The Great German Aces Killed in Bizarre Ways and Unplanned Accidents - Historic Countdowns 

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Doing a victory roll over the airfield was crazy. My father, who flew Spitfires, said after battle, you flew home quietly, landed, and ran away from your aeroplane.

Walter Nowotny crashed in the Baltic and floated for several days on a raft, trying to avoid soviet maritime patrols until eventually being rescued. His lucky pants were the ones he wore while floating in the Baltic. On his last flight in the ME-262 he was not wearing these pants, supposedly his first flight without them since his experience in the Baltic. Read Luftwaffe Aces Speak. Excellent interviews with the best of the best that survived the war.

For the first one: " - One thing though... - What's that, sir? - It takes us two years to train people like you. Suppose your controls had been damaged. What would've happened to that idiotic victory roll? You'd have been spread all over the damn field... like strawberry jam. Never again. Clear? " -from the movie: Battle of Britain (1969)

German U-boat ace Wolfgang Luth was Germany's second best captain During his fifteen war patrols he sank forty six merchant ships and the French submarine Doris, 225,204 gross tons destroyed. By 1944 he had been promoted to flotilla commander at Flensburg. When Germany surrendered on May 7 1945, he was assisting the last German government of Admiral Karl Donitz. On the night of May 13 he spent a night furlough in town, and reappeared at the Flensburg base gate highly intoxicated and failed to respond to the commands of the German sentry, who then fatally shot him in the dark.

8:46 Because I know a little about his story, the death I most regret is that of Werner Mölders. He was a fervent Catholic and loved to fly. Belonging to the Condor Legion, which supported Franco's nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, Mölders shot down 15 planes. During World War II, the second time he was shot down in the Battle of France, he was taken prisoner and wanted to congratulate the French pilot who shot him down, but he had died half an hour after his crash. In prison, he was severely beaten and robbed, but his Knight's Cross was returned to him. When released, he asked Göering for clemency for the soldier who assaulted him because he would be executed. In the Battle of France, he shot down 25 enemies, and in the Battle of Britain, where he was wounded, he shot down 30 enemies. On the Eastern Front, in 1941, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, for hitting 100 enemies killed - the first such feat in aviation history. Mölders was then promoted to Colonel and forbidden to fly again in air combat. And, at age 28, he was appointed Inspector of Fighters, a position responsible for deciding the tactical and operational doctrine of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. But Mölders participated in the missions in secret and it is speculated that he shot down 30 more Soviet aircraft, according to the memories of his fellow aviators. Mölders was well known for his strength of character. His men called him "Vati" (Daddy) in recognition of his fatherly attitude and concern for the well-being of his men. He was a religious and devout person who demanded that all Allied airmen who were captured by his subordinates be treated with respect and civility, and he often invited captured pilots to dine with him. He married the widow of a friend who died in service in September 1941. Molders died the following month, on 22 November 1941. Although Mölders was posted to Spain after the bombing of Guernica and some evidence proves that he was a critic of the Nazi regime, in 1998 the removal of his name and all honors in Germany began. Despite several petitions from high-ranking politicians and military personnel, the Bunderwehr Military History Office pointed to the lack of documents and historical evidence that could prove that Mölders had been a critic of the regime, concluding that until the day he died, according to historical records, Mölders never distanced himself enough from the regime. Consequently, the decision to remove his name remains to this day. The remains of "Oberst and Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 51" Werner Mölders lie in the Invalid Cemetery in Berlin. (Wiki)

An important note here! I somehow left out an important detail with Walter Nowotny - When he had the engine fire in the Me-262, this was the only time that he did not wear his lucky trousers. My bad guys! Also, I tried my best to pronounce them properly. I actively tried to research the proper ways to say their names. Have mercy if I was not perfect, haha. Thanks for watching guys! Grab some merch or support me on Patreon if you like :) Links in description.

“Unplanned Accident” if you plan doing a accident than it is no longer an accident but a deliberate act!🤦🏼‍♂️

Excellent TJ3. So tragic. War is a game for young men. The ones that survive - and go on to be leaders, never forget. As an old, and retired Army Flight Lieutenant - and the only living member of the 16-man gunship squad I led, I think of those fine young men, my friends, every day. For they shall never grow old - as we who live on to remember them. We had heroes. Our enemy also had heroes. We remember all the heroes. We were Soldier. No Soldier should be forgotten.

A back story to the one shot while under the chute. It was said that he was seen shooting American pilots that was under chute so he was purposely targeted and then shot when he bailed. There was a unwritten rule that they wouldn’t shoot pilots under a chute. And both sides complied with that rule most of the time. Some times they would even salute each other as the plane flew by.

I seem to recall that about 30 years ago in Holland, they drained a canal, found a 109 with pilot still in the cockpit, who was an Ace, he’d had engine failure on take off from Schipol.

Awesome video!! I really like how you show 'footage' of the accident with IL-2. PLEASE make more of these. You could even just do 'Fates of WW2 Aces' or something and show how some famous aces met their end - for example Heinrich Ehrler would be a good one.

English is not my first language, in Swedish however “unplanned accidents” is not logical to say.

Fantastic! Thank you for taking the time to create this! I like how you worked around the visuals that IL-2 is currently unable to simulate (like the body hitting the tail of the aircraft when Jesse bailed).

Thank you for your hard work, much appreciated.

It would be really cool if you made a video about how aces survived against the odds while flying during World War Two, like how Franz Stigler was able to remain conscious and land his BF-109 after getting shot in the head (the bullet flattened against his forehead and didn't go through thankfully). Or the story how Johannes Steinhoff survived after being burned alive in his ME-262 while serving in JV-44.

Great video, a subject I've read and studied much about myself. Subscribed, look forward to watching your back catalogue and new videos. Well done!

Simply great to see!There were three competitors during the early days of the war: Galland, Wick and Vati Molders. Salute!

Doing air-stunts with a possibly damaged, aircraft with limited maintenance, bit suicidal? Sketchy, yep!

Great video, like the fellow below me said about covering some of the lesser know aces that would be a great video on its own

Awesome. I love your new channel Brother; great work.

Great video! I enjoyed the recreations. I was hoping you would mention Franz Schall, with his 137 kills and Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The reason I wanted to see him in this is because my father shot him down in Nov '44. Schall bailed and survived but died in April '45 during an emergency landing.

Zweigart's death reminded me of your video on the U.S. pilot getting revenge on a German in a similar manner. Thats another a great one, just subed 👍

This was very instructive, thank you!

Very well done. Interesting presentation of little known history.

The G variants of the 109 were poisonned with engine troubles. Guess it was late in the war, they had to build engines with worse workers and poor materials. And those engines had to get more power than the originals, so they exploded frequently...

Your killing it with the content man!

Very well done with the footage animations

Excellent video thanks!

Wonderful animation. You left out one ace's death whose name escapes me. He racked up over 100 kills but later in the war had been reassigned to commanding a training facility in Germany. It was in 1945 when he was challenged by a sentry on the base, got the password wrong and was shot dead. It was a major miracle that most of these aces survived as long as they did. Some were shot down multiple times and even well behind enemy lines but evaded capture or escaped. I recall reading of one in North Africa. He was captured by some Polish soldiers who beat the crap out of him giving him a depressed eye socket but he later escaped.

What kind of accident is planned? ALL accidents are unplaned and unexpected.

Great work and thanks. 😀👍

Nice job TJ!

Great research. A suggestion for a video on Saburo Sakai, the Japanese naval ace who was shot down and severely injured after attacking a formation from behind. I believe the story goes that he mistook the new American Avenger torpedo bomber for a flight of Wildcats, and crept in close behind, not realizing they were bombers with defensive rear facing MG's pointed at him. I read this in his book in the 70's, when I was a kid. However, recently I have heard other versions. I had forgotten, but was glad to see a video you did regarding Colonel Howard's P-51, great story there. Keep up the good work.

First of all, I have to mention that in the Luftwaffe a pilot was only allowed to call himself an ace after 100 enemy planes were shot down. In the book "The first and the last" written by Adolf Galland a German fighter ACE and later general of the Jagdflieger. You’ll find a list of over 100 German fighter aces and the lowest kills, i.e. the worst of these over 100 aces, starts with a little more than 100 kills while the best Erich Hartmann, also known as Bubi, recorded 352. All in all, these slightly more than 100 pilots shot down around 15,000 enemy planes. Mfg Magnus

Damn interesting and very well presented. Thank you. Subscribed for sure. 💪💪

Keep these excellent videos coming!

A big reason besides honor for not killing a parachutist: the effort made it easy for his colleagues to get on your tail, force you to bail and then they'd be sure to take revenge. Karma is a thing.

Wow… Great information on the demise of German Ace pilots!

Loving the new content

Excellent and informative!

YES... ENJOYED YOUR HISTORICAL RECREATION!

"Jurgen Harder" has got to be one of the smexiest names I've ever heard.

this was very good and wll put together

Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

Excellent vid! I read a biography about H-JM, The Star of Africa, many years ago. Whatta life, albeit short, he had. Would you consider a vid highlighting Japanese WWII ace Saburo Sakai and his amazing piloting skills? Tks!

One German ace was shot down in a fijord in Norway. His nemesis was the rear gunner on a Beaufighter. The gunner used a single 303 Browning.

Great vídeo !! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Keep up the good work mate

Nowotny had a bad cold and was unfit to fly his final sortie. He was pressured to fly due to an accusation of cowardice by the pen pushers.

Molders and his seatbelt. I think they said the same thing about Boelke.

Awesome video 👌👍

Excellent video. I was searching for planned accidents and drew blanks.

This reminds me of an insurance conference I once attended. At the time, there was some big DNA news floating about and the sponsors of the conference focused on talking about DNA and technology and it's possible effects on the business of selling life insurance. There was talk of how DNA manipulation could extend human life indefinitely, but the company execs assured us that would not end the life insurance business because they had calculated that if people were suddenly able to live forever, they would still on average die by age 400 due to death by accident.

This channel makes me feel like playing War Thunder all over again.

Great Content Great presentation !

Hello @TJ3 History . Very interesting video and thanks for its content. Don't get me wrong the Messerschmitt Bf 109 is my Favorite fighter plane (of this era). According to many other historical sources I read, did you know that this same fighter was very hard to maneuver ? I think Wolfgang Tonne simply lost control of his plane due to this fact and therefore it could explain his untimely death.

Makes you wonder if Nowotny or Molders would've ended up with more kills than Erich Hartmann had they survived the war.

Man, these videos are addicting. 🥴

Excellent video

Interesting Video!!

Shooting airmen while parachuting was frowned upon by higher ups on both sided, but if an enemy pilot was observed doing it and could be identified, he could expect the same treatment if shot down.

The most remarkable deaths of top luftwaffe aces: 1- The fall of Walter Oessau (angered by Herman Goering Oessau flies combat mission while sick and fights 5 USAF p-51 mustangs for 20 minutes alone), The fighters didnt think this man is F*king chad, lets let him go but instead shot him while trying to land 2- Demise of Helmut Wick (bizarre engagement with top aces of both RAF and luftwaffe in same fight ) 3- Death of Heinrich Ehler (he went berzerk and crushed into bomber after running out of ammo) 4- Death of Hans Philipp (fall from 50 meterr after being shot by rear-gunner) 5- death of Josef Wurmheller

Great military history lesson-thanks

Snap, I love this vid

"Unplanned accident" is an example of a pleonasm. You're saying the same thing twice, like 'Free gift". Good video, carry on.

i think that zweigart was killed coz he shot first the American bomber crew bailing out,a P51 pilot took revenge on him

Very nicely done… I want to see how many hours that you logged in IL-2 putting those clips together. I really enjoyed this… let’s have some Pacific… oh. :)

Honorable mention: Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer who survived the war (and was the highest scoring night fighter ace) but later died (1950) in an auto accident in peacetime. Yes, truly an unplanned event. Also your high quality animations are a nice touch.

thx for covering up some of the lesser known pilots like Tonne, Harder and Ubben! :) May i ask which sources you used?

#5 Zweigart: It looks like he may be the one American Ace Richard Peterson observed slaughtering bomber crewmen who were under canopy. Interesting you did not mention that here since you did a video on this: The P-51 Mustang Pilot that Killed a German in his Parachute - Brutal True Story of Richard Peterson

Awesome video!. Very un-heard topic.

Excellent video . Informative and entertaining . I do not respect what they were fighting for . I do respect their abilities and do not take joy in anyone's death - whether deserved or not .

“unplanned accidents” ???? You should do a video about all those planned accidents

Was that Zweigart who was killed by an American plane that took revenge on him, because he had been killing shot down American bomber crew members bailing out ? That story of that American pilot who deliberately did not made the German plane explode in the air, but wanted the pilot to bail out too, and then experience what it meant to be shot at while falling down under a chute ?

What a bizarre header for this segment, with the statement , “ unplanned accidents “. NO ONE EVER PLANS ON AN ACCIDENT.

Excellent !!

Wolfgang Schenck sent me.

The axis had more high-kill count aces than allies because the allies practice was to send the best pilots back to school as teachers while the axis kept them on the front lines. The result was that the quality of allied pilots improved due to new pilots recieving instruction from a roster of great pilots from the front line while the axis quality went down because the best pilots were eventually killed

Ayyyyy new vid.

Nice video

Zwiegart was shot while in his parachute because that was exacly what he was doing to american bomber pilots who had to bail out.

Each time you talk about Bf 109 "model F" or "model G" the question arises WHICH model F or G you are actually talking about, since there are so many different Fs and Gs that greatly vary from each other.

Great graphics!

I so appreciate you pronouncing the German names correctly. In some videos, they don't even try.

My grandpa had a Luftwaffe mechanic working in his Oldsmobile dealership after the war, just for working on the new VWs that were being sold ,that is all he did and he was sick of it !. He would complain that he lost more pilots taking VWs to the bar to celebrate a mission than he lost with Messerschmitts (I guess the VWs rolled too easy)

"unplanned accidents" Just like me..

Awsome vid

The Bf109-E on the thumbnail of this video still exists - its an exhibit at the IWM Duxford air museum nr Cambridge, England. Its looks exactly like it did when it belly landed in a field of stubble in 1940 as in the photo.

According to Mölders adjutant who recounted the story of the crash for posterity; Mölders was commanding a Battle Group consisting of Stukas, fighters, and ground attack fighters in the Crimea, when Ernest Udet committed suicide. At the time Molders was having serious support problems, and wanted to talk to Goering about the situation. In bad weather, he took off from Chaplinka airfield, with OberLeutnant Kolbe at the controls. Kolbe was a throughly competent pilot, having flown with the Condor Legion. Flying through extremely bad weather, the plane was forced down at Lemberg. Weather reports said the conditions were even worse between Lemberg and Berlin. Kolbe did not want to continue, but Molders forced him on. With a heavy head wind, Kolbe give more and more power to the engines, as a result the fuel started running low. Near Breslau an engine quit, and Kolbe nursed the He-111, down through dense cloud, and heavy rain. His approach to the airport was low and short, and he gunned the one good engine, with no results. It was at this point he spotted a cable railroad running along the airport, Kolbe hauled back on the stick, the He-111 cleared the lines only to stall and crash into the ground. Both Molders(lying in the nose of the He-111) and Kolbe died instantly. The bombers radio operator and Molders aide-de-camp, survived the crash, and reconstructed the last moments of the flight. Another source says the He-111 hit a house chimney.

Wolfgang Tonne: SHAIZA! Im an idiot

The CGI graphics are fantastic in this video.

Ive heard of one pilot who was dissolved by jet fuel when his plane crashed. one of the fuels they used at the time was highly acidic and when it leaked on him after a crash he was melted.

Molders during the battle of Britain tangled with RAF ace Adolf "Sailor" Malan and Malan shot him down and he managed to crash in France and lived.

When the whole world is praying on your downfall you are bound to have accidents.

Does anyone really plan an accident? Nicely done video!

Really enjoyed this video. The visuals are very impressive. Thank you. What flight sim is this? I'm guessing x-plane?

Are there planned accidents?

Gerhard Barkhorn should have been on this list too..second highest scoring ace, only behind Hartman. He died in a car crash back in the 1980s

Love the quality!!! //Lars