Hans-Ulrich Rudel

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Hans-Ulrich Rudel (July 2, 1916 - December 18, 1982) was a Stuka dive-bomber pilot during World War II. Rudel is famous as being the most highly decorated German during the war. He gained Germany's highest military decoration, which was made just for him.

Along with his Stuka aircraft, he devastated countless enemy land and sea vehicles. He is credited for destroying 511 tanks and a few major warships.

1 Biography
2 Quotation
3 Works
4 References
5 External links

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Biography

Rudel was born to a Protestant minister in Konradswaldau (Silesia), Germany (it became part of Poland after 1945). After a limited education, he joined the German Luftwaffe in 1936 as an officer cadet. He was initially trained as a reconnaissance observer pilot, primarily because of his poor educational background. When war broke out in 1939 he was in the reconnaissance wing of the Luftwaffe, and spent the Polish Campaign as a Lieutenant flying long-range missions. He earned the Iron Cross Second Class on October 11, 1939. He was then admitted to dive-bombing Stuka training in May 1940, and after completing it, was assigned to a Stuka wing near Stuttgart. Rudel spent the French campaign as an Oberleutnant, however, in a non-combat role. Although he took part in the invasion of Crete, it was also in a non-combat role.

Rudel flew his first combat mission on June 23, 1941, with the German invasion of the Soviet Union. His piloting skills earned the Iron Cross First Class on July 18, 1941. On September 23 1941, Rudel sank the Soviet battleship Marat during an air attack on Kronstadt harbour in the Leningrad area.

In total, Rudel flew about 2,530 combat missions (a world record), during which time he destroyed almost 2,000 ground targets (among them claiming 511 tanks, 70 landing boats and more than 150 anti-air and anti-tank defenses), as well as a battleship, two cruisers, a destroyer and 13 planes. He was shot down or force-landed 32 times (several times behind enemy lines), always somehow managing to escape capture despite Stalin himself having a 100,000 ruble bounty placed on his head. The vast majority of his missions were piloting the various models of the Junkers Ju87 bomber though by the end of the war he was flying the ground-attack variant of the FW190.

He went on to become the most highly decorated combatant in Germany, earning by early 1945 the German Cross in Gold, the Pilots and Observer's Badge with Diamonds, the Close Combat Clasp with 2000 sorties in Diamonds, and the only holder of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds. In February, 1945, he was wounded in the right thigh by anti-aircraft fire; the leg was later amputated, although he returned to combat duties with an artificial limb. Eventually, he surrendered to American forces in May, 1945. He moved to Argentina in 1948.

After the war Rudel became a close friend and confidante of the Argentine president Juan Peron. Rudel wrote a book titled In Spite of Everything, and memoirs book titled Stuka Pilot which supported most of the Nazi policy. Even without a leg, he remained an active sportsman, playing tennis, skiing and even climbing the highest peak in the Americas, Aconcagua (6,959 metres (22,831 feet)), as well as three times up the highest volcano on Earth, Llullay-Yacu in the Argentine Andes (6,920 meters). Rudel's input was also used during development of A-10 attack craft.

Rudel returned to West Germany in 1953 and joined the German Reich Party. He was a successful businessman in post-war Germany. He died in Rosenheim in 1982, and was buried in Dornhausen.

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Quotation

"Verloren ist nur, wer sich selbst aufgibt" ("Lost are only those, who give up themselves").

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Works

Trotzdem (1958), translated from the German as Stuka Pilot by Lynton Hudson (Maidstone : Mann, 1973)
Mein Kriegstagebuch (Wiesbaden : Limes, c1983).
Mein Leben in Krieg und Frieden (Rosenheim : Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, c1994).

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