best non fighter pilots

[daveh]

The post on famous pilots so far all talk about fighter pilots. More pilots were non fighter pilots than were fighter pilots. Can we restore the balance with a discussion on the skills, bravery and successes of bomber recce and other pliots.

Who flew the most bomber missions? I presume a German as they, unlike the Allies, did not have a system of tours of duty.

Who was the most effective ground attack pilot for each nation?
Hans Ulrich Rudel is well known but given the emphasis the Soviets placed on ground attack missions who from their ranks achieved similar success.

The allies in the West used large numbers of ground attack aircraft were there any particular successful ones - and please no references to fighter kills on the ground, I 'm referring to the destruction of AFV trains etc.

Who was the most successful torpedo bomber pilot? are such score known in the same way as fighter kills? An Italian SM 79 pilot perhaps given the British reports of their skilled and brave attacks.

Anti submarine aircraft were very important in the defeat of the U boats was their a particularly successful A/S pilot

Hanna Reitsch was a famous female test pilot are others known of?

I hope this leads to an interesting discussion and again I ask please put any references to fighter pilots, brave men that they were, to other posts eg that of hauptmann

[Csaba Becze]

Buscaglia was the most succesful Italian torpedo-bomber pilot (a well-known name)

I think, all countries had a lot of excellent and brave bomber and recce pilots also.

For example Hungary had many excellent recce pilots nad they flew thousands of sorties with WM 21, He 46 and Fw 189 short range recce planes, and He 70, He 111, Do 215 and Ju 88 long range recce planes.
Their fighting spirit was always very high. For example the long range recce planes attacked the Soviet long range recce planes when they met (in 1943 one Hungarian Ju 88D got a Soviet long range rec plane in air combat)

The Hungarian bomber pilots had many very succesful missions also, but generally during and after the war, always the fighters were the "stars" for the public.

[Victor]

The bomber pilot with the most missions is Hansgeorg Baetcher. Over 600 IIRC.

You are right that the actions of the other airmen are generally over shadowed by the glamorous fighter pilots, but that does not make less important or difficult.

As for Romanian non-fighter pilots I will try to select a few names:
Ju-87D: adj. sef. av. Nicolae Stan (over 300 missions), lt. av. Mircea Badulescu (262 missions)
Ju-88A: cpt. av. Craciun Salajan (over 180 misions), cpt. av. Eusebie Popovici (over 140 missions), lt. av. Dan Stoian (136), cpt. av. Gheorghe Stroici (130 missions)
He-111H3: cpt. av. Ion Profir (unknown number of missions, but according to many testimonies, probably the best Romanian bomber pilot; he was never shot down by VVS fighters, even though he encountered them many times, even on solo flights)

[Andy H]

Not much to add other than Gp.Capt L.Cheshire VC OM DSO** DFC flew exactly 100 bombing missions before being taken off op's.

He actually took a drop in rank in 1943 to continue flying but when he reached 100 they called it a day.

Andy H

[SM79Sparviero]

October, 18, 1940.
Three Savoia-Marchetti SM-82B long range bombers Took off from Ciampino airport each carrying a 1500 kg bomb load ( incendiary and high explosive 15, 20 and 50 kg bombs).
The pilots were colonel Ettore Muti ( the leader for the raid), colonel Fortunato Federici and captain Giorgio Meyer.
The take-off was very difficult because of the high weight on each aircraft ( 19500 kg) that had to be overcome by the full power of the engines, the result is usually a "torque" on the bomber and a spin opposed to the propellers.
The three officers were excellent pilots , colonel Muti had experimented a take-off with a 21300 kg SM-82!.
The three bombers directed to south-east over Cyprus, Syria, Irak to Barhein island in Persian Gulf and bombed Manama petrol storages and refineries , then crossed the Arabian desert and landed at Zula in Italian Erithrea.
The allied couldn't imagine that italian bombers could have such a range so the raid was completely unaspected , the refineries were not darkened.
The bombers took 15 hours 30 minutes to fly 4200 km mostly on the desert without mechanical problems.
Ettore Muti projected in 1943 to bomb again Manama and Bushira refineries with 12 SM-82 or with the bomber variant of the four engine floatplane CANT-Z-511.

[Germanica]

Without a doubt, Hans Ulrich Rudel was the most successful bomber pilot, as far as I'm concerned, in the whole of World War II.

519 tanks
1 battleship
1 destroyer
800 motorized vehicles
70 landing boats
150 AA's and AT'S
9 air victories

Regards,
Germanica

[daveh]

Many thanks to everyone for your posts. It is interesting to see the range of skills and the bravery shown by non fighter pilots of many nations.

[Harri]

What about flying personnel who were not pilots? There were so many brave men despite of their nationality that it is berhaps better to forget finding the "best one" and just concentrate on real heroes.

I have this one very good example on them: Finnish 2nd Lt.(res.) (later Captain and Flight Leader) Paavo Kahla (No.54). He was the observer in (Reconnaissance) Flying Squadron 16 during the whole war since 1939 and the results he gained were excellent. He was awarded the highest military decoration Mannerheim Cross 2nd Class on 26.4.1942. The plane he was flown with was Fokker CX.

One of his unbelievable "achievements" was that he flew a damaged plane back to a base after the pilot had been killed. Thanks to flight training observers also received in Finland he could succesfully land and save both the plane and his own life. He was killed in action during Lapland War when German AA shot his Fokker CX down.

Also another Finnish observers Lt. Rolf Winqvist (No.55) from Flying Squadron 44 (at the same date) and Lt. Lauri Äijö (No.182) of the same squadron on 21.12.1944 earned the same medal. Both of them were very qualified and experienced in their job. Flying Squadron 44 flew initially with Bristol Blenheims and since late spring 1943 with Junkers Ju 88A-4.

The Finnish non-fighter pilots awarded with Mannerheim Cross were:
- WO Viljo Salminen on 5.11.1941 (No.33), pilot in Flying Squadron 44
- WO Unto Oksala on 21.11.1943 (No.122), pilot in Flying Squadron 44

[Englander]

Adrian Warburton, Perhaps the best reconnaissance pilot on the allied side

http://home.freeuk.com/rmarg/warburton.htm

[Csaba Becze]

Nice pilot, but maybe this forum sounds about axis countries

Some eminent Hungarian rec. crewmembers:

The Sgt. Lajos Szoó - 1 st Lt. László Török crew claimed two confirmed air victories with He 46 in 1942.

Sgt. Géza Mészáros - 100 long range recce sorties, 2 confirmed kills.

And this crew attacked and downed a Soviet long range recce plane:

[mars]

Rudel's warship claim actually were 1 battleship, 1 cruiser and 1 destroyer, none of them could be confirmed by Soviet navy's loss list though.

Without a doubt, Hans Ulrich Rudel was the most successful bomber pilot, as far as I'm concerned, in the whole of World War II.

519 tanks
1 battleship
1 destroyer
800 motorized vehicles
70 landing boats
150 AA's and AT'S
9 air victories

Regards,
Germanica

[Juha Hujanen]

Germany had plenty of ground attack/bomber "aces".

Oberst Otto Weiss (500+ missions)

Oberst Joachim Helbig (300+)

Hauptmann Johann Zemsky (601)

Oberst Alfred Druschel (600+)

Major Heinz Frank (900+,8 air victories)

Major Bruno Dilley (650+,shot down 4 times)

Oberst Helmut Bruck (970+)

Oberstleutnant Georg Dörffel (1000+,30 air victories)

Major Walther Krauss (500+)

Major Maximilian Otte (1179)

Herbert Bauer (1071,11 air victories,12 unconformed air victories,51 tanks,2 armoured trains)

Oberstleutnant Gustav Preßler (530)

Major Alfons Orthofer (437)

Hans"Der Schatten" Schwirblatt (810,lost 31.5 44 left leg and some fingers.After hospital flew again)

Hans-Karl Stepp (900+)

Rudolf-Heinz Ruffer (300+,80 tanks)

Oberst Ernst Kupfer (600+,swords to RK,wounted 5 times)

Bernhard Wutka (600+)

Günther Schmid (700+)

Stabsartz Ernst Gadermann (850 missions as gunner of Stuka.Was shot down 5 times with Rudel)

Hauptman Egbert Jäkel (983)

Leutenant Hans Krumminga (779)

Oberleutenant Wilfried Herling (700+)

Oberleutnant Immo Fritzsche (700)

Wilhelm Stähler (1100)

Karl Kennel (957,34 air victories)

Anton Korol (704,99 tanks,200 damaged)

Hans Ludwig (750,85 tanks,63 boats)

Most of these men flew their missions with Stuka and were awarded with Eichenlaub.

Cheers/Juha

[Csaba Becze]

The battleship seriously damaged, I don't have other info about the cruiser and the destroyer.
Actually I asked Russians and they said, that Rudel's accuracy was unbelievable, and he was evidently a huge pilot (my opinion is the same )
IMHO he was the greatest combat pilot all of the time.

[Feanor]

Yep, the battleship 'Marat' was damaged, but AFAIK it was still serving as a training ship long after the war.

[Witch-King of Angmar]

Yep, the battleship 'Marat' was damaged, but AFAIK it was still serving as a training ship long after the war.

She had been sunk in shallow waters, and the Soviets refloated and repaired her later.

~The Witch King of Angmar