View source for Lists of World War II flying aces

{{short description|None}}
[[Fighter ace]]s in [[World War II]] had tremendously varying kill scores, affected as they were by many factors: the [[aviator|pilot's]] skill level, the performance of the [[airplane]] the pilot flew and the planes they flew against, how long they served, their opportunity to meet the enemy in the air (Allied to Axis disproportion), whether they were the formation's leader or a wingman, the standards their air service brought to the awarding of victory credits, et cetera.

Towards the end of the war, the [[Axis powers]] had largely exhausted their supply of skilled pilots and the replacements did not have as much opportunity to gain enough experience to be successful. Additionally, national policies differed; German, Italian, and Japanese{{sfn|Holmes|2011|p=314}} pilots tended to return to the cockpit over and over again until they were killed.{{#tag:ref|By 1945, combat experienced Japanese airmen were often detailed to provide fighter escort for newer inexperienced ''Kamikaze'' pilots en route to their targets in the [[Pacific]]|group=N}}

It is not clear what impact each nation's rules for score crediting have on the counts listed below. Germans credited a shared victory to only one pilot, while the French credited full victory to all participants. British, Finnish and US air forces credited fractional shares of aerial victories, resulting in fractions, such as 11½, which might be for example 10 aircraft and three shares with the second pilot. Some U.S. commands also credited aircraft destroyed on the ground. The Soviets counted only solo kills, while group kills were counted separately, as did the Japanese. The Italian Air Force did not officially credit victories to individual pilots, but to their unit as a whole. Probable kills are usually left out of the list.

It is necessary to emphasize that the question of assessing and comparing the success rate of fighters by number of victories is one of the more problematic. There are disputes about what is "shot down" and what is "air victory", but the most problematic seems to be credibility of reports and reliability of its confirmation, which was substantially different in particular air forces. The most reliable is considered the confirmation of the victories in RAF, which based its counts on comparison of testimonials of participants and{{snd}}if possible{{snd}}film material.

==Aces==
===Gallery===
<gallery>
File:Erich Hartmann voor zijn Bf 109 (G-6).jpg|[[Erich Hartmann]], the highest scoring German and all time ace
File:Bazu0.jpg|[[Constantin Cantacuzino (aviator)|Constantin Cantacuzino]], the highest scoring Romanian ace and the 3rd highest scoring ace of the European Axis powers
File:Mato Dukovac.jpg|[[Mato Dukovac]], the highest scoring Croatian ace
File:Eino Ilmari Juutilainen.jpg|[[Ilmari Juutilainen]], the top flying ace of the Finnish Air Force and the highest scoring non-German fighter pilot 
File:Squadron Leader Pattle of 33 Squadron RAF Greece IWM ME(RAF) 1260 (cropped).jpg|[[Pat Pattle|Marmaduke 'Pat' Pattle]], the highest scoring [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] ace
File:Ivan Kozhedub 1.jpg|[[Ivan Kozhedub]], the highest scoring Soviet and highest scoring Allied ace
File:George Beurling Vancouver 1943.jpg|[[George Beurling]], the highest scoring Canadian ace
File:Richard Bong photo portrait head and shoulders.jpg|[[Richard Bong]], the highest scoring US ace
File:Tetsuzo Iwamoto.jpg|[[Tetsuzō Iwamoto]], Japanese Navy fighter ace, often credited with being the top scoring Japanese ace
File:Teresio Martinoli.jpg|[[Teresio Vittorio Martinoli]], the highest scoring [[Regia Aeronautica]] ace
</gallery>

===Aces===
{{List of World War II flying aces}}

====Australia====
There were 103 air aces from Australia during the Second World War.  For more information, see [[List of World War II aces from Australia]].

====Austria====
There were 51 air aces from Austria (3 RAF and 48 Luftwaffe) during the Second World War. For more information, see [[List of World War II aces from Austria]].

====Belgium====
There were 14 air aces from Belgium during the Second World War. For more information, see [[List of World War II aces from Belgium]].

====Bulgaria====

{| class=wikitable
|-
!Name !! Kills !!  Awards !! Notes
|-
| {{ill|Петър_Бочев|lt=Bochev, Petar Angelov|bg}}|| 5 ||  || 
|-
| [[Stoyan Stoyanov|Stoyanov, Stoyan Iliev]] || 5 ||  || 
|}

====Canada====
There were 152 air aces from Canada during the Second World War.  For more information, see [[List of World War II aces from Canada]].

====China====
There were more than 25 [[fighter aces]] from [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|China]] during the Second World War, although not all flew for the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]. For more information, see [[List of World War II aces from China]].

====Croatia====

From 1941 to 1945, the portion of [[Yugoslavia]] occupied by the [[Axis powers]] existed as the [[Independent State of Croatia]], a [[puppet state]] of [[Nazi Germany]]. There were 25 [[fighter aces]] from the Independent State of Croatia, fighting for the Axis, during the Second World War. See [[List of World War II aces from Croatia]].

====Czechoslovakia====
There were more than 30 aces from Czechoslovakia during the Second World War.  See [[List of World War II aces from Czechoslovakia]] and [[List of World War II aces from Slovakia]].

====Denmark====
There were 3 fighter aces from Denmark during the Second World War. For further information, see [[List of World War II aces from Denmark]].

====Finland====
There were 96 fighter aces from Finland during the Second World War.  For further information, see [[List of World War II aces from Finland]].

====France====
There were more than 180 aces from France during the Second World War.  See [[List of World War II aces from France]] and [[List of Vichy France flying aces]].

====Germany====
There were over 2,500 aces from Germany during the Second World War.  For a detailed list of 890 (updated as of October 2017) of these aces, see [[List of World War II aces from Germany]] <small>([[List of German World War II jet aces|Jet aces]], [[List of German World War II night fighter aces|night fighter]])</small>.

====Greece====
{{main|List of flying aces from Greece}}
There were 6 air aces from Greece during the Second World War.

====Hungary====
There were 39 air aces from Hungary during the Second World War. For further information, see [[List of World War II aces from Hungary]].

====Ireland====
There were more than 13 aces from Ireland during the Second World War.<ref>Aces High,Christopher F. Shores & Clive Williams, Grub Street, London 1994</ref> See [[List of World War II aces from Ireland]].

====Italy====
There were more than 166 aces from Italy during the Second World War. See [[List of World War II aces from Italy]].

====Japan====
There were more than 475 aces from Japan during the Second World War. See [[List of World War II aces from Japan]].

====New Zealand====
There were more than 80 aces from New Zealand during the Second World War.  For a complete list, see [[List of World War II aces from New Zealand]].

====Norway====

There were 20 aces from Norway during the Second World War. For a complete list, see [[List of World War II aces from Norway]].

====Philippines====
There were only two known aces of the Philippines during the Second World War.{{citation needed|reason=Their articles provide inadequate information.|date=February 2022}}

<nowiki>*</nowiki> [[Jesús A. Villamor]]

<nowiki>*</nowiki> [[César Basa]]

====Poland====

There were 91 air aces from Poland during the Second World War. For further information, see [[List of World War II aces from Poland]].

====Rhodesia====
There were 11 air aces from Rhodesia during the Second World War. See [[List of World War II aces from Rhodesia]].

====Romania====
There were 126 aces from Romania during the Second World War by Romanian 1944  standards. See [[List of World War II flying aces from Romania]].

====Slovakia====

There were 19 air aces from Slovakia during the Second World War. See [[List of World War II aces from Slovakia]] and [[List of World War II aces from Czechoslovakia]].

====South Africa====
There were 59 aces from South Africa during the Second World War. See [[List of World War II aces from South Africa]].

====Soviet Union====
Soviet Union produced the highest scoring allied aces during the Second World War. See [[List of World War II aces from the Soviet Union]].

====Spain====
There were 20 air aces from Spain during the Second World War, see [[List of World War II aces from Spain]].

====Sweden====
*[[William Y. Anderson]] as a Swedish-American pilot flying with [[U.S. Army Air Forces]]. 7 kills (+  [[V-1 (flying bomb)|V-1 "flying bomb"]] on  17 June 1944).<ref>Lars Gyllenhaal and Lennart Westberg (2010) ''Swedes at War: Willing Warriors of a Neutral Nation, 1914-1945'', author  {{ISBN|978-0-9777563-1-5}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=January 2022}}

====United Kingdom====
{{main|List of World War II aces from the United Kingdom}}
There are 753 aces listed from the United Kingdom during the Second World War.

====United States====
There were 1297 aces from the United States during the Second World War. See [[List of World War II aces from the United States]].

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=N}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|25em}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
* Hata, Ikuhiko with Yasuho Izawa and Christopher Shores. ''Japanese Army Air Force Fighter Units and Their Aces, 1931–1945''. London: Grub Street, 2002. {{ISBN|1-902304-89-6}}.
* {{Cite book
  |last=Holmes
  |first=Tony
  |year=2011
  |title=Dogfight: The Greatest Air Duels of World War II
  |publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]]
  |isbn=978-1-84908-482-6
}}
* {{Cite book
  |last=Keskinen
  |first=Kalevi
  |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5092754
  |title=Hävittäjä-ässät : Finnish fighter aces
  |date=1978
  |publisher=Tietoteos
  |others=Kari Stenman, Klaus Niska
  |isbn=978-951-9035-37-6
  |location=Espoo
  |oclc=5092754
}}
* Massimello, Giovanni and Giorgio Apostolo. ''Italian Aces of World War 2''. Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2000. {{ISBN|978-1-84176-078-0}}.
* {{Cite book
  |last1=Mathews
  |first1=Andrew Johannes
  |last2=Foreman
  |first2=John
  |year=2015
  |title=Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims — Volume 4 S–Z
  |location=Walton on Thames
  |publisher=Red Kite
  |isbn=978-1-906592-21-9
}}
* {{Cite book
  |last1=Morgan
  |first1=Hugh
  |last2=Weal
  |first2=John
  |year=1998
  |title=German Jet Aces of World War 2
  |location=London; New York
  |publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]]
  |isbn=978-1-85532-634-7
}}
* {{Cite book
  |last=Obermaier
  |first=Ernst
  |year=1989
  |title=Die Ritterkreuzträger der Luftwaffe Jagdflieger 1939 – 1945
  |trans-title=The Knight's Cross Bearers of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force 1939 – 1945
  |language=de
  |location=Mainz, Germany
  |publisher=Verlag Dieter Hoffmann
  |isbn=978-3-87341-065-7
}}
* [[Henry Sakaida|Sakaida, Henry]]. ''Japanese Army Air Force Aces, 1937–45''. Botley, Oxfordshire, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1997. {{ISBN|1-85532-529-2}}.
* Seidl, Hans D. ''Stalin's Eagles: An Illustrated Study of the Soviet Aces of World War II and Korea''. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1998. {{ISBN|0-7643-0476-3}}.
*{{cite book|last1=Shores|first1=Christopher|last2=Williams|first2=Clive|year=1994|title=Aces High: A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Forces in WWII|publisher=Grub Street|location=London, United Kingdom|isbn=1-898697-00-0}}
{{Refend}}

{{Lists of flying aces}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of World War Ii Air Aces}}
[[Category:Lists of World War II flying aces| ]]