The pilot initially began his service on Junkers Ju 87 Stukas with the Luftwaffe. While the criteria for fighter ace accreditation with German forces are unclear, Hartmann was credited with shooting down 352 Allied aircraft, including seven American aircraft and 345 Soviet planes. Hartmann’s first kill was within months of service when he downed an Illyushin II-2 with his Bf 109 G-2.
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub, a Soviet Union fighter, is ranked as the highest-scoring Soviet pilot who achieved victories over numerous aircraft during World War II. He became the first Soviet pilot to shoot down a Messerschmitt Me 262 jet, which only a few other pilots managed to claim after him.
Kozhedub was named the Hero of the Soviet Union on three occasions during World War II: February 1944, August 1944, and August 1945. He served in the military even after the end of the Second World War and commanded the 324th Fighter Aviation Division during the Korean War.
Marmaduke Thomas St John Pattle
Marmaduke Thomas St John (Pat) Pattle was a South African-born English fighter pilot and flying ace during the Second World War. The Squadron Leader mostly flew Hawker Hurricanes, claiming most of his victories. In March 1941, among many aircraft that were downed by the Royal Air Force (RAF), Pat Pattle claimed 20 of those.
He shot down five or more aircraft in a single day on three different occasions, qualifying for the “Ace in a Day” title multiple times. The pilot’s greatest success was achieved on April 19, 1941, when he claimed six victories.
The following day, on April 20, having claimed more victories than any other Western Allied pilot, Pattle engaged German fighters without orders. He was killed during a dogfight with a Messerschmitt Bf 110 when his Hawker Hurricane crashed into the sea.
Richard “Dick” Ira Bong
Richard Bong was one of World War II's most celebrated American fighter pilots. The United States Army Air Force (USAAF) major received the Medal of Honor in WWII. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning pilot was credited with shooting down at least 40 Japanese aircraft.
With his command of the P-38, he was assigned to become a test pilot on the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter. Bong performed several test flights of the P-80 aircraft for over four hours on this new jet. On August 6, 1945, at age 24, Bong was killed during a P-80 acceptance flight. Bong was posthumously inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 1986.
Tetsuzō Iwamoto
Iwamoto Tetsuzō was an Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) fighter pilot remembered as one of Japan's top-scoring aces in its Imperial Navy. Beginning his combat service in China in 1938, he emerged as one of Japan's top aces during WWII.
Nicknamed Tiger Tetsu, he was credited with over 80 aerial victories—14 from China alone—while flying Mitsubishi A6M “Zero,” a carrier-based fighter aircraft known as Zero Fighter Ace. Iwamoto’s planes bore special cherry blossom flower markings: single flowers depicted shot-down enemy fighters while double flowers depicted bombers.
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