9/20/1993 - Seventy-one years after his happy birth to Dr. Alfred Erich Hartman and his wife, Elisabeth Wilhelmine Machthoff (one of the Germany's first woman glider pilots), in Weissach, Wurttemberg, Germany (April 19, 1922), Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann passes away quietly at his home in Weil im Schonbuch from the heart condition angina pectoris (it also claims his father at the age of fifty-eight) on September 20, 1993, taking the title, Ace-of-Aces with him ... a title that is never challenged during his WWII career with the Luftwaffe in which he is known as Der Schwarze Teufel ("The Black Devil"), and one that will never be challenged in the future due to changes in the way aerial combat takes place, a title Hartmann wins by shooting down 352 (the next closest total is Germany's Gerhard Barkhoen with 301) Russian and American fighters (345 Soviet and 7 American) on the Eastern Front of the war, over Russia, during 1,404 combat missions (825 of which lead to aerial combat) while winning the 18th Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds and surviving sixteen plane crashes (he is never bested in combat, each crash is caused by plane issues or from flying through the shrapnel of close combat in the sky) and ten years in Russia as a Soviet prisoner of war.
Hartmann And Friend
Transplanted to China at the behest of a relative in the diplomatic services, when the Germany economy tanks following the conclusion of WWI, the rollercoaster ride of the ace's childhood takes him back to the country of his birth in 1928 when civil war breaks out between the Republic of China (led by Nationalist politician Chiang Kai-shek) and the Chinese Communist Party (under the direction of party chairman Mao Zedong). Footing found on his return to the Fatherland, Hartmann is educated at the Volksschule in Weil im Schonbuch (April 1928 - April 1932), the Gymnasium in Boblingen (April 1932 - April 1936), the National Political Institutes of Education in Rottweil, (April 1936 - April 1937), and Korntal's Gymnasium (April 1937 - April 1940), where he receives his Abitur of secondary education, and where he meets his future wife, fifteen-year-old Ursula "Uschi" Paetsch (love at first sight for Hartmann, the pair meet cute while bicycling, Erich beats up a rival for Paetsch's affections and they marry while the flier is on leave in 1944 ... they will have two children, a boy who dies when he is only three and whom Hartmann never sees, and a daughter, Ursula). And his embrace of flying doesn't take a backseat to his classroom education (for a brief period, Hartmann considers becoming a doctor like his father), love of the sky instilled in his personality almost from the moment of his birth (he also has a younger brother, Alfred, who will join the Luftwaffe, become a gunner on a Stuka bomber, and survive the war as a POW after being shot down over Tunisia), with his mother's guidance, at 14, Erich is teaching members of Weil em Schonbuch's Hitler Youth the principles of gliding and at 15 becomes fully licensed to fly sail planes. Continued his aerial education, Hartmann moves on to powered aircraft, and at the age of 18 in 1939, he becomes a fully licensed pilot. In October of 1940, one year into the war Germany has started with the world, Hartmann begins his military training by joining the Luftwaffe (his first posting is with the 10th Flying Regiment in Neukuhren. Classes passed, in March of 1941, Hartmann moves on to Air War School in Berlin0Galow and in a little less than three weeks he makes his first solo flight. Basic flight training completed by October of 1941, he begins advanced flight training at the fighter pilot school in Lachen-Speyerdorf, then he is on to learning advanced combat techniques and gunnery skills. He completes the course on January 31, 1942 and is assigned to the Luftwaffe's Fighter Pilot School 2 in SchleiBheim where he learns to fly the weapon he will use throughout the course of the war, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter.
Erich's Parents
In China
Glider Pilot
"Bubi" - The Kid
One of the finest fighter planes of its time, the single-seat Bf 109 (it will become the #1 fighter produced during the war, with 33,984 being produced before Nazi Germany surrenders to the Allies in May of 1945) has a length of 29 feet and 4 inches, a wingspan of 32 and 7 inches, and a height of 8 feet and 6 inches. It is powered by a Daimler-Benz inverted liquid-cooled piston engine turning a three-bladed propeller so that Willy Messerschmitt's invention can obtain a speed of 386 mph at an elevation of 26,247 feet (its rate of climb is 3,960 feet per minute), reach a ceiling of 39,000 feet, and combat loaded, can travel 355 miles to its assignment and then back to base. For fangs, the fighter comes with two wing-mounted, synchronized 13 mm MG 131 machine guns and a single centerline 20 mm Motorkanone canon (later models will also have the capability of firing two eight-inch rockets). In a matter of weeks, Hartmann masters the fighter, and to celebrate, following a successfully gunnery training flight, Erich ignores regulations, and performs aerobatics over the Zerbst airfield he is calling home. Less than amused with the neophyte fighter pilot, Hartmann's commanding officer confines Erich to his quarters for a week and fines him tow-thirds of his pay. It is a punishment that saves Hartmann's life when the pilot's roommate takes a training flight that was to be Erich's, and in the Bf 109 Hartmann was to fly, and kills himself crash landing the fighter near the Hindenburg-Kattowitz railroad. Shocked by the suddenness with which death can come for aerial knights, Hartman becomes more serious about his training and soon adopts several generic flight and attack rules that will see him through the war ... "Fly with your head, not your muscles," "See - Decide - Attack - Reverse" (a philosophy which avoids dogfights and allows Hartmann to prune away lesser Russian fighter pilots and their inferior fighters, then before the enemy can react, drop away and start his cycle all over again), and lastly, get as close as possible to an opponent before opening fire, "when the enemy fills the entire windscreen you can't miss" (so close that on a number of occasions, flying through the debris of his latest triumph, he actually shoots himself down and has to crash land due the damage his Bf 109 takes). By the time his training is completed, Hartman is qualified to fly 17 different types of German planes, can accomplish the difficult task of hitting a target drogue with half of his allocated ammunition, and is reported to be a pilot with "... excellent eyesight, lightning-fast reflexes, great flying instincts, and an uncanny ability to stay cool in combat ..." He is also extremely lucky.
Bf 109 - 1943
Hartmann
With Another Friend
Assigned to legendary fighter squadron JG 52 (the group will be the most successful fighter command of the war, shooting down over 10,000 enemy aircraft, having the top three aces of th conflict amongst it's membership in Hartmann, #2 with 301 combat victories, Gerhard Barkhorn, and #3 with 275 aerial triumphs, Gunther Rall, and sixty-seven winners of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross) in October of 1942, Hartmann finds himself flying out of the Maykop airfield on the Russian Eastern Front (near the north-eastern shore of the Black Sea), under the command of Major Hubertus von Bonin (77 aerial victories in two wars), mentored by Oberfeldwebel Edmund "Paule" RoBmann (93 aerial victories in 640 WWII combat missions), and surrounded by experienced pilots he can learn from like Alfred Grislawski (133 aerial victories), Hans Dammer (113 aerial victories and credit for also destroying eleven parked aircraft, eight locomotives, 39 horse drawn wagons, 34 trucks, three anti-aircraft emplacements, and one armored scout vehicle), Josef Zwememann (126 aerial victories), Walter Krupinski (197 aerial victories during 1,100 combat missions), and Gunther Rall (275 aerial victories). A long way from being history's aerial ace-of-aces, Hartmann begins his service with JG 52 by ferrying Junkers Ju 87 Stuka bombers from Maykop down to the Luftwaffe's Mariupol airfield ... and he gets off to a bad start. Attempting to take off, the brakes of Hartmann's Stuka fail and he crashes into the airfield's control hut, destroying the building. There are also massive problems with his first combat encounter with the Russians.
JG 52 Unit Emblem
von Bonin
RoBmann
Rall Gets #250
On Wednesday, October 14, 1942, Hartmann is finally given a combat mission to fly as RoBmann's wingman. The mission does not go well for the Kid. Spotting a flight of ten enemy fighters below his position, an impatient Hartmann goes full throttle, breaks away from RoBmann, and engages the Russian, scoring no hits, but almost becoming a victim himself when he almost crashes into an opposing fighter. Already having broken several fundamentals of aerial combat, Hartman breaks another big one hiding in a low cloud from the Russian fighters and then attempting to return to base ... running out of gasoline, he survives having to crash land his Messerschmitt. Surprised the youth is still alive, upon his return to base, an angry von Bonin grounds Hartmann for three days and assigns him to work as a member of one of the airfield's ground crews (during this period the fighter pilot will become a good friend of crew chief Heinz "Bimmel" Mertens, who subsequently will be put in charge of Hartmann's fighter, with no one else allowed to touch the ace's plane without permission coming firts from either Hartmann or Mertens). The punishment he receives from RoBmann is much more simple, taking the form of silence and a vow kept, never to fly with Hartmann again. Mentoring responsibility passed on to Alfred Grislawski and then Walter Krupinski. Out of the doghouse and into the air again, Hartmann scores his first victory of the war against an Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik of the Russian 7th Guards Ground Attack Aviation Regiment on Thursday, November 5, 1942 (and he crash lands again after flying through the debris of his first combat triumph). Still learning from the squadron's veterans and not yet turned loose, Hartmann's kill total stands at two as 1942 turns into 1943.
Hartmann
With Crew Chief Mertens
Ilyushin Il-2
A turning point year as the fortunes of the Nazi Third Reich rot following the German defeat at Stalingrad, 1943 becomes magical for Hartmann as all his training and combat experiences coalesce as he is sent on mission after mission, and becomes his country's ace-of-aces. Falling out of the sun, coming up behind an opponent, closing until he can't miss, then breaking away after firing and seeking out a new target, starting slowly, by April of 1943, Hartmann is a legitimate ace with 11 aerial victories (at the end of May his total will be seventeen). Relocated to center section of the Russian eastern front as the Wehrmacht prepares for the greatest battle (Kursk or Operation Citadel, a clash of nations and cultures, the epic July 1943 battle will feature the efforts of almost three million combatants, over 8,000 tanks, and over 30,000 artillery pieces and mortars) in world history, Hartmann enters the fight looking to vent some of the anger he feels at losing the advice and protection of his friend Krupinski, the pilot hospital convalescing with injuries to his head, a fracture of the parietal bone, and a broken rib after colliding with another Bf 109 fighter that is taking off while the veteran pilot is trying to land. As the Battle of Kursk plays out below him in July 1943, Hartmann will add 25 more Soviet planes to his score, ending the month with 42 kills, including an ace-in-a-day performances on Wednesday, 7/7, in which he takes out two Il-2 and five LAGG-31 fighters. And things will grow even worse for Hartmann's opponents the following month. Flying in mission after mission in August (for awhile he is also the temporary commander of the squadron), whenever there is a fighter available and the weather cooperates, Bubi goes up and more Russian planes come down ... forty-eight in all, bringing Hartmann's total to 90 by the month's end, with the ace scoring five kills on Aug. 1, five more on Aug. 4, another five on Aug. 5, and five more on Aug. 7. And his luck stays intact. Crash landing his fighter behind Soviet lines after leading an escort mission in which he flies through victory debris again, Hartmann is made a prisoner, but feigning internal injuries, is put in a truck for transportation to a local hospital, and seizing the opportunity presented when a Stuka strafes his ride, the pilot takes out his only guard and walks back to the German lines to the west (his adventure includes a run through a field of tall sunflowers as he is fired on by the armed locals, reversing direction for awhile to avoid a small village, following a small Russian patrol that is wiped out when it blunders into the German line, and almost getting shot by a frightened German who puts a round through the flier's trousers for not knowing that day's password ... and includes his crew chief grabbing a rifle, some water, and a plane, and going off by himself in search of his friend, with a big party at the base when the pair are reunited). ..
Krupinski
Kursk - 1943
Mertens Resting On The Prop Of Hartmann's Fighter
September of 1943 sees Hartmann become the Staffelkapitan of JG 52's ninth squadron, replacing missing in action Lt. Berthold Korts (a hundred victory ace who is last seen dogfighting with a Soviet P-39 Airacobra). Scoring twenty-five more victories during the month, Hartmann's victory total as October begins is 115 (he is the 54th Luftwaffe flier to achieve the mark). In October, Hartmann's gets thirty-three more victories and his total rises to 148. As a reward for breaking the century mark for aerial victories, on October 29, 1943, he is awarded the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. By the end of 1943, Hartmann's total stands at 159 and he survives another forced landing when his Bf 109 suffers engine failure near the town of Kirovohrad.
Korts
Knight's Cross to Iron Cross
It is in 1944 when Hartmann becomes a Luftwaffe legend and a Soviet boogeyman. Responsible for continuing to savage the Soviets and lead the men of his squadron (during this time period, Stalin places a , in January, Hartmann shoots down 26 Soviet planes (and has another ace-in-a-day days on the 30th of the month, besting six Russians), and takes out another seventeen in February (and has two more ace days ... knocking down five Soviets on the first day of the month, and another ten Russians on the month's last day). Reputation growing among his enemies, Hartmann identifies himself to his foes with his radio call sign of Karaya 1 (which is also painted on his plane, long before the Heartbreakers of Tom Petty get the same idea years later) and the distinctive black tulip pattern that is painted around the cowling of his Messerschmitt's engine. Talismans of terror, seeing Hartmann's plane or hearing his call signal, Soviet fliers, who by this time are calling the ace "Cherniy Chort" (Black Devil) start running back to base, and recognizing the menace he presents, Josef Stalin offers a reward of 10,000 rubles for any pilot or anti-aircraft crew that can take down The Kid. Total victories now up to 202, in March he is summoned back to Germany to receive his next award, the oak leaves to his Knight's Cross, from the leader of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler. Traveling to the Fuhrer's Eagle's Nest retreat in the Bavaria town of Berchtesgaden, Hartmann is accompanied by fellow aces, Gerhard Barkhorn (301 victories during the war), Walter Krupinski (197 victories during the war), and Johannes Wiese (133 victories during the war) that are also having their Knight's Crosses upgrade (leaves for Krupinski and Wiese, swords for Barkhorn). Traveling into the mountains by train, the foursome get tanked imbibing massive amounts of champagne and cognac cocktails, and by the time they arrive in Berchtesgaden, the men can barely stand, their condition enraging Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutant, the man who must introduce the men to the Fuhrer, Major Georg Ludwig Heinrich Nicolaus von Below. The major becomes even more irate when unable to find his hat, a not seeing straight Hartmann takes one off a hat rack, and puts it on, only to find it to be too large ... which is instantly explained when von Below grabs it off Hartmann's head and places it back on the rack as the cap belongs to Hitler. Too drunk to care, Hartmann quips about the leader of Nazi Germany having a big head that must come with the job, and von Below becomes even more enraged. Straightened up, the men get their awards without any further indiscretions.
von Below
The Eagle's Nest
Hartmann & Barkhorn
Wiese
Back on the Eastern Front with his squadron after receiving his award, recognizing the fear he has put into his enemies and how they flee at the sight of his plane, Harrtmann begins lending his Messerschmitt to rookie pilots, who are able to get a little more experience in the sky as competent fighters before having to actually dogfight with Russian fliers, while meanwhile, Hartmann flies other fighters on missions, eventually covering up the black tulip design entirely so he can go about the business of shooting down Soviets. Only five planes fall to Hartmann's guns in April of 1944, but reestablishing his aerial prowess flying in unmarked fighters in May of 1944, when he sends down 24 more Russian aviators, including an ace-in-a-day six on the 5th of the month. In June Hartmann gets 35 more victories, and has ace-in-day totals on 6/1 (6), 6/4 (7), 6/5 (6), and 6/6 (5), and downs his first American P-51 Mustang fighter (in another encounter during the month, whipping his plane about the skies trying to avoid a patrol of P-51s, Hartman literally runs his fighter out of both gas and ammunition and is forced to bail out of his fighter). July proves to be a quiet month with only two kills for the entire 31 days, but Hartmann explodes again in August by downing 34 more fliers during a month that includes besting ace Gerhard Barkhorn's top total of 274 aerial victories, having ace-in-a-day days on August 22 (5), August 23 (8), and the best single day of his fighting career, downing 11 planes on August. Top of the pyramid, when the month ends Hartmann is alone in history ... the first pilot to shoot down more than 300 aircraft (his total is 303). Too high a victory tally to risk the morale that would come with Hartmann being shot down, Luftwaffe chief, Reichsmarschall Herman Goering, grounds his top fighter and the pilot is told to report to Hitler at his Wolf Lair's retreat to have his Knight's Cross upgraded with Swords and Diamonds (only the 18th German to be so honored). Arriving at Hitler's compound in east Prussia, Hartmann flies into the madness of the failed attempt on Hitler's life by Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. No drunken controversary with his second visit with Hitler, this time Hartmann gets in trouble for refusing to give up his personal sidearm (a Walther pistol) to one of the new SS guards surrounding the Fuhrer, stating that if a Knight's Cross winner of diamonds can't be trusted then Hitler could be told to keep his medal (now a Colonel, this time von Below calms the trouble and the ceremony comes off without a hitch and includes coffee, lunch, and a long discussion between the two men on fighter training, the best approach to stopping the bombing of Germany, the arrival of jet fighters into the German arsenal, and conditions on the Russian Front.
Black Tulip Messerschmitt
Another Russian Falls To Hartmann's Guns
Wolf's Lair After
Awards From Hitler - Hartmann is Second From Left
Diamonds on his Knight's Cross not the only reward Hartmann receives for becoming the all-time ace of aerial combat, the flier also is promoted to the rank of captain, and receives a ten-day vacation from the rigors of the Eastern Front ... time which he uses to marry Ursula Paetsch on September 10, 1944 (also in attendance are Gerhard Barkhorn as Harrtmann's best man, and two of his fighter pals, Walter Krupinski, and Wilhelm Batz, a JG 52 fighter ace and commander who will achieve 237 aerial victories during 445 combat missions, as witnesses) in Bad Wiessee, Bavaria (a second "religious" marriage will take place in a West German church in 1956). During this time period Hartmann also is ordered to report to the former head of the Luftwaffe's fighter command, Generallieutenant Adolf Josef Ferdinand Galland in Berlin for discussions about a special project the former fighter pilot has been put in charge of (before being moved behind a desk, Galland will fly 705 combat missions in which he shoots down 104 Allied planes); development of a fighter squadron flying the potentially game-changing new fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet. Flattered to be offered a pilot position within the new group, Hartmann nonetheless turns down the offer (twice, Galland will recruit the ace again a few months later in March of 1945 when the ace's total kills stands at 337), stating he wants to stay with the men of JG 52 Honeymoon and leave over, Hartmann returns to his squadron just in time to be with the group when it begins a ragged retreat from the Crimea region of Russia.as the war continues to fall apart for Germany (until his death, Hartmann will retain the memory of flying over a field covered with over 20,000 Wehrmacht battle dead) . Revamping their fighters, the fliers of JG 52 can cram four members of their ground crews at a time into the tails of their fleeing Messerschmitts.
Erich & Ursula Get Married
Galland
Th First Combat Jets
Back in action as the squadron retreats into Hungary, at the end of October 1944, Hartmann shoots down tree Soviet fighters to bring his victory total to 305, before having a November in which he takes out twenty-seven more planes, including ace-in-a-day days on November 22nd (six aerial victories) and November 23rd (five YAKs), and closes out the year with 336 fighters downed by shooting four more Russian fighters out of the sky in December of 1944. War winding down as the Third Reich is pushed on all sides back into the confines of Germany and Austria, in February of 1945, Hartmann is appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I/JG 52 and adds three more planes to his total, and then ups his score by twelve more in April, to bring his total victories to 351. On the very last day of WWII in Europe, only hours before Germany calls it quits, one final time Hartmann (now a major) does what he has mastered better than anyone else in the history of warfare, and disposes of one final Russian flier with a surprise ambush attack. Flying a morning reconnaissance mission with his wingman from their Czech airfield, Hartmann spots a group of Soviet fliers celebrating their imminent triumph over the Third Reich prematurely by flying victory loops above the advancing Russian infantry, only twenty-five miles away from the JG 52 base. Instincts kicking in, Hartman selects another clueless opponent, dives on the Russian from 12,000 feet, and in the middle of a victory roll, blows up the Soviet flier with a round from his engine mounted cannon. His 352nd victory achieved, Hartmann and his wingman flee the remaining Soviet fighters (reduced by one to seven), and a group of freshly arrived in the area P-51 Mustangs (twelve). Ordered to fly to British lines with Commodore Hermann Graf (the first flier to reach two hundred aerial victories) by German General Hans Seidemann, with JG 52 fated to be surrendered to the advancing Russians, upon landing, Hartmann ignores the order, and instead, coordinates with Graf in destroying twenty-five Bf 109s (including Hartmann's Karaya One Messerschmitt) and an airfield full of ammunition, before marching the squadron to the west and surrendering to the Americans of the U.S. 90th Infantry Division. On the day WWII ends for Hartmann, the leading ace of all-time is barely twenty-three-years-old.
Hartmann
Hartmann On The Hunt
Soviet YAK
Unfortunately for Hartmann, the flier's war against the Soviet Union is just beginning. The Allies. having come together in an agreement on how the ending of hostilities will take, decide at the Yalta Conference of February 1945 between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, that surrendering troops lay down their arms to the men they have been fighting ... so when Hartmann gives up himself and JG 52 to American troops, those troops turn right around and transfer the Germans to Soviet care. A wanted man with a price on his head for helping devastate the Russian Air Force, Hartmann adds more red marks against his name when he refuses an offer of "good" treatment if he spies on Luftwaffe officers, or gives up details of what he knows about the ME 262 fighter jet. Instead, Hartmann refuses and is given ten days of solitary confinement (the first of many such occurrences) in a four-by-nine-by-six-foot concrete-floored container, with his meals consisting of only bread and water. Additionally, Hartmann's family is threatened with death, and the flier is beaten over the head by a Russian with a cane, until he finals snaps and attacks the guard with a wooden chair (expecting otherwise, Hartmann is not executed for retaliating). Honor over death, Hartmann finally negates the Soviet's requests for cooperation by going on a four day hunger strike (he specifically refuses to join the German communist party or to take a top position with the newly formed East German Air Force) ... that ends when his guards begin force feeding the ace his meals. In turn, the Soviets in 1949, who have not forgotten their 352 lost pilots and planes, put Hartmann into a show trial for war crimes, claiming the flier is guilty of atrocities against Soviet citizens, attacks on military objects (i.e. the planes and their airfields), and significantly damaging the Soviet economy with his marksmanship. A slam dunk for the military tribunal judging his guilt or innocence, Hartmann is sentenced to 20 years of prison hard time!. Not satisfied though, a different tribunal puts Hartmann up again for war crimes in 1951 on charges of deliberately shooting 780 Soviet citizens of the town of Briansk, attacking a bread factory in 1943, and destroying 345 "expensive" Soviet fighter planes (American planes be damned). For these "new crimes," Hartman is sentenced to 25 more years of hard labor behind bars. Knowing a railroad job when they see one (during their time in prison, the friendship of Hartmann and Graf will come to an end over Graf giving info to the Soviets, an act Hartmann can not abide), Hartmann's fellow convict aviators react to the sentence (and the ace refusing to do the hard labor) by setting off a riot in which they briefly free their squadron leader. A problem keeping him where he can stir up trouble (throughout his internment ordeal, the ace keeps his sanity by never wavering in his faith in God, or that he will see his beloved wife again), and maybe even a bigger issue if the internationally renowned pilot suddenly vanishes, Hartmann is transferred among various prison camps of the Soviet gulag that include Shakhty, Novocherkassk and Diaterka in the Russian Urals, until finally, in late 1955, as part of the last (remarkably Hartmann, with help from JG 52 ace, Hans ""Assi" Hahn is able to keep a copy of his Knight's Cross with Diamonds from the souvenir hungry Soviets during his prison confinement, hiding it in a double bottom cigar box alongside a nearby stream where Hahn recovers it before being released back into West Germany ... getting his cross back is an extremely pleasurable moment for the flier), Heimkehrer (meaning "homecomer") of repatriated prisoners of war returning to Germany (Hartmann's case is personally worked by the Chancellor of Germany, Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer, and his mother makes a point of not only writing Adenauer of the injustice her son is dealing with, but also gets missives out to Stalin and his foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov).
Prisoner Of War
Older Than 33
1955 With Ace Hans Hahn (108 Aerial Victories)
Back in West Germany, Hartmann is overjoyed to be home with his wife (the couple will have a daughter, Ursula Isabel, on February 23, 1957), but the joy is tempered by discovering that while he was a prisoner of war in Russia, his father and his son both died (a boy Hartmann never sees but in pictures). Intelligence and leadership qualities obvious, the flier joins the newly created air department of the German government, the Bundeswehr. Surprising no one, with extensive training in Germany and the United States (much of it at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, named for a WWI Medal-of-Honor ace named Frank Luke) on the Republic F-84 Thunderjet, the Lockheed T-33, the Canadair Sabre, and the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Hartmann is soon a colonel and is given command of the Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen," West Germany's first all-jet combat unit. Too much riding a desk for Hartmann's tastes, he crosses swords once too often with higher-ups over the reliability problems of the American F-104 and is quietly pushed into early retirement in 1970 (he is also right, as flying the F-104, German pilots suffer 269 non-combat crashes and 116 deaths before the flawed jet is replaced by the General Dynamics F-16 Flying Falcon in 1978). With time on his hands and able to do how he chooses, Hartmann reverts to his youth and comes full circle on his life, and once more, in the skies near the city of Bonn, becomes an instructor teaching others how to fly! In his last years, the pilot also enjoys attending reunions with both friends and former foes, participating in fly-ins with other former fighter pilots, and he lives long enough to see his life story become a selection of best selling book in both the United States and Germany ("The Blond Knight of Germany" by Toliver & Constable, "German Fighter Ace Erich Hartmann" by Ursula Hartmann, and "Black Tulip" by Erik Schmidt . Finally frazzled to a stop by the heart condition he inherited from his father, Erich Alfred Hartmann, passes away in Weil im Schonbuch, Germany on Monday, September 20, 1993 at the age of 71 (twenty-three years after Hartmann's passing, in 2016, the fliers of the ace's former squadron, West Germany's JG 71, honor the blond knight WWII by putting the black tulip design on the cowling of their current aircraft. And for the record (at that moment in time), after Hartmann's death in 1997, the ace's case is reviewed by the Moscow Chief Military Prosecutor for the Russian Federation. Fate smiling on Hartmann one more time, the flier is acquitted of all historical charges against him in Russian law as the government agency states he had been wrongly convicted.
Jet Pilot
West German F-104 Starfighter
Biography
The Hartmann's Final Resting Spot
At the age of seventy-one, Erich Alfred Hartmann, the all-time Ace-of-Aces finally falls in Germany on September 20, 1993 ... rest in peace Bubi.
Hartmann
Sheparding his flock and just another
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