What famous WW2 pilot downed 5 enemy aircraft to earn "ace in a day" while only shooting at 3 planes?
October 12th 1944:
During World War II, First Lieutenant Charles Elwood Yeager, U.S. Army Air Force was leading a bomber escort mission to attack Bremen, Germany. While the Group’s 362nd and 364th Fighter Squadrons remained with the B-24 bombers, Yeager patrolled 50 to 100 miles ahead.
At 25,000 feet Yeager sighted a group of 22 Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. Yeager and his squadron of 16 Mustangs circled and attacked out of the sun. Chuck Yeager maneuvered his P-51D Mustang to fire at a trailing Bf 109, the German fighter suddenly turned left and collided with his wingman. Both pilots bailed out of their fighters and the two Bf 109s went down.
Chuck Yeager
More Info:
en.wikipedia.org
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33 Comments
David Stokes
Your answer does not explain how he shot down three but was awarded five kills.
earlepg
No need to google the answer, it is easily found in the wikipedia article (look under his picture).
vonlora
David Stokes, Yeager, dived into two Germans so fiercely he made them bail out, crashed a third into the ground and the fourth plane came apart while the pilot was snap rolling in an effort to escape the West Virginian’s wrath, then shot a third
skrueger
Bill Coe, You were evidently looking at the list of "Triple Ace in a Day". That means that the pilot shot down 15 enemy aircraft in one day. His name is on the list of pilots that made ace in a day one time.
Char
Trudy Gourlay, I hate when I do that or Google pops in the mid saying I won ...yeah right I always have to go out of quiz and back in to get away from it..it will make me choose wrong too
Char
I knew I heard his name before..
dmarkc
Chuck Topping, kinda narrowed the field.
dmarkc
Chris Baz, shot another at 600 ft, rolled over to catch his pursuer at less than 50 ft and chased another who went into a spiral, but couldn't pull out and crashed. Plus the two you listed. There is a substantial list of ace, double, triple and so on in-a-day pilots listed online for all pilots axis and allied.
Jerry Edwards
Matthew Roen,
They were shot down.
Jerry Edwards
Pat Salloum,
But the other 67 shot them all down. Yeager only shot 3 down, but scared a German pilot into an action that caused a mid air crash between two enemy aircrafts.
Jerry Edwards
David Stokes,
Firstly, the question does not ask how many "kills" it just asks how five aircraft were "downed".
Secondly the last paragraph of the explanation states:-
"Chuck Yeager maneuvered his P-51D Mustang to fire at a trailing Bf 109, the German fighter suddenly turned left and collided with his wingman. Both pilots bailed out of their fighters and the two Bf 109s went down."
Does that explain how the other two aircraft were downed?
Deborah Gabriel
Way to go Chuck!
Chris Braid
Good question. Poor explanation.
Pat Salloum
While it happened half a dozen times during WWI, becoming an ace in a day became relatively common during World War II. The feat was achieved by a total of 68 U.S. pilots, including Yeager.
Mark G. Feeney
Richard G Schwartz, he never was an astronaut. Tom Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff" details how he was snubbed because he lacked a college degree.
Joris van Pelt
Manfred von Richthofen was Germany's most famous fighter ace of World War One. Richthofen was nicknamed the 'Red Baron' and he officially shot down 80 Allied aircraft, more than any other pilot during World War One
British pilots also called him the 'Red Knight' in recognition of his nobility.