7/2/1916 - The life of the most decorated German soldier of WWII begins in the Lower Silesia, Prussia town of Konradswaldau (now a part of Poland) with the birth of Hans-Ulrich Rudel, the only son of Lutheran minister Johannes Rudel and his wife Martha Mueckner Rudel (he will have two older sisters, Ingeborg and Johanna) ... the only German warrior to ever become the recipient of the Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds, "The Eagle of the Eastern Front."
Rudel
As a youngster, Rudel proves to be a poor scholar, but an excellent athlete, becoming an excellent skier (teaching himself to master the slopes at 10) and soccer player. And like so many youngsters of the time, flying grabs him at an early age and in 1924 he will actually live out the cliche of kid flight by grabbing an umbrella and jumping out of a second story window of his home when he is only eight years old ... a leap that sends Rudel to the hospital with a broken leg after the umbrella turns inside-out and he crashes into one of his mother's flower beds. His public schooling takes place at the Gymnasium of Luban, Silesia (now Poland). and in 1933, Rudel joins the Hitler Youth. In 1936, the youth gains his Abitur secondary education certification and participates in the Third Reich's compulsory Reich Labour Service (RAD), while getting ready to participate as a decathlete for Germany in the 1940 Olympics (which will be canceled due to WWII). Following his service in RAD, Rudel joins the Luftwaffe and begins his military career as an air reconnaissance pilot. As WWII begins in Europe on September 1, 1939, Rudel flies long distance reconnaissance patrols over Poland. The following year, Rudel serves as the regimental adjutant for the 43rd Aviators Training Regiment based in Vienna, Austria. Seeking more action than simply observing military movements from afar and writing reports, in 1941, Rudel becomes a Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" pilot for Staffel Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 (StG2) Immelmann based in Poland, preparatory to Hitler's summer invasion of the Soviet Union.
The Rudel Family
Youngster
Attacking the enemy for the first time, he begins his remarkable resume of destruction on September 23, 1941, when the young pilot puts the 2,200 pound bomb into the 23,000 ton Soviet battleship Marat (named for the French Revolution martyr) near the ship's forward superstructure that kills 326 enemy sailors and causes the dreadnought to sink at her Kronstadt, Russia mooring in 36 feet of water (his backseat gunner for the mission is Luftwaffe Sergeant Alfred Scharnowski).
Rudel Over Marat
Known to his fellow pilots as a bit of a "stick in the mud" for not smoking, drinking only milk, not chasing women, not gambling, and having no time for anything but sports and flying, with one of his flight instructors describing the pilot as being a "strange bird." Strange indeed, for from October of 1941 to May of 1945, Rudel seemingly becomes more machine than man, flying mission after mission after mission for the Third Reich as it attacks Russia. In his first day of battle, Rudel takes his bomber out on four missions, and by the end of October has gone up over a hundred times, receiving an Iron Cross First Class for his actions, and he is just getting started. By the summer of 1942, Rudel has flown five hundred missions, survived his first Russian winter, been put in command of a Stuka training unit, married his fiancee Ursula during a brief leave from the front, and flies a new Ju-87D Stuka in support of the German Sixth Army as it struggles to capture the Volga River town of Stalingrad. When the massive Soviet counterattack is launched on the morning of November 19, 1942, Rudel's number of sorties increases even more, with he and his fellow pilots flying from dawn to dark daily trying to blunt the offensive. Seeking a base outside the city's encirclement, StG2 moves a hundred miles west of the city, only to find Soviet tanks readying to overrun the field, and with Rudel's seventeenth sortie of the day, the pilot destroys the last Russia tank approaching the airfield's runway. Becoming the "Iron Man" of the Luftwaffe, by February of 1943, Rudel flies on his 1,000 mission and receives from his wing a chimney sweep, a lucky pig, and a honorary toasting goblet filled with milk. He also receives orders to report to Rechlin, Germany to help test new concepts in aerial anti-tank warfare using the latest Luftwaffe technology in the form of two new weapons, the Kanonenvogel (Cannonbird) and the Panzerknacker (Tankcracker). And newly minted as holder of a Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves (given to the flier by Hitler) and a Luftwaffe captaincy, what better place is there to learn the combat efficiency of the new weapons than by trying them out during the biggest clash of tanks in history, the Battle of Kursk.
Ursula #1
Stuka Over Stalingrad
Rudel
At Kursk
In the target rich environment over the steppes of southwestern Russia during the German offensive known as Operation Citadel (during which, the largest battle in the history of mankind takes place from July 5, 1943 to July 17, 1943 at the Battle of Kursk). Rudel will need little time to prove the value of his Stuka's new weapons ... on his first day in combat at Kursk, Rudel will disable four Soviet tanks during his first mission and by the end of the day will have destroyed twelve Russian armored fighting vehicles. A living example of what can be done from the air for ground support, Rudel is appointed a wing commander and given the job of putting together a special squadron of tank hunters that can be moved about the front and used where needed. By November of 1943, Rudel has flown over 1,500 missions and has been credited with destroying over 100 enemy tanks (he is supported by Sergeant Erwin Hentschel, his back Stuka gunner, who becomes a celebrity himself for flying on over 1,200 sorties with Rudel and becoming one of the Luftwaffe's finest aerial marksmen ... late turning in his recommendation for Hentschel receiving an upgrade to his Knight's Cross, when Rudel is ordered to Hitler's Wolf's Lair headquarters in East Prussia to receive his latest upgrade, he takes Hentschel with him and brow beats the Fuhrer into giving the sergeant an upgraded medal too). For his efforts at Kursk, Rudel will be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (one of only 160 awarded during the war). And Rudel keeps surprisingly surviving his adventures flying a dive bomber for the Third Reich.
Rudel In His Modified Stuka
Rudel
On a reconnaissance mission in the winter of 1943, Rudel becomes lost in a heavy fog, and running low on fuel, makes a forced landing on a German supply road. Jammed with German truck traffic, Rudel and Hentschel obey traffic regulations on the road and taxi their plane 25 miles toward their base, where they are blocked by an overpass too close to the ground to allow for the Stuka's passage, so the pilot leaves his gunner to guard the plane and catches a truck ride the rest of the way back to base, returning later to fly his bomber back to the group's airfield when the weather gets better. In March of 1944, Rudel (now a major) and Hentschel are part of a German aerial effort to cut off the Soviet bridgeheads over the Dniester River near the Ukraine town of Nikolayev. Spotting one of the Stuka's of his group put down on the Soviet side of the river, as he has done before in half a dozen rescues (and he has also been rescued in the same manner), Rudel lands to pick up his comrades, but discovers that his now over-weighted plane can not leave the Russian mud to become airborne once more. Knowing Stalin has placed a reward of 100,000 rubles on the capture of "The Eagle of the Eastern Front," aka Rudel, the pilot, his back gunner, and the two men they were rescuing exit the mud bound Stuka and in full gear, run several miles before coming to a spot along the Dniester where they can slide down the riverbank's cliffs and into the water. Removing their flying gear and heavy boots, the men go for a swim in water of the 600-yard-wide river that is just above freezing and flecked with pieces of ice. Rudel's athletic background proves to be a life saving asset as the German flier makes it across the river while Hentschel drowns 80 yards short of landfall and the other Stuka fliers are captured (crazy time, Rudel jumps back in the river when his friend Hentschel goes under, but he can't locate the back gunner). Barefoot, wet, freezing, and shot in the shoulder, Rudel refuses to surrender to the Soviet forces hunting for him and instead, hides with a group of Stalin-hating refugees as he makes his way through 30 miles of enemy territory to reach his own lines (his feet are so frozen by the ordeal that he will have to be carried to his plane for his next mission). Upon returning to combat, Rudel new back gunner and radio operator is one of the medical officers of the squadron, Oberstabsarzt Dr. Ernst Gadermann.
Hentschel
Rudel & Gadermann
A new pairing with the same results, hunting for more Soviet targets, Rudel is shot down again following being wounded in his upper right leg (Gadermann is also wounded on the mission). Escaping the hospital he is in, Rudel will fly his next mission with his leg in a cast. Yet still not asking for a rest, by this point in the war, Rudel has flown 2,400 missions and has officially notched 460 tank kills (approximately the equivalent of three Soviet tank corps, the last Commander-in-Chief of the German Army, Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schorner, will claim of the flier, "Rudel alone is worth an entire division!"), enough to warrant another visit to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. In the presence of many of the leaders of the Nazi Party (Hitler, Generaloberst Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl, Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, Field Marshal Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel, and Reichsmarshall Hermann Wilhelm Goering), on January 1, 1945 is awarded another upgrade to his Knight's Cross, this time making his oak leaves golden, the only man ever to be so honored (he is also promoted to colonel). And once more, Hitler orders the pilot grounded, Rudel refuses, and the Fuhrer just smiles before stating, "Very well then, fly. But be careful, the German people need you."
Rudel's Gold Leaves
A creature of habit, Rudel flies like he always flies, hunting targets and releasing his ordnance as close as possible to his target to insure a hit. On February 8, 1945, Rudel (still flying in a heavy cast) and Gadermann are hunting the Soviet's new T-34/85 medium tanks and their new heavy tank, the JS (for Joseph Stalin), that have crossed the Oder River. Successful as usual, the pair have just destroyed their 13th tank of the day, a JS, when Rudel's Stuka is struck by Soviet 40mm anti-aircraft fire and he is hit in his bad right leg. On the verge of passing out, Rudel calls back to Gadermann, "Ernst, my right leg is gone," A medical issue to deal with, the gunner becomes a doctor again (he will survive the war with 850 missions of his own and his own Knight's Cross, dying in Hamburg, Germany on November 26, 1973 from a heart attack at the age of 59) and talks the semi-conscious flier down into a crash landing the pair survive, then Gadermann pulls him from the wreckage of his plane, stops Rudel's bleeding, and puts the pilot in an ambulance bound for a nearby hospital. When Rudel wakes up in the hospital he discovers his right leg has been amputated below the knee, and once more he has been ordered to cease combat flying by Hitler (the Fuhrer wants him to take over one of the Luftwaffe's jet units, but the pilot declines), but.neither situation stops him from flying again. Recovering in a Berlin bunker, by Easter, Rudel is ready to fly again and begins blowing up tanks once more for Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schorner and Army Group Center (his new scores are kept anonymous and are attributed to the overall squadron ... 26 more tanks). The war in Europe rapidly winding down, on the day before Hitler's final birthday, Rudel flies into Berlin and meets the Fuhrer in his elaborate bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery, offering to fly the man out of his encirclement by the Soviets. Refusing to evacuate, Hitler will be dead before the week is over.
Hospitalized
Missing A Leg
Told that the war is over, on the morning of May 8, 1945, Rudel orders the ground personnel of StG2 to head west to avoid the Soviets. Though he would like to lead a suicide mission on the headquarters of the nearby Soviet army, he then takes the remaining pilots and planes in his command (four modified Focke Wulf Fw-190 fighters and three Stukas) to the American air base of Kummer am See in Czechoslovakia. The information sent that German pilots are headed to the base to surrender is of course lost in the celebrating that comes with the end of the war and Rudel's small command arrives over the base just as the 2,500 men of the Ninth Air Force's 405 Fighter Group are lined up in front of their hangers in dress uniform, with a full band providing music, while awaiting a flyover by 75 P-47D Thunderbolt fighters. Both sides worried that their former foes will fire on them, six of the German planes will crash land on the field, and though single-seat aircraft, twenty-one people climb out of them (the one plane that does not crash land is flown by a master sergeant that has his girlfriend smuggled on board in the aircraft's radio compartment). No blood is spilled in the war ending event, but there are a few close calls ... a pistol pointing American tries to take Rudel's Knight's Cross away from the pilot and has to be stopped by Lt. Colonel Edgar J. Loftus, the executive officer of the 405th, when Rudel refuses to surrender although he agrees that the Americans can make him their prisoner if they must, words misinterpreted, Luftwaffe Gruppe commander Major Karl Kennel (an ace with 34 aerial victories) will challenge Lt. Colonel Ralph Jenkins to an unarmed mock dogfight, Focke Wulf vs. Thunderbolt, recently released Stalag 11A POW, Major Harry G. Sanders, will produce a loaded and cocked .45 with which he threatens to shoot the first German that touches the food the Americans have supplied to their prisoners (shot down by German flak and wounded as he crashes into a tree, Sanders will claim that while at the POW camp, his wounds were not treated and he was given no food or water ... disarmed by squadron commander Major Chester Van Etten, Sanders will find a measure of solace in picking up a tray of food and throwing it out a nearby window), and the Americans will not be amused when Rudel produces a bottle of 20-year-old Scotch and toasts his squadron and its officers without sharing any of the liquor with his hosts.
Victory Review
Stowaway
American Captives - Rudel Is In The Light Coat
On the positive side, noticing that Rudel's leg stump has begun bleeding again when the pilot deplanes, he will given medical attention by the American group's flight surgeon, Captain Bob Schlecter, but not before inspecting the men lined up awaiting the flyover by walking among their ranks in obvious discomfort (not thinking straight with the war coming to an end, Rudel actually believes the parade and flyover are in his honor and he thanks the Americans for the kind gesture ... when the flyover is completed, Rudel will comment, "Best looking formation I've ever seen!"). Showing off, Rudel goes over the cockpit controls of a Fw-190 with Van Etten's operation officer, Captain Oscar Theis (on May 10th, using the information garnered from Rudel, Theis will fly a captured Fw-190 in a mock dogfight against the Thunderbolt of Van Etten, and will easily gain the tail of his boss' plane time and time again). He will also pass around his Knight's Cross to the officers of 405th to examine (and it produces one of its desired results, when the Soviet Union comes calling with arrest papers for Rudel, the Americans will refuse to turn over their prisoner).
Van Etten
Theis
Somehow surviving the war, Rudel puts together a combat resume like that no one else that will continued technologic improvements in weaponry and tactics probably will never be bested. Flying 2,530 missions from June of 1941 to May of 1945 (430 will be in a modified Focke-Wulf, the balance in his beloved Stuka) in which he will destroy 519 tanks, the pilot also sinks the Soviet battleship Marat, sinks the Soviet cruiser, Petropavlovski, sinks the destroyer, Minsk, blows up seventy landing craft. sends to Russian junkyards over 800 military vehicles, takes out over 150 anti-aircraft, anti-tank, and artillery positions, wrecks four armored trains along with a number of bridges and supply roads, and also becomes a flying ace by shooting down seven Soviet fighter planes and two Soviet bombers. Additionally, he is shot down by anti-aircraft ground fire thirty times, suffers five wounds, one of which takes his right leg below the knee, rescues six stranded aircrews from enemy held territory, and becomes the only man to ever recieve Gold Oak Leaves for his Knight's Cross. It is a record like no other!
The Minsk
Rudel Demonstrating A Tank Attack
Military combat days finally over, Rudel spends months recovering from his various ailments, and is debriefed by both English and American intelligence officers. In April of 1946, Rudel is released and goes into private business in Wuppertal, Germany, but not for long. Germany to Austria, Austria to Rome, Rome to Buenos Aires, using a fake Red Cross passport under the name of Emilio Meier, Rudel emigrates to Argentina in June of 1948. Settling in the city of Villa Carlos Paz where he will run a brickworks, Rudel will begin writing about his WWII experiences, praising Hitler and blaming the defeat of the Third Reich on the military politicians of the Wehrmacht (legless British ace, Douglas Bader, will write the forward for the book). And continuing to be controversial, Rudel establishes Kameradenwerk ("Comrades Agency"), a relief organization for Nazi war criminals hiding from the authorities in South America, and becomes a close friend of Argentinian president Juan Peron, Paraguay's dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, and Chilian strongman Salvador Allende Gossens and a buddy to Nazi concentration camp doctor and wanted war criminal Josef Mengele, Waffen SS Lt. Colonel Otto Johann Anton Skorzeny, and the "Butcher of Lyon, SS officer Nikolaus Barbie. Not surprisingly, Rudel will become the foreign representative in South America for Salzgitter AG, Dornier Flugzeugwerke, Focke-Wulf, Messerschmitt, Siemens, and Lahmeyer International. When a military and civilian uprising boots Peron out of office, Rudel leaves Argentina and moves to Paraguay before returning to West Germany and becoming a leading member of the Neo-Nazi nationalist political party, the German Reich Party, but discovers most of the country does not share his views. And Rudel just doesn't care that his mere presence at a military reunion, a World Cup soccer game, or a ski race can result in scandal and controversy (two Bundeswehr generals are forced to take early retirement for supporting Rudel's views and he will lose his friendship with Gadermann over his views of Hitler). There is plenty of scandal and controversy in Rudel's private life too. Seemingly fixated on beautiful women named Ursula, Rudel and his first Ursula will divorce in 1950 (there are rumors that she sells the diamonds from the pilot's Knight's Cross ... and she is adamant about not following her husband to Argentina), Ursula Daemisch becomes wife #2 in 1965 (they meet when he gives her a skiing lesson, they will have one son together, 1969's Christoph), and Ursula Bassfeld is #3 when she marries Rudel in 1977 (she is his physical therapist). Though missing part of his right leg, he also finds time to continue playing tennis, swimming, and skiing, scales 22,110 foot Llullaillaco, the world's fifth-highest volcano three times, and comes up 500 feet short of ascending Aconcagua, South America's highest mountain due to bad weather.
Memoirs
With Juan & Eva Perron
In 1970, Rudel survives his first stroke. Twelve years later, on December 18, 1982, he is not as lucky and dies in the Bavaria town of Rosenheim at the age of 66. He is buried on the 22nd of the month at Dorhausen and sure enough, there will be one final controversy for the pilot when two Bundeswehr F-4 Phantoms do a low pass flyover of the funeral, which causes four mourners to give the banned Nazi salute to the fliers overhead (German Federal Minister of Defence, Manfred Worner, will investigate, but eventually writes the whole incident off). Fighting philosophy and life philosophy one in the same and his doctrine of life comes to the flier while he is sitting alone on a Ukrainian hillside with a bullet through his shoulder and his Soviet foes close in, the defiant proclamation that "Only he is lost who gives himself up for lost." Rudel in a nutshell!
Rudel's Grave
Rudel
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