The leading German ace in the Battle of Britain, Werner Molders, like so many other Luftwaffe commanders, saw his career blossom during the Spanish Civil War. There, flying the first Bf 109 fighters, he developed the Rotte formation, in which pilots flew close together in pairs, and the Schwarm, in which they flew in formations of four. These air combat tactics were later adopted by the Luftwaffe and used in the Battle of Britain. In Spain Molders shot down fourteen Republican aircraft, and added twenty-five French and British aircraft to his total during the fall of France, earning the coveted Knight's Cross in the process. His aerial combat feats were all the more remarkable considering that he failed his first physical exam because of air sickness, and chronically suffered from it for the rest of his career. During the Battle of Britain, Molders commanded the one hundred fighters of Jagdeschwader 51, and by the middle of October 1940, he had shot down forty-five RAF fighters. A somber, deeply religious man, Molders was given the nickname Vati, or "Daddy". At age twenty-eight, he was appointed general of fighters for the Luftwaffe, and continued to excel at shooting down aircraft, this time on the Russian Front. His victory total had reached 115 when, on November 17, 1941, he was called to serve as a pallbearer at the funeral of Ernst Udet. On his was to Berlin, Molders was killed when the He 111 in which he was riding crashed during a storm.