As we said in our video on the most effective soldiers of World War II,
combat *never* took place in a vacuum, and there was never *truly* a **fair fight. Different
units had different strengths and weakness at different places and times throughout the war,
and there were many internal and external factors that could influence the outcome of an engagement.
This was no different for fighter plane units. Within them, training,
leadership, technology, morale, and numbers were crucial factors.
Externally, factors such as weather and dumb luck must be taken into account.
With all that said, history *does* tell of fighter units which revelled in success more than others,
and it may, therefore, be *perceived* that these units were more effective overall.
In this video, we're going to consider the fighter pilots of the USSR, Japan, the USA,
Germany, and Britain and provide you with *our* opinion on which were more effective. As with that
last video, remember it's impossible to determine this with total accuracy and objectivity, and this
video is more of an exercise to get us thinking of all the factors that came into play.
As with the last video, we've got to clarify some things.
Firstly, we'll try to ignore external factors like weather and luck.
Secondly, we cannot cleanly separate fighter units from other military units. Fighters
often worked in conjunction with bombers and other aircraft, such as reconnaissance craft.
They also worked directly with ground units, providing support for infantry, artillery,
and armoured units, and they literally flew off the backs of the navy. Additionally,
as with infantry units, fighters coordinated with non-combat support services such as radar teams.
And lastly, this video is about the effectiveness of *pilots,* not aircraft,
yet we must acknowledge that the fighters in which the pilots flew
were a *hard* limiting factor — harder, indeed, than equipment/technology in infantry units.
Once they were in the cockpit and up in the sky, that was it.
In the early years of the war, when Nazi Germany turned its guns on the Soviet Union,
the Soviets had outdated aircraft, falling short of German craft in many aspects,
with height and speed being the most pronounced. Additionally, they were limited by fuel supplies
and lacked experienced pilots and leadership. When they Germans struck, the Soviets were overwhelmed,
and this strained their resources, further rendering them unable keep up with the Luftwaffe.
But things changed as the war progressed. Via the Lend-Lease policy, the Soviet air force received
more than 18,000 aircraft from the United States. The Soviets, however, manufactured some 157,000
aircraft themselves throughout the war. Of these, 36,000 were the Ilyushin II-2
Shturmovik, the most produced aircraft design in all military aviation history.
But even with these new designs, the Soviets still fell short of German height and speed,
and they had to employ specific tactics to bring the Luftwaffe down to more manageable altitudes.
All in all, those inexperienced Soviet pilots gained experience as the war went on,
becoming some of the best in the world despite the limitations of their technology. The records
are considerably less complete than those of other belligerents, but at least 67 Soviet
pilots became aces in the Second World War, with fighter ace Ivan Kozhedub claiming 60 to 64 kills
in 330 combat missions between the 26th of March 1943 and the 16th of April 1945.
The Japanese had almost the inverse story arc of the Soviets. They were at war with
China before they were at war with America and the world, and so they entered World War II in
December 1941 with a highly skilled air force. Their pilots were the flying elite, selected
from the very best of the best. Their iconic aerial steed, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, was an
effective glass cannon in those early years, though their opponents soon outclassed them,
and the Japanese were unable to meet the material requirements of sustaining and developing an air
force. That, and they also refused to ground their pilots and give them rest. Japanese pilots
remained in their cockpits until they died, and were thus unable to train replacement pilots.
As a result, the quality of Japanese pilots got worse and worse, and they came up against better
and better opponents — primarily the pilots of the USAAF — in greater abundance and with
superior technology. With that said, 335 Japanese pilots achieved ace-hood between December 1941
and the end of the war. Hiroyoshi Nishizawa is said to be Japan's highest scoring ace,
boasting a minimum of 36 aerial victories and an upper estimate of 150.
The United States only entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941.
Its pilots had the least amount of years in which to gain actual war experience,
yet the USAAF finished World War II as arguably the strongest air force in the world. With help
from the British, US fighters got better and better as the war went on, and no other
belligerent could compete with US production. The USAAF had its own logistic system too, allowing it
to stay afloat when German and Japanese logistics crippled their air power. USAAF fighters, unlike
the crafts of their opponents, were designed with the pilot in mind, being easier to use,
and safer. One other thing they did that their opponents didn't was give their pilots rest and
retract them from the aerial battlefield, allowing them to train subsequent pilots. As a result,
the quality of USAAF pilots only improved as the war went on. The training itself was extensive,
and pilots were well looked after. USAAF morale was high overall, but with no direct threat to
their homeland, it wasn't, perhaps, quite as high as the morale of the RAF. Between December 1941
and the end of the war, 1,297 American pilots achieved ace-hood, which is just insane. In his
P-38 Lightning, Major Dick Bong became America's highest scoring ace, claiming 40 confirmed kills.
Overall, the story of the Luftwaffe is similar to that of Japan's air force. What differed is that
it prepared for war under the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles, meaning its initial numbers
were relatively small. This, however, meant that the craft the Luftwaffe did build were built with
combined arms — Blitzkrieg — in mind. In place of Japan's Second Sino-Japanese War, Luftwaffe
pilots gained their pre-World-War-II experience in the Spanish Civil War, though as with Japan, this
experience was wasted. Fighter aces were made to fly until they literally died. They did not, like
the Americans, return home to train subsequent pilots once they had claimed a certain amount of
aerial victories. This meant that the Luftwaffe's overall skill ran thin as the war dragged on.
Production ultimately held the Luftwaffe back, and it dragged its feet in Germany's overall strategy.
In 1944, fuel became so scarce that many pilots were actually sent to infantry units. With all
that said, Germany still boasted more than 2,500 fighter aces between September 1939 and when it
was defeated in May 1945. The reason, again, that fighter aces like Erich Hartmann claimed
upwards of 300 kills (Erich himself claimed 352) was that Luftwaffe pilots were not withdrawn.
As with out last video, we have saved who we thought was best to last. Like we said before,
the USAAF might have boasted the strongest air force, but man for man, we believe Britain's
RAF maintained the most effective pilots of the war. The RAF was in the fight from the beginning,
and they saw it through to the end. They also fought in the skies over their home
in the Battle of Britain — a motivating factor whose effect on morale cannot be understated.
On morale, the RAF had exceptional training programs which fostered a fighting spirit,
and RAF pilots were known for their senses of humour and coolness under pressure. When the
Germans hit Poland, the British foresaw the importance of air power in the coming war,
and they undertook a massive expansion which included the training of other Commonwealth
nations, such as Canada and Australia. British plane technology strived to stay on par
or ahead of the German technology, and as the war went on, the British — flying abreast their
American allies — overtook the Germans; they did not let their air force drag its feet.
The RAF, like the USAAF, withdrew its aces once they had achieved a certain number of aerial
victories, allowing them to train subsequent aces and improve the overall quality of the air force,
but the RAF pilot's most crucial advantage was radar. They were the first to implement it in
their air force, and it allowed them to fight the Germans with less planes and more efficiency. With
radar and streamlined command systems, the pilots of the RAF, man for man, outclassed all the other
pilots who flew in the skies of the Second World War. 753 British pilots became aces between 1939
and 1945, and the highest scoring British-born ace was Johnnie Johnson, with 38 confirmed victories.
Now, these are just five of the many belligerents of the war,
but of these, do you agree that Britain produced the most
effective fighter pilots? Do you think it was another of these five countries?
Do you think it was one we didn't include in this video? Please share your thoughts in the comments.