The RAF strongly discouraged the cult of the “ace,” and of personal scores, but the Luftwaffe energetically promoted it. Such stars as Adolf Galland, Helmut Wick and Werner Molders were said by resentful comrades to suffer from “halswah”—the “sore throat” on which they were eager to hang the coveted ribbon of a Knight’s Cross—as all three did when their score of kills mounted.
