not 22 as I stated. (I looked up the spelling of his name as well.)
Here are some other interesting facts:
Rickenbacker is the ONLY U.S. ace who beats Göring’s score! The next is Gillet with 20 kills.
The great Frank Luke of Arizona had 18 kills and is in 6th place for American pilots.
Of course, we are not comparing anything but total scores here and, as you noted, the American pilots probably had fewer sorties.
But what about French and British pilots? Did they not have enough time for glory as well?
Göring’s 22 kills would have ranked him as 26th out of 607 English aces, and 11th out of 182 French aces. Comparable figures can be found for Canada, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and even Russia, where Göring beats all of the Tsar's flyboys!
Pretty impressive, I’d say.
Nevertheless, you have the right to your opinion as well.
)
