Air Aces by Conflict Trivia Quiz

Answer: World War I

WWI Medal of Honor recipient Frank Luke was known for favouring observation balloons as his targets. The young pilot from Arizona knew that the reports sent back from the balloons to the German artillery allowed the big guns to fire more accurately on the Allied positions.

In his very short combat flying career of less than three weeks in 1918, Frank Luke accounted for at least 21 enemy balloons earning the sobriquet "Balloon Buster". He did not return from his final sortie.

Answer: World War I

William Avery "Billy" Bishop, from Owen Sound, Ontario, was Canada's (and the British Empire's) top scoring ace in World War I, with 72 victories. He survived his service with the Royal Flying Corps in WWI and went on to serve as a senior officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force in WWII.

His decorations include the Victoria Cross (VC), Distinguished Service Order and bar (DSO), Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), Military Cross (MC) and some foreign medals.

Answer: World War I

Mick Mannock, VC, DSO and 2 bars, MC and bar, was the First War's fifth-highest scoring ace overall, with 61 victories. Modern recalculations have lowered this total from the former 'official' accreditation of 73 victories, which placed him ahead of Bishop. Mannock was killed in action in July 1918, and is commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial in France.

Answer: World War I

Still remembered as The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen was the top ace of any nation in the First World War, with 80 accredited victories. Although most famous for his red Fokker D.R. 1 triplane, the Red Baron scored the largest number of victories in an Albatros C III, a biplane.

As a Canadian, I would love to give full credit for von Richthofen's demise to Roy Brown, but concede that there is good evidence to support the claim of ground based opponents. The Red Baron flew his last sortie on 21 April 1918.

Answer: World War I

Edward Vernon Rickenbacker was the USA's top scoring ace during WWI, with 26 confirmed victories. All of Eddie's victories were scored whilst flying a Spad XIII, save the first six, for which a Nieuport 28 was his steed. All were brought down between April and October 1918. Medal of Honor recipient Rickenbacker survived to serve again during WWII, during which he survived 24 days adrift on a raft after the aircraft in which he was a passenger, en route to a secret mission, was shot down in the Pacific.

Answer: World War II

Regarded as the top scoring ace of all time, Erich Hartmann was credited with 352 victories, flying with Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe, largely on the Eastern Front. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, with oak leaves, swords and diamonds.

He survived the war, but was held as a prisoner in the Soviet Union until 1955. He later served in West Germany's air force, and later still as a civilian flight instructor. He died at the age of 71, in 1993.

Answer: World War II

James Edgar "Johnnie" Johnson joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) just before the start of the war, but missed the battles of 1940 due to a recurrence of some old sporting injuries. He was fit for duty by 1941, and from then on was a regular participant, flying over 500 operational sorties in fighter aircraft. His first of a confirmed 34 victories (with others shared or 'probable') came in June 1941 and the last in September 1944, all whilst flying Spitfires of different marques. At the end of 1942, he took over command of 127 Wing, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). His memoir "Wing Leader", written after the war details his wartime experiences.

He also wrote "Full Circle" which is a history of air fighting, covering both world wars. During the Korean War he saw combat while on secondment to an American unit. His final rank, when he retired in 1966, was Air Vice Marshal (AVM). He had a chestful of medals, and lived to the age of 85, expiring in 2001.

Answer: World War II

Richard Ira Bong (1920-1945), from Superior, Wisconsin, was the top American ace of the Second World War, tallying 40 victories against Japanese aircraft in the Pacific Theatre. In every case, Bong was flying a P38 Lightning, a twin-engined, twin-boomed fighter produced by Lockheed.

His decorations included the Medal of Honor. He died on August 6, 1945 while test flying a Lockheed P80 jet fighter which suffered a fuel pump malfunction and exploded. Although he ejected from the aircraft his parachute failed to open.

Answer: World War II

Though Canadians know George Frederick Beurling by the nickname Buzz, more than one memoir by fellow aviators refers to the pilot from Verdun, Quebec, as "Screwball" Beurling. Yet another sobriquet was "The Falcon of Malta", earned by his feat of downing 27 German and Italian aircraft in a mere two weeks, whilst stationed in the besieged island nation in 1942.

Some adjustments and a couple of victories in 1943 brought Canada's leading ace's total to 31.3 by war's end. Beurling was en route to Israel, to fly P51s for the Israeli Air Force, when the transport airplane he was flying crashed when landing at Rome. Beurling did not survive the crash on 20 May 1948.

Answer: World War II

His country's official records credit Japanese naval aviator Saburo Sakai with 28 victories in the air, including some that were shared with other fliers. His ghost-written autobiography claims significantly more, but such discrepancies are not unusual.

He joined the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 'thirties as a seaman, later qualifying as a naval aviator, in which role he served in China in 1938-9, as a petty officer. His first victory against American aircraft came in the Philippines in December 1941. Seriously wounded in 1942, he returned to duty and was commissioned in 1944.

He died in 2000, aged 84.

Answer: Post World War II

Joseph Christopher McConnell Jr. served during WWII as a navigator in Liberator bombers with the US Army Air Forces. He stayed in the service and in 1948 qualified as a pilot, serving in that capacity in Korea with the US Air Force. Flying F86 Sabre jets, he scored 16 victories between January and May 1953.

He received his Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), one of several decorations, from President Eisenhower after returning to the USA. He was killed in August, 1954, while test flying a newer version of the F86 which suffered a control failure and crashed.

Answer: Post World War II

Guy Bordelon, from Louisiana, was the only US Navy ace in Korea, and scored all his victories at night, flying an F4U Corsair, propeller driven airplane. His total score was the minimum five to be considered an ace, but being the only USN and only night fighter ace of the war make him memorable.

He was also the only US ace not to be flying jets in that conflict. He survived the Korean War to become a flying instructor, and died in 2002 at the age of 80.

Answer: Post World War II

James Jabara was the first US jet ace, amassing a total of 15 victories in Korea flying F86 Sabres. During WWII, flying Mustangs, he was credited with one and a half victories in the air (plus four on ground which do not count toward the total for ace status). Eventually reaching the rank of colonel, Jabara was preparing to deploy to Vietnam in 1966, when he was killed in a road traffic accident, along with his daughter, who was driving the vehicle.

Answer: Post World War II

William Driscoll, serving as a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO), in an F4 Phantom II, and his pilot "Duke" Cunningham, became the US Navy's only two accredited aces during the war in Vietnam. Together they accounted for five enemy aircraft, the final three on the same day in May 1972. Both men survived the war. Driscoll retired from active service in 1982, but remained in the reserve, until eventually retiring completely with the rank of commander.

Answer: Post World War II

Richard Stephen "Steve" Ritchie was one of three US Air Force aces during the Vietnam War, and the only pilot in the group. The others were weapons systems officers, including Charles S. DeBellevue, who was with Ritchie for four of the latter's five victories. (DeBellevue had two more, with another pilot.) All of these victories occurred during 1972.

After Vietnam, Ritchie served in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, reaching the rank of brigadier general in the latter, before retiring in 1999.