Flying ace after he became the first pilot to down five German aircraft. The British initially used the term "star-turns" (a show business term), while the Germans described their elite fighter pilots as "Überkanonen" (which roughly translates to "top guns"). The successes of such German ace pilots as Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke were much publicised for the benefit of civilian morale, and the "Pour le Mérite", Prussia’s highest award for gallantry, became part of the uniform of a leading German ace. In the "Luftstreitkräfte" the "Pour le Mérite" was nicknamed "Der blaue Max"/The Blue Max, after Max Immelmann, who was the
Flying ace While "ace" status was generally won only by fighter pilots, bomber and reconnaissance crews on both sides also destroyed some enemy aircraft, typically in defending themselves from attack. The most notable example of a non-pilot ace in World War I is Charles George Gass with 39 accredited aerial victories. There were two theaters of war that produced flying aces between the two world wars. They were the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Spanish ace Joaquín García Morato scored 40 victories for the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. Part of the outside intervention in the war