Interesting article about Top Gun

Originally Posted by Max2147

Agreed. A factor that contributed to that was that German aircraft were usually used in conjunction with the army, so they were usually over their own territory or close to the front lines. That meant that a pilot who was shot down and bailed out had a good chance of getting back to friendly territory, where he'd get another fighter and go fly more missions. The top German aces got shot down dozens of times.

On the other side, the British and especially the Americans were flying long distance missions deep into enemy territory. If they bailed out, they were POW's for the rest of the war.

Well, that is only half the truth. During the battle for France, battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa and the following russian campaigns, the Balkan and Africa campaigns of 1941/42, over the arctic sea, wherever you look german pilots had to cross front lines on a very regular basis. Only within the Reichsdefense timespan was bailing out over friendly territory a given. You ppl mustn't forget the german airwar was not limited to 1943/44 defense of continental Europe from the US. That was a factor only within the last 2 years of the war.