No. 5 Squadron SAAF, five of them in six minutes, including three aces: Robin Pare (six victories), Cecil Golding (6.5 victories) and Andre Botha (five victories); the latter crash-landed his damaged fighter. This success inflated his score further, recording his 70th through 75th victories. Marseille was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves () on 6 June 1942. His wingman Rainer Pöttgen, nicknamed Fliegendes Zählwerk (the "Flying Counting Machine"), said of this fight: All the enemy were shot down by Marseille in a turning dogfight. As soon as he shot, he needed only to glance at the enemy plane. His pattern [of gunfire] began at the front, the engine's nose, and consistently ended in the cockpit. How he was able to do this not even he could explain. With every dogfight he would throttle back as far as possible; this enabled him to fly tighter turns. His expenditure of ammunition in this air battle was 360 rounds (60 per aircraft shot down) Schröer, did however, place Marseille's methods into context: He was the most amazing and ingenious combat pilot I ever saw. He was also very lucky on many occasions. He thought nothing of jumping into a fight outnumbered ten to one, often alone, with us trying to catch up to him. He violated every cardinal rule of fighter combat. He abandoned all the rules. On 17 June 1942, Marseille claimed his 100th aerial victory. He was the 11th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark. Marseille then returned to Germany for two months leave and the following day was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. On 6 August, he began his journey back to North Africa accompanied by his fiancée Hanne-Lies Küpper. On 13 August, he met Benito Mussolini in Rome and was presented with the highest Italian military award for bravery, the Gold Medal of Military Valor (). While in Italy Marseille disappeared for some time, prompting the German authorities to compile a missing persons report, submitted by the Gestapo head in Rome, Herbert Kappler. He was finally located. According to rumours he had run off with an Italian girl and was eventually persuaded to return to his unit. Unusually, nothing was ever said about the incident and no repercussions were visited upon Marseille for this indiscretion. Leaving his fiancée in Rome, Marseille returned to combat duties