Hello!

That previous thred on Wittman's popularity really sparked an interest in some of the "other aces". Does anyone have good references on history or pictures of some of the Aces that were mentioned there??

Udet, Jahde, Carius, or the Allied ones - Pool or Bong? Were there any tank aces from the UK? (I assume they would have been in Fireflys...)

I didn't follow the Wittman thread so this info may not be new to you. There are three books out about German aces: Panzer Aces, Luftwaffe Aces and Infantry Aces. I will do some searching to get the exact tiltles and publisher for you. When I read them, I had borrowed them from a guy at work. Currently I also have a book on loan from the same person : Hellcat Aces of World War II. It was written by Barrett Tillman and published by Osprey. It is an interesting book. It not only has line drawings of the planes but it also includes color renderings of 47 of the 307 planes of these aces. Very nice. I'm sure there is more out there. You could probably fill a small library with books about Bong alone.

Defining a 'tank ace' is difficult, to start off with - who gets the 'kill' - the commander or the gunner? Since tank crews swap around, it would be hard to keep scores. Never mind deciding after a battle which tank was killed by who....

Just how complicated this can be is (conveniently) shown by the action in which Wittman was killed. Tpr Ekins, who actually fired the shots, had two different commanders during the course of the 12 minute action. The first one was wounded when a near miss dropped a hatch cover on his head. As an aside this was the first and only time Ekins fired a 17pdr in action and he hit and destroyed three Tigers.

Since the American tank aces Lafayette Poole and Creighton were both tank commanders I guess America went down that route.

Here's a web site on Lafayette Pool.

http://www.3ad.org/wwii_heroes/pool_lafayette/pool_home.htm

-Charlie