I remember reading about Herr Hartmann,352 confirmed kills and he got started half way into the war.A fantastic fighter pilot but only a fair shot,he said he always wanted to get close enough that it was impossible to miss.
Probably a better pilot and marksman than Hartmann, but less lucky, was Hans-Joachim Marseille.
From April of 1941 to September of 1942 “The Star Of Afrika” shot down 151 British and Commonwealth aircraft, in addition to seven kills during the Blitz.
He was killed bailing out when the cockpit of his fighter filled with smoke due to a malfunction (not combat with an enemy) and he struck the tailplane.
Many of the surviving Luftwaffe aces named Marseille as the best. It doesn't matter in the end though, does it. You have to rack up the kills and Hartmann did that.
A comparable case in WWI was Werner Voss. Voss shot down 48 Allied planes in less than a year, on track to beat Von Richtofen.
His pride got the best of him when he tangled alone with a flight of between 5 and 8 British aces and refused to take advantage repeated opportunities to break contact after out flying the Brits for ten minutes.
I am amazed by fighter pilots, no matter their nationality or their record.
Michael Frazier
An undeniably reasonable man.
Apart from the eternal censure of all things German prior to 1946:
Whether heroes or over achievers, we need them.
I don't deny that it is possible to be an over achiever in business, but I feel lots better thinking of Lee, Richthofen, Hartmann, or Giap as heroes than - Donald Trump, H. Ross Perot, Fiyad, or Soros (?)