Best fighter pilot of ww2?

[Raptor]

Agreed. But the Germans had a lot more training than the Russians.

[Gripen]

i voted the Russian Guy, just for fun

[Raptor]

You voted the RUSSIAN GUY???

Man... Ah, yes. There's some German pilot who would set up a kill and then let his junior take over, wasn't it? Now who is it...?

[Gripen]

Well considering Russia was being majorly smashed during the war (early part atleast), they managed to have one guy kill 62 victories..

[Hornet]

352, that really is a lot, Hartmann was truly a great pilot, although he was an enemy

[Raptor]

Hornet. Sorry to contradict you, but i completely disagree. There were many German pilots who hit past the 100 mark in the russian war.

Folks who managed to hit that mark on British aircraft i respect more, and those that shot only fighters i respect even more.

[alyster]

There were some pilots who shot down over 100 planes on western front. No one got over the 200 mark in the west though. My fav. Galland should be one with high score in the west,

However I had a look over the scores yesterday and noticed that if we do not count Finland into same group with Allies (although she had a small war with Germans in the Lapland), then the highest allied ace is the Russian Ivan Kozuhedub. That makes Top 116 pilots "the enemies" and top 108 are Germans. Rudolf Trenkel if I'm not mistaking got 137 kills in the west, Werner schroer should have gotten 102 kills in the west, Galland 104 and I think night fighters scored high against western-allies.

And Americans flew even on the Eastern-Front. Not that I'd think much of USAAF though...

352 kills (and Barkhorn's 301[Dreihundret und zwei  ] ) are still amazing. Moreover since Harmann fought since '42, where Luftwaffe was all the time losing the edge to Russians and Russian air force was picking up power.

[Raptor]

Gahahaha. Hey alyster. My fav is Galland too. Really noble guy.

Although personally i think Werner schroer was the greatest. 

[Cobra2]

I don't see Lt. Robin Olds though :/ He flew I think a P-38 in WWII and an F-4 Phantom in Vietnam! he was also the leader of Operation Bolo in which half of the NVA's MiG-21 force was shot down by I think 4 F-4s! (the MiG-21 force I believe was around 17 MiGs)

[alyster]

F-4 Phantom in Vietnam! he was also the leader of Operation Bolo in which half of the NVA's MiG-21 force was shot down by I think 4 F-4s! (the MiG-21 force I believe was around 17 MiGs)

WW2 

[Cobra2]

He flew in WWII...look at the beginning of the post 
I think he was even an ace during WWII let me see.

I know he is not in the hundreds but still an amazing pilot.

EDIT: Yup an ace during WWII. Here is from Wikipedia:

Robin Olds (July 14, 1922 – June 14, 2007) was an American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 16 victories in World War II and the Vietnam War.[1] He retired in 1973 as a brigadier general.

[alyster]

I understand he just died recently (well atlist compared to other guys here), but I'd ask again would one seriously consider him the best in WW2 ? I mean 16 kills combined in WW2 and Vietnam? OK, perhaps the kills aren't the thing to judge over a pilot always(because he isn't in any top probably), but then something else?

If you haven't voted yet and want to, I'll add him. Your choice. But I do think his best days were after The war.