Originally Posted by
UAL T38 Phlyer
I have read (can't cite the sources), but believe in WWII, the average pilot was between 20-21 years old. Most fighter pilots showed up with about 200-250 hours total; some had as little as 15-20 hours in type before their first combat sorties.
If you read some books like "Top Guns of the Luftwaffe" or "Luftwaffe Fighter Aces", many of them were extremely young as well, especially the NCO pilots. Towards the end of the war it was in the teens. And a little drift, the average age of a Type VII U-boat commander was 23 years old. A type IX commander was mid to late 20's in age.
Originally Posted by
UAL T38 Phlyer
Exactly.
There is an excellent series that shows on PBS from time to time: "A Fighter Pilot's Story." The protagonist was a P-47 pilot, and he chronicles his enthusiasm in joining, his training, and finally combat, both as Jug pilot, but also as a FAC during the Bulge.
I remember watching that show when it first debuted years ago and thought it was really good. There's that one piece of gun camera footage that I'm not sure if it's from his plane or not, but the wingman in the strafing run doesn't look his prop has more than a foot of clearance under him.