Hans Joachim Marseille, a young german fighter pilot, was the most amazing, unique, and lethal ace of world war 2. A non-conformist and brilliant innovator, he developed his own personal training program and combat tactics, and achieved amazing results, including 17 victories in one day, and an average lethality ratio of just 15 gun rounds per victory. Marseille was described by Adolf Galland, the most senior german ace, with these words : "He was the unrivaled virtuoso among the fighter pilots of world war 2. His achievements were previously considered impossible." Marseille, who later became one of the ten most highly decorated german pilots of world war 2 and was nicknamed "The Star of Africa" by the german propaganda, ("Jochen" by his friends), had a very unpromising and problematic start. At age 20 he graduated the Luftwaffe's fighter pilot school just in time to participate in the Battle Of Britain in the summer of 1940. He initially served in fighter wing 52 under Johannes Steinhoff (176 victories). In his third combat sortie he shot down a Spitfire and by the end of the Battle Of Britain he had seven victories, but he was also shot down four times, and his behavior on the ground got him into trouble. A charming person, he had such busy night life that sometimes he was too tired to be allowed to fly the next morning. He also loved american jazz music, which was very politically incorrect in the nazi military. As a result, he was transferred to another unit as a punishment for "Insubordination". His new unit, fighter wing 27, was relocated in april 1941 to the hot desert of North Africa, where he quickly achieved two more victories but was also shot down again and still had disciplinary problems.