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| Photo Title: Stuka Ju-87 Ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel | Digital Items Quality: JPG File
Dimensions: 980(px) x 630(px)
File Size: 0.03(mb)
Price: Free Download 
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Description:
Hans-Ulrich Rudel was a Stuka dive-bomber pilot during World War II. Rudel is famous for being the most highly decorated German serviceman of the war. Hans-Ulrich Rudel was the only person to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds. Rudel flew 2,530 combat missions and successfully attacked many tanks, trains, ships, and other ground targets, claiming a total of 2,000 targets destroyed - including 800 vehicles, 519 tanks, 150 artillery guns, a destroyer, two cruisers, one Soviet battleship and nine aircraft which he shot down. Rudel flew his first four combat missions on June 23, 1941, during the German invasion of the Soviet Union. His piloting skills earned him the Iron Cross 1st Class on July 18, 1941. On September 23, 1941, he sank the Soviet battleship Marat, during an air attack on Kronstadt harbor in the Leningrad with a hit to the bow with a 1,000 kg bomb. By the end of December, he had flown his 400th mission and in January 1942 received the Knight's Cross of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He became the first pilot in history to fly 1,000 sorties on February 10, 1943. Around this time he also started flying anti-tank operations with the 'Kanonenvogel', or G, version of the Ju-87, through the Battle of Kursk, and into the autumn of 1943, claiming 100 tanks destroyed. By March 1944, he was already Gruppenkommandeur - commander of III. -StG 2, appointed on July 19, 1943, and had reached 1,800 operations and claiming 202 tanks destroyed. On March 13 1944 Rudel may have been involved in aerial combat with the Hero of the Soviet Union Lev Shestakov. Shestakov failed to return from this mission and is posted as missing in action since. This is how the story comes from Rudel's memoirs- D36'Was he shot down by Gadermann -Rudel's rear gunner, or did he go down because of the backwash from my engine during these tight turns? It doesn't matter. My headphones suddenly exploded in confused screams from the Russian radio, the Russians have observed what happened and something special seems to have happened... From the Russian radio-messages, we discover that this was a very famous Soviet fighter pilot, more than once appointed as Hero of the Soviet Union. I should give him a credit, he was a good pilot. In November 1944, he was wounded in the thigh and flew subsequent missions with his leg in a plaster cast. On February 8, 1945, a 40mm shell hit his aircraft. He was badly wounded in the right foot and crash landed inside German lines. His life was saved by his observer Dr.med. Ernst Gadermann who stemmed the bleeding, but Rudel's leg was amputated below the knee. He returned to operations on March 25, 1945, claiming 26 more tanks destroyed before the end of the war. Determined not to fall into Soviet hands, he led three Ju 87s and four FW 190s westward from Bohemia in a 2-hour flight and surrendered to U.S. forces on May 8, 1945, after landing at Kitzingen. Eleven months in hospital followed. |
Rating:
Rating: 3.9/10 (12 votes cast) |
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