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Although times and tactics have changed, the warrior spirit and leadership that Rudel showed is still an inspiration for attack pilots today

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The most highly decorated man on the German side during World War II was Hans-Ulrich Rudel, stuka pilot, and this picture biography is a 277 page long valentine to him. He comes across as quite an alpha male in these pages. His lust for life brought him success in his military career, and his postwar mountaineering and sporting competitions.
Now, if you're here, you probably already know the background of Rudel's weapon of choice, the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka divebomber. By the time the war started it was already obsolescent, beginning to be outclassed by fighters entering service with the Western allies. But in the early going it was the very outward and visible sign of Nazi hyper-aggression. The black crooked-wing craft even looked somewhat like a flying swastika. The whine of its propeller and the screech of its dive siren triggered terror in its victims. Though the Stuka was soon driven from the skies of the Western front, it served in the East as a most capable ground attack airplane right up to the very end of the war. Rudel's Stuka was equipped with 3.7 cm flak cannons, to make it a feared _panzerknacker_, or tank buster.
This book relates in minute detail Rudel's many accomplishments. He and his squadron single-handedly beat back a Soviet armored assault. He rescued the crew of a downed Stuka from under the noses of the advancing Red Army. He was himself downed behind enemy lines and got back to his base in a masterpiece of evasion and escape. He even lost part of a leg and kept flying, was officially grounded and kept flying clandestinely. He finished the war with upwards of 2,500 combat missions, 500 tank kills, and one sunk battleship to his credit--an amazing feat given that he flew a slow, out-of-date aircraft in a theater where the enemy enjoyed air superiority from about 1944 onwards. Thank God his side lost, but the man deserved all the praise he got.
The latter third of the book deals with his postwar career as an adventurer masquerading as an industrial salesman. While "alive and well and living in Argentina" he schmoozed with the Perons, climbed the world's highest volcano three times, and got in some high-diving--all this with one leg, remember. Curiously, the book makes no mention and includes no pictures of Rudel's funeral, though the German edition of this translation was published four years after his death. It also does not discuss his continued Nazi sympathies, and his recurring embarrassment of the West German government with his right-wing activities after the war. But be charitable: he was the greatest combat pilot ever, and should be respected as such

An exceptional man, who never gave up under the direst of circumstances. During the war he sunk a Battleship, destroyed around 500 tanks, shot down around 20 fighter planes and evaded capture behind enemy lines.
He shows us how one man can always make a difference.


Used price: $130.72




Mr. Rudel missed The Battle of Britain, was not even considered a great pilot during training. Regardless, he entered combat when Germany invaded Russia in'41 and survived 4 brutal years of warfare. By '43 he was flying a Stuka that mounted 2 37mm cannons under it's wings and began gaining his great reputation as supreme "Tankbuster". The Stuka, already dangerously slow was even more so with these guns attached. I think he got credit for around 500 tanks destroyed, about the equivelent of one entire Red Tank Army's inventory.
Rudel was one of Hitler's personal favorites, and when he decorated Rudel with a high award he ussually forbade him any further combat. Of course Rudel always found a way around that. In fact, his final award, the Knight's Cross with gold oakleaves, crossed swords and diamonds was pretty much invented for Rudel, as Hitler had run out of awards to give him.
Apart from straight up combat flying the book has numerous survival stories. Rudel several times landed behind lines to pick up fellow pilots (a habit Hitler eventually strictly forbade of him). On one of those occasions his plane got mired in the muck and a incredible evasion and escape adventure begins. In the final weeks Rudel is flying FW-190s, one legged. Rudel was, perhaps understandably a sore loser and shows this at the end, when he flew to an allied field to surrender. At his command, he and his fellow pilots locked the brakes and collapsed their landing gear to render their planes useless to the allies. A futile gesture that still demonstrated his defiance to what was a bitter end for his Luftwaffe career. I can't recomend this great book enough.