Rudel question

[Stirling]

Wow!
A fighter pilot and a tank buster, we did he get the energy? (hard core fanaticism seems to be a good motivational tool if nothing else)

He's got to be leading the catagory for most successfull pilot of all time,even ahead of the chap with 352 air to air victories (eric hartmann is it? or somthing close to that any way)

Stirling -I love the new smiley's!

[Matt L]

Yeah, I wondered where he got all his energy too- he talks of 6 and 7 sorties a day, regularly engaging his men constantly in physical fitness activities like soccer and he kept leaving hospital before he was even close to being ready to fly again- it's quite amazing.

He might have believed in National Socialism, but in his book he certainly doesn't seem like a fanatic- as he states:

"Are these gentlemen aware that we have never fought for a political party, but only for Germany?" (Stuka Pilot, p. 226- referring to US interrogators).

Then again, I really don't know much of Rudel after the war- perhaps this view of him is based on that.

Anyway, I've always figured the guy must've been nuclear powered or something Actually, I expect he was just one of those rare individuals that just keeps going and going. I have an aunt like that- I get tired just HEARING about what she does in a day, a week, a month...

Rudel is generally reckoned to be the most successful combat pilot of all time. Hartmann was an incredible fighter pilot (352+ Luftsiege), but Rudel's score was far, far higher when it's taken into account that he sunk a battleship, a cruiser, quite a few smaller craft, destroyed countless vehicles, well over 519 tanks (that's the number he's formally credited with, but he knocked out many more he never claimed), shot down 9 fighter aircraft- many with his Stuka BOMBER- as well as having landed and rescued a number of downed crews just as Soviet forces were approaching the sites, he escaped Soviet captivity at least once (but something tells me it was more), he swam the Dnieper in one case to get away, and he was shot down something like 22 times- always by AA fire- never once by a fighter. Add to that the fact that he continued flying although one leg was in a cast, and then after one leg was amputated... to an incredible total of 2530 sorties. And he was Geschwader Kommodore of the Immelmann Geschwader, ending the war before he was even 29. And like so many in all of the nations involved in the war, he was almost washed out as a pilot. Unbelievable.

Matt

[WalterB]

No doubt about it, Matt. An incredible warrior.

[Stirling]

Does any one know what battleship he sunk? was it a full sized one?!
And wouldn't it be cool if he sunk it with just his 37mm cannons! I'll bet it was bombs though.

Did anyone ever think to offer him a go in one of those Hs129's with the 75mm cannon? he would have liked that
Stirling

[WalterB]

Does any one know what battleship he sunk? was it a full sized one?!
And wouldn't it be cool if he sunk it with just his 37mm cannons! I'll bet it was bombs though.

Did anyone ever think to offer him a go in one of those Hs129's with the 75mm cannon? he would have liked that
Stirling

If memory serves me, I believe the battleship was the "Marat". He sank it by dropped a bomb on a dive attack.

[ROBB]

If memory serves me, I believe the battleship was the "Marat". He sank it by dropped a bomb on a dive attack.

Yes he was a great pilot but also a diehard Nazi .Walt I think you meant dropping .Rob.

[Jos L C]

If memory serves me, I believe the battleship was the "Marat". He sank it by dropped a bomb on a dive attack.

Correct , Russian battleship....

Here's Rudel with the missing leg..

Jos.

[Jos L C]

.

[Matt L]

Walter's right- it was the 'Marat'- and it was a 1000kg armor-piercing bomb that probably hit an ammunition magazine.

[J.von Canon]

Rudel...

I was friends with the Oberst and still am friends with his widow.
She visited at our home during the (Atlanta)Olympics.She gave me many,many insights about what made him "tick."
Not many know that Rudel was not only the greatest combat pilot that ever flew,loss of leg notwithstanding-but a mountain climber of note and competitor skiier after the war.
Someone observed that he nearly flunked out of flying school:that's true-as nearly did von Richtoffen and Marsailles....
J.von Canon

[MiloMorai]

If the Marat was in open water it would have sunk but it was not. It came to rest on the bottom and after some repair work continued to fight.

Allied ground inspection at Falaise found that the FB claims were exagerated on the number of tank kills. How were Rudels claims checked?

[Luftm40]

Rudel was also considered a bore and general pain in the a%^ by his fellow Luftwaffe experten. As I remember, another ace...I can't remember which...was incarcerated w/ him after the war and complains about the guy in his memoirs...

[J.von Canon]

Rudel was also considered a bore and general pain in the a%^ by his fellow Luftwaffe experten. As I remember, another ace...I can't remember which...was incarcerated w/ him after the war and complains about the guy in his memoirs...

I've seen the fellow Luftwaffe pilots criticism of Rudel that you mention,just can't remember where...
These men were extraordinary individuals,to say the least.That snide remarks were made is no surprise,including post-war.
Frau Rudel and I talked at length about certain attitudes toward one another carried by some of the various pilots;Adolf Galland,in fact,comes to mind.
She mentioned that Rudel had reservations about Galland because he was a hard drinker ;her actual words were much stronger(Rudel was the non-drinker.)As drinking "in the mess"was an time established tradition among the German officer corps in all service branches,Rudel was naturally a "strange bird",so to speak.But I doubt there was much criticism of him by his own Stukageschwader 2 Immelmann as he,several times,rescued his own guys making forced landings behind Red lines to scarf up fellow airmen who would have been murdered.
An example this has some bearing on this:Back in Aug.1991 I met a former Luftwaffe ace named Guenther Schack.Herr Schack had 174 air victories,and was a carrier of the Ritterkreuz.
I was translating for Herr Schack (Dobbins Air Force Base,Marietta,Georgia)when he met the American pilot from Texas who declined to shoot him down,Bud Nowlin(H.R.Nowlin.)
Schack's ME 109 was crippled and in a glide when Nowlin pulled alongside,saw his helplessness,gave a wave and continued on in his P-51.
The two men are very close friends.
Herr Schack was telling me that he is "ignored"by his former "Kameraden" today because he is involved in numerous pacifist causes.He will emphasize that he is a "professional pacifist,"and this has caused him to be blacklisted by many of his former colleagues.He told me that he had even been "ignored"as a R.K.carrier,as well as his aerial victories.
Wars often result in former combattants being at odds with each other.So it has been with Rudel,as well as Guenther Schack.

[Skarek]

Rudel must be the most "immortal". He made about 2,530 combat missions. If you spread this over the entire war, it is about one each day.

Still my personal favorite among the german über-soldiers are by far Michael Wittman.. Too bad he didn't survive the war....