Aces of World War 1
The first in the graduating class from the School of Aerial Warfare.

What is an Ace?
An Ace is a military pilot that has recorded five or more aerial kills in his career. Becoming as ace has gotten more difficult with each passing decade, no doubt to developments in missile technology - the days of flying coffins with attached machine guns sure made it easy. We may never see a list like this ever again.

Where did the term "Ace" come from?
A French newspaper happened to dub French pilot Adolphe Pegoud "l'as" after his extraordinary feat of downing five German aircraft. L'as translates from French to English as "Ace" and thus the name - attached to that feat - stuck. Now any pilot scoring five or more kills is dubbed in this same fashion.

What was the Red Baron's real name?
Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen.

Was he really the top scoring Ace of World war 1?
Yes. The list below lists the aces of the Great War. Richthofen sits alone at the top, separated by five total kills from his next closest competitor, Frenchman Ace Rene Paul Fonck.

I didn't know the Red Baron had a brother. Is that true?
Yes. His name was Lothar Freiherr von Richthofen and he was the younger brother of the famed German Ace. Lothar comes in at rank 28 on the list below. Lothar was no slouch either, accruing some 40 kills of his own, living through to the end of the war only to die in a commercial flying accident in 1922.

RNK NATION NAME KILLS 1 Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen 80 2 Rene Paul Fonck 75 3 William Avery Bishop 72 4 Ernst Udet 62 5 Edward Corringham Mannock 61 6 Raymond Collishaw 60 7 James Thomas Byford McCudden 57 8 Andrew Frederick Weatherby Beauchamp-Protor 54 9 Erich Loewenhardt 54 10 Donald Roderick MacLaren 54 11 Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer 53 12 William George Barker 50 13 Josef Carl Peter Jacobs 48 14 Werner Voss 48 15 Robert Alexander Little 47 16 George Edward Henry McElroy 47 17 Fritz Rumey 45 18 Albert Ball 44 19 Rudolph Berthold 44 20 Bruno Loerzer 44 21 Paul Wilhelm Baeumer 43 22 Tom Falcon Hazell 43 23 Charles Eugene Jules Marie Nungesser 43 24 Georges Felix Madon 41 25 Oswald Boelcke 40 26 Franz Buechner 40 27 Phillip Fletcher Fullard 40 28 Lothar Freiherr von Richthofen 40 29 Charles George Gass 39 30 John Ingles Gilmour 39 31 Heinrich Gontermann 39 32 William Lancelot Jordan 39 33 Karl Menckoff 39 34 Alfred Clayburn Atkey 38 35 William Gordon Claxton 37 36 Willy Omer Francois Jean Coppens de Houthulst 37 37 James Ira Thomas Jones 37 38 Karl Bolle 36 39 Julius Buckler 36 40 Joseph Stewart Temple Fall 36 41 Max Ritter von Mueller 36 42 Maurice Jean Paul Boyau 35 43 Austro- Hungarian Godwin Brumowski 35 44 Gustav Doerr 35 45 Otto Koennecke 35 46 Frederick Robert Gordon McCall 35 47 Eduard Ritter von Schleich 35 48 Emil Thuy 35 49 Josef Veltjens 35 50 Henry Winslow Woollet 35 51 Francesco Baracca 34 52 Michel Joseph Callixte Marie Coiffard 34 53 Heinrich Bongartz 33 54 Samuel Marcus Kinkead 33 55 Heinrich Kroll 33 56 Frank Granger Quigley 33 57 Kurt Wolff 33 58 Austro- Hungarian Julius Arigi 32 59 Geoffrey Hilton Bowman 32 60 Roderic Stanley Dallas 32 61 Hermann Frommherz 32 62 Theodor Osterkamp 32 63 Paul Billik 31 64 Andrew Edward McKeever 31 65 Gotthard Sachsenberg 31 66 Karl Allmenroeder 30 67 Carl Degelow 30 68 Josef Mai 30 69 Ulrich Neckel 30 70 Karl Emil Schafer 30 71 Samuel Frederick Henry Thompson 30 72 Harald Auffarth 29 73 Charles Dawson Booker 29 74 Percy Jack Clayson 29 75 Arthur Henry Cobby 29 76 Leonard Henry Rochford 29 77 Walter Blume 28 78 Leon Jean Pierre Bourjade 28 79 Walter von Buelow-Bothkamp 28 80 Albert Desbrisay Carter 28 81 Austro- Hungarian Benno Fiala von Fernbrugg 28 82 Robert Ritter von Greim 28 83 John Everard Gurdon 28 84 Reginald Theodore Carlos Hoidge 28 85 Dennis Latimer 28 86 Arthur Laumann 28 87 Friedrich Ritter von Roeth 28 88 Otto Bernert 27 89 Otto Fruhner 27 90 Hans Kirschstein 27 91 Austro- Hungarian Frank Linke-Crawford 27 92 Clifford Mackay McEwen 27 93 Thomas Percy Middleton 27 94 Armand Pinsard 27 95 Frank Ormond Soden 27 96 Karl Thom 27 97 Adolph Ritter von Tutschek 27 98 Arthur Treloar Whealy 27 99 Kurt Wuesthoff 27 100 Oskar Freiherr von Boenigk 26 101 Eduard Ritter von Dostler 26 102 Ronald Malcolm Fletcher 26 103 William Frederick James Harvey 26 104 Elwyn Roy King 26 105 Gerald Joseph Constable Maxwell 26 106 Max Naether 26 107 Edward Vernon Rickenbacker 26 108 Silvio Scaroni 26 109 William Ernest Staton 26 110 William McKenzie Thomson 26 111 Olivier Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay 25 112 Keith Logan Caldwell 25 113 Robert John Orton Compston 25 114 Georg von Hantelmann 25 115 Pier Piccio 25 116 Fritz Puetter 25 117 Arthur Percival Foley Rhys Davids 25 118 Stanley Wallace Rosevear 25 119 Erwin Boehme 24 120 Peter Carpenter 24 121 George Searle Lomax Hayward 24 122 Harry George Ernest Luchford 24 123 Georg Meyer 24 124 Tom Cecil Noel 24 125 William Ernest Shields 24 126 James Anderson Slater 24 127 Hermann Becker 23 128 William Charles Campbell 23 129 Rene Pierre Marie Dorme 23 130 Matthew Brown Frew 23 131 Gabriel Fernand Charles Guerin 23 132 Claud Marcel Haegelen 23 133 Horace Percy Lale 23 134 Alexander Augustus Norman Dudley Pentland 23 135 Harold Alfred Whistler 23 136 William Melville Alexander 22 137 Hermann Goering 22 138 Thomas Sinclair Harrison 22 139 Louis Fleeming Jenkin 22 140 Cecil Frederick King 22 141 Hans Klein 22 142 John Leacroft 22 143 Arthur Ernest Newland 22 144 Hans Martin Pippart 22 145 Werner Preuss 22 146 Benjamin Roxburgh-Smith 22 147 Karl Schlegel 22 148 Joseph Leonard Marie White 22 149 Rudolph Windisch 22 150 Hans Ritter von Adam 21 151 Friedrich Altemeier 21 152 Flavio Baracchini 21 153 Francis Richard Cubbon 21 154 Harold Leslie Edwards 21 155 Friedrich Friedrichs 21 156 Alfred Marie Joseph Heurtaux 21 157 Charles Robert Reeves Hickey 21 158 Fritz Hoehn 21 159 William John Charles Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick 21 160 Pierre Marinovitch 21 161 Richard Aveline Maybery 21 162 Edgar James Kingston McCloughry 21 163 Richard Pearman Minifie 21 164 Friedrich Theodor Noltenius 21 165 George Edwin Thomson 21 166 Leonard Monteagle Barlow 20 167 Douglas John Bell 20 168 Hans Bethge 20 169 Kenneth Burns Conn 20 170 Albert Louis Deullin 20 171 Rudolph von Eschwege 20 172 Wilhelm Frankl 20 173 Francis Warrington Gillet 20 174 Walter Goettsch 20 175 Oskar Hennrich 20 176 Edgar Charles Johnston 20 177 Otto Kissenberth 20 178 Alexander Alexandrovich Kozakov 20 179 Camille Henri Raoul Lagesse 20 180 Ian Donald Roy McDonald 20 181 Keith Rodney Park 20 182 Wilhelm Reinhard 20 183 Charles Gordon Ross 20 184 Fulco Ruffo di Calabria 20 185 Otto Schmidt 20 186 Walter Alfred Southey 20 187 Frederick James Harry Thayre 20 188 Horace Dale Barton 19 189 Wilfred Beaver 19 190 Andrew King Cowper 19 191 Christian Donhauser 19 192 Jacques Louis Ehrlich 19 193 Arthur Bradfield Fairclough 19 194 Gerhard Fieseler 19 195 Hans von Freden 19 196 Henri Joseph Marie Hay De Slade 19 197 Cedric Ernest Howell 19 198 Austro- Hungarian Josef Kiss 19 199 Harold Albert Kullberg 19 200 Leslie Archibald Powell 19 201 Arthur Eden Reed 19 202 Ellis Vair Reid 19 203 Alan Machin Wilkinson 19 204 Kurt Wintgens 19 205 Hartmuth Baldamus 18 206 Bernard Henri Barny De Romanet 18 207 James Dacres Belgrave 18 208 Austro- Hungarian Franz Graeser 18 209 Franz Hemer 18 210 William Carpenter Lambert 18 211 Frank Luke 18 212 George Chisholm MacKay 18 213 William Earle Molesworth 18 214 Maurice Ashdown Newnham 18 215 Emil Schaepe 18 216 John Todd 18 217 John Lightfoot Trollope 18 218 Alexandre Zenses 18 219 Ronald Burns Bannerman 17 220 Hans Boehning 17 221 Walter Boening 17 222 Alfred Williams Carter 17 223 Marziale Cerutti 17 224 Stearne Tighe Edwards 17 225 Carl Frederick Falkenberg 17 226 George Everard Gibbons 17 227 Ernst Hess 17 228 Fred Parkinson Holliday 17 229 August Thayer Iaccaci 17 230 Paul Thayer Iaccaci 17 231 Max Immelmann 17 232 Edward Grahame Johnstone 17 233 Rudolf Klimke 17 234 Raoul Lufbery 17 --- Reginald Milburn Makepeace 17 235 John William Pinder 17 236 Karl Plauth 17 237 Ferruccio Ranza 17 238 Franz Ray 17 239 Hans Joachim Rolfes 17 240 Josef Schwendemann 17 241 Edwin Swale 17 242 Edmund Roger Tempest 17 243 Walter Alexander Tyrrell 17 244 Owen Morgan Baldwin 16 245 Gerald Gordon Bell 16 246 Austro- Hungraian Eugen Boensch 16 247 Ernst Bormann 16 248 Henry John Burden 16 249 Jean Chaput 16 250 John Stanley Chick 16 251 Eugene Seeley Coler 16 252 John Cowell 16 253 Bruce Digby-Worsley 16 254 Ernest John Elton 16 255 Austro- Hungarian Stefan Fejes 16 256 Robert Mordaunt Foster 16 257 Robert Arthur Grosvenor 16 258 Ludwig Hanstein 16 259 Allan Hepburn 16 260 Sidney William Highwood 16 261 Frank Johnson 16 262 Johannes Klein 16 263 Gervais Raoul Lufbery 16 264 Karl Odebrett 16 265 Oliver William Redgate 16 266 Oren John Rose 16 267 Wilhelm Anton Seitz 16 268 Francis Ryan Smith 16 269 Elliot White Springs 16 270 David Arthur Stewart 16 271 Cristoffel Johannes Venter 16 272 Anthony Herbert William Wall 16 273 Hans Weiss 16 274 Vasili Yanchenko 16 275 Pavel Vladmirovich Argeyev 15 276 Karl Bohnenkamp 15 277 Lawrence Percival Coombes 15 278 Cyril Marconi Crowe 15 279 Charles William Cudemore 15 280 Ralph Luxmore Curtis 15 281 Ernest Arthur Deighton 15 282 Armand Jean Galliot Joseph De Turenne 15 283 Albert Dossenbach 15 284 Albert James Enstone 15 285 Rudolf Francke 15 286 George Brian Gates 15 287 James Alpheus Glen 15 288 Harry King Goode 15 289 Juhn Rutherford Gordon 15 290 John Edmund Greene 15 291 Albert Haussmann 15 292 Edwin Tufnell Hayne 15 293 Alois Heldmann 15 294 Frank Harold Hobson 15 295 John Jones 15 296 Andrew Cameron Kiddie 15 297 Otto Loeffler 15 298 Hans-Georg von der Marwitz 15 299 Harold Thomas Mellings 15 300 Alfred Stanley Mills 15 301 Edmund Nathanael 15 302 Wilhelm Neuenhofen 15 303 Roy Cecil Phillipps 15 304 Viktor von Pressentin von Rautter 15 305 Theodor Quandt 15 306 Herbert Brian Richardson 15 307 Jean Marie Luc Gilbert Sardier 15 308 Hugh William Lumsden Saunders 15 309 Julius Schmidt 15 310 Kurt Schneider 15 311 Harold Francis Stackard 15 312 Paul Straehle 15 313 Austro- Hungarian Ernst Strohschneider 15 314 Frank Gerald Craven Weare 15 315 Marius Jean Paul Elzeard Ambrogi 14 316 Colin Peter Brown 14 317 Carleton Main Clement 14 318 Arthur Coningham 14 319 Sidney Joseph Cottle 14 320 Euan Dickson 14 321 Charles Findlay 14 322 Maxwell Hutcheon Findlay 14 323 James FitzMorris 14 324 Frank George Gibbons 14 325 Albert Earl Godfrey 14 326 Frank Clifton Gorringe 14 327 Reinhold Joerke 14 328 Arthur William Keen 14 329 Frederick Libby 14 330 Ronald Turnbull Mark 14 331 Maurice Edmund Mealing 14 332 Walter Naylor 14 333 James Dennis Payne 14 334 Franz Piechulek 14 335 Georg Schlenker 14 336 William Sidebottom 14 337 John Victor Sorsoliel 14 338 George Thomson 14 339 Kenneth Russell Unger 14 340 Arthur Whitehair Vigers 14 341 Hazel LeRoy Wallace 14 342 Herbert Gilles Watson 14 343 Noel William Ward Webb 14 344 Rudolph Wendelmuth 14 345 Thomas Frederic Williams 14 346 Frederick Carr Armstrong 13 347 Charles Chaplin Banks 13 348 Reginald Carey Brenton Brading 13 349 Hans-Joachim Buddecke 13 350 Siegfried Buettner 13 351 Jean Pie Hyacinthe Paul Jerome Casale 13 352 Friedrich Christiansen 13 353 Geoffrey Hornblower Cock 13 354 Dieter Collin 13 355 Douglas Graham Cooke 13 356 Wilfred Austin Curtis 13 357 Omer Paul Demeuldre 13 358 Hector Eugene Joseph Garaud 13 359 Henirich Geigl 13 360 Gavin Lynedoch Graham 13 361 Harold Alan Hamersley 13 362 Robert Heibert 13 363 Oscar Aloysius Patrick Heron 13 364 Spencer Bertram Horn 13 365 George Robert Howsam 13 366 Ernest Charles Hoy 13 367 Harold Byrn Hudson 13 368 John Ellis Langford Hunter 13 369 Johannes Janzen 13 370 Solomon Clifford Joseph 13 371 Ronald McNeill Keirstead 13 372 John Herbert Towne Letts 13 373 Sydney Tyndall Liversedge 13 374 William Edward George Mann 13 375 John Gerald Manuel 13 376 Wilfrid Reid May 13 377 Christian Mesch 13 378 Marcel Joseph Maurice Nogues 13 379 Thomas Laurence Purdom 13 380 David Endicott Putnam 13 381 Francis James Ralph 13 382 Harry Gosford Reeves 13 383 George Raby Riley 13 384 Otto Rosenfeld 13 385 Kurt Schoenfelder 13 386 Frederick Sowrey 13 387 Stanley Stanger 13 388 Eric John Stephens 13 389 Francis Stanley Symondson 13 390 John Howard Umney 13 391 Desmond Percival Fitzgerald Uniacke 13 392 George Augustus Vaughn 13 393 Oliver Henry Douglas Vickers 13 394 Erich Rudiger von Wedel 13 395 David John Weston 13 396 Walter Bertram Wood 13 397 John Oliver Andrews 12 398 Bernard Artigau 12 399 Brian Edmund Baker 12 400 Thomas Charles Richmond Baker 12 401 Frank Leaman Baylies 12 402 Louis Bennett 12 403 Gerald Alfred Birks 12 404 Clement Graham Boothroyd 12 405 Christopher Joseph Quintin Brand 12 406 Edwin Claude Bromley 12 407 Raymond James Brownell 12 408 Oliver Campbell Bryson 12 409 Erich Buder 12 410 Theodor Cammann 12 411 Walter MacFarlane Carlaw 12 412 Percival Vernon G. Chambers 12 413 Edwin Arnold Clear 12 414 Clive Franklyn Collett 12 415 Gustave Victorin Daladier 12 416 Francis James Davies 12 417 Joseph Marie Xavier De Sevin 12 418 Gottfried Ehmann 12 419 Otto Esswein 12 420 Sebastian Festner 12 421 Wilhelm Frickart 12 422 Frank Godfrey 12 423 Fernand Eugene Guyou 12 424 Ernest Hardcastle 12 425 William Leeming Harrison 12 426 Betram Heinrich 12 427 Austro- Hungarian Adolph Heyrowsky 12 428 Walter Hoehndorf 12 429 William Henry Hubbard 12 430 Gerhard Hubrich 12 431 Marcel Anatole Huques 12 432 Gordon Budd Irving 12 433 Lucien Joseph Jailler 12 434 William Stanley Jenkins 12 435 George Hubert Kemp 12 436 Hans von Keudell 12 437 Field Eugene Kindley 12 438 Max Kuhn 12 439 Reed Gresham Landis 12 440 Adrien Louis Jacques Leps 12 441 Gwilym Hugh Lewis 12 442 Alfred Lindenberger 12 443 Frederic Ives Lord 12 444 Emile John Lussier 12 445 Charles Jean Vincent Mace 12 446 Friedrich Manschott 12 447 Roby Lewis Manuel 12 448 Roy Manzer 12 449 Norman William Reginald Mawle 12 450 Douglas Urquhart 12 451 Kenneth Barbour Montgomery 12 452 Josiah Lewis Morgan 12 453 Hans Mueller 12 454 Ian Patrick Robert Napier 12 455 Jean Marie Dominique Navarre 12 456 Walter Noble 12 457 Charles Marie Joseph Leon Nuville 12 458 James William Pearson 12 459 Guy William Price 12 460 John Steele Ralston 12 461 Henry Coyle Rath 12 462 Cecil Roy Richards 12 463 Alfred William Saunders 12 464 James John Scaramanga 12 465 Franz Schleiff 12 466 Maurice Douglas Guest Scott 12 467 Alexander MacDonald Shook 12 468 Ross MacPherson Smith 12 469 Reginald Rhys Soar 12 470 William Samuel Stephenson 12 471 Leonard Thomas Eaton Taplin 12 472 Paul Albert Pierre Tarascon 12 473 Renatus Theiller 12 474 Chester William McKinley Thompson 12 475 Adrian James Boswell Tonks 12 476 Richard Michael Trevethan 12 477 Bernhard Ultsch 12 478 Melville Wells Waddington 12 479 Paul Yvan Robert Waddington 12 480 Dennis Edward Waight 12 481 Clive Wilson Warman 12 482 Richard Wenzl 12 483 James Butler White 12 484 Giovanni Ancillotto 11 485 Heinrich Arntzen 11 486 Fred Everest Banbury 11 487 Raven Freiherr von Barnekow 11 488 Harold Francis Beamish 11 489 Alexander Beck 11 490 Armond Jean Berthelot 11 491 Jean Georges Bouyer 11 492 Jean Seraphin Benjamin Emmanuel Bozon-Verduraz 11 493 Phillip Scott Burge 11 494 Joachim von Busse 11 495 Arnold Jacques Chadwick 11 496 Andre Julien Chainat 11 497 Roy Williamson Chappell 11 498 Friedrich Classen 11 499 Hugh Claye 11

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