Hans Rudel is not the kind of "Panzer Ace" such as Wittmann or Barkmann,
simply because he was "Stuka Ace" and destroyed enemy armored fighting
vehicles from the air. During his career, as Stuka pilot he managed to
destroy enormous number of enemy equipment, including 519 Soviet tanks.
Hans-Ulrich Rudel was born in 1916 in Silesia.He was the son of
a clergyman - minister. He was never good at school and received
limited education. Rudel was a teenager when the NSDAP took charge and
became indoctrinated at very early age.Since young age, Rudel showed
interest in sports and did not do well in school. In 1936, he joined
the Luftwaffe as an cadet officer as a way to continue and develop his
sporting activities. After passing his flying training course and
becoming a pilot, Hans Rudel applied for further training in the
technique of the dive-bombing but was turned down. Instead, he received
reconnaissance observer's training and flew long range reconnaissance
missions during Polish Campaign in September of 1939 as a Lieutenant.
On October 11th of 1939, Rudel was awarded Iron Cross 2nd Class.At the
same, Rudel continued applying for Ju-87 Stuka (Sturzkampfflugzeug -
dive bomber)training course and was finally admitted in May of 1940.
After the completion of the course, Oberleutnant Rudel was posted to
Stuka Training Wing near Stuttgart, where he spent the French Campaign.
Afterwards, Rudel was transferred to 1st Staffel (1st Squadron) of
Stukageschwader 2 (Dive-Bomber Group 2) and took part in the airborne
invasion of Crete in May of 1941, although not in the battle zone. In
preparations for the Operation Barbarossa, Rudel's Group was transferred
to the Eastern Front and on June 23rd of 1941 at 3:00am flew his first
combat dive-bombing mission. During next 18 hours, he flew total four
combat missions. On July 18th of 1941, Rudel was awarded Iron Cross 1st
Class.
On September 23rd of 1941,Rudel's Group (1st and 2nd
Wing) attacked elements of the Soviet Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt harbor
(Leningrad area). During the attack, Rudel sunk Soviet Battleship
"Marat" with 1000kg bomb hitting its ammunition store and breaking the
ship in half - "We've got her ... you must have hit her ammunition store...She is blowing up !"
(Rudel's rear gunner Scharnovski over the intercom).On Christmas Day,
December 24th of 1941, Rudel flew his 500th mission and on December
30th, was decorated with Deutsches Kreuz (German Cross) in Gold by
General Freiherr Wolfram von Richthofen himself (who was Manfred von
Richthofen's cousin).After that, Hans Rudel was sent to Graz to lecture
and train new Stuka crews. On January 15th of 1942, he was awarded with
Knights Cross and eventually returned to the Eastern Front on his own
demand in June of 1942.In September of 1942, Rudel received the command
of the 1st Staffel of the 1st Wing of Stukageschwader 2 (1StG2), while
operating in the Stalingrad area. At that time, his squadron was often
sent to attack Soviet tank units, when inadequacy of bombs against tanks
was realized.
On February 10th of 1943, Hans Rudel flew his
1000th mission and became a national hero to the German public.Rudel was
then posted to the new special "Panzerjagdkommando Weiss" unit formed
at Briansk to test newly developed tank-busting version of Ju-87
D-3.Modified Stuka armed with two Rheinmetall-Borsig 37mm (BK) Flak 18
guns (each mounted in special canopy under each wing with 6 rounds of
ammunition) was developed at the Luftwaffe's experimental station at
Rechlin (near Neustrelitz, Germany). Prototypes were used at first
against Soviet landing crafts in the Black Sea and in the space of three
weeks, Rudel destroyed 70 such boats.In March of 1943, during a tank
battle around Belgorod, Rudel knocked out his first tank with his new
tank-busting Stuka - "... my rear gunner who said that the tank exploded like a bomb and he had seen bits of it crashing down behind us."
(Hans-Ulrich Rudel).Later on, more Ju-87 D-3s were converted to
tank-busters and were designated as Ju-87 G-1 (often nicknamed
Panzerknacker - Tank Buster or Kanonenvogel - Cannon Bird) and started
arriving on the Eastern Front in October of 1943.
On April 14th of 1943, Hans Rudel was awarded Oakleaves to his Knights
Cross.Captain Hans Rudel's squadron of nine tank-busting Ju-87 G-1 was
assigned to support of the 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf". On the
first day of the Operation Citadel, during his first mission,Rudel
knocked out four Soviet tanks and by the evening, his score grew to
twelve. "We are all seized with a kind of passion for the chase from
the glorious feeling of having saved much German bloodshed with every
tank destroyed." - Hans Rudel.At the same time, because of Rudel's
squadron'ssuccess, Panzerstaffels (Tank Destroyer Squadrons) were
formed.Based on his experiences, Rudel developed new tactics for
Panzerstaffels. He found that the best way to knock out tanks was to
hit them in the back (T-34's rear mounted engine and its cooling system
did not permit the installation of heavier armor plating) or the side.
Interesting fact is that attacking the back of the tank meant that the
plane had to come from the rear flying towards friendly territory -
great advantage if the plane got damaged during the attack.
On
October 25th of 1943, Hans Rudel was awarded Swords to his Knights
Cross with Oakleaves.In early March of 1944, he flew his 1500th mission
and was promoted to the rank of Major.In late March, during a mission,
Rudel's squadron was attacked by a squadron of Soviet Lavochkin La-5
fighters. One Stuka was shot down and crash landed with its crew
unharmed,Hans Rudel decided to land and rescue his comrades stuck in the
enemy territory.He landed and rescued his friends but could not take
off because of the soft ground.They were forced to escape on foot
towards German lines being chased by the Russians.Rudel and his comrades
reached the river Dniestr and swam 600m in the ice cold water and just
before reaching the other side, Rudel's rear gunner drowned.
Eventually, wounded Rudel was the only one who managed to escape and
reached German lines. He then returned to his unit, where he was
cheerfully welcomed by his comrades. On March 29th of 1944, for his
bravery, Major Hans-Ulrich Rudel was awarded Diamonds to his Knights
Cross with Oakleaves and Swords, the highest German military award.In
November of 1944, while flying near Budapest, he was shot in the thigh
but returned to service few days later with his leg in a plaster cast.
On January 1st of 1945, Rudel was awarded the Knights Cross with Golden
Oakleaves, Swords and Diamonds, being the only recipient of this award
specially created for him. In February of 1945, Rudel was seriously
wounded and his right thigh was shattered by anti-aircraft fire near
Lebus (near Frankfurt am der Oder). He managed to land in German held
territory and was quickly taken to the field hospital, where his leg was
amputated. Rudel was then taken to the hospital in Berlin, where he
had an artificial limb fitted and then returned to his squadron. In the
last days of the war, Colonel Rudel commanded the oldest and the best
known close assault / support Stuka group - Schlachtgeschwader 2
Immelmann. He was still operating with his unit in last days of war on
the Eastern Front.
At the end of the war, Rudel wanted to fly a suicide attack with his
squadron but hissuperior ordered him not to take off because "he might
be needed later", which might have been the only reason why he didn't do
so.
He also volunteered to fly his Stuka into Berlin in May of 1945 to
rescue Hitler from the Red Army.
On May 8th of 1945, when Germany surrendered, Colonel Hans Rudel who was
in Bohemia, flew his last mission in Ju-87 Stuka. He managed to
contact American forces and arranged for himself and other planes to fly
over to Kitzingen airfield (near Wurzburg) in the American zone,
escaping the capture by the Soviets.Afterwards, Hans Rudel was
interrogated first in England and then in France and eventually returned
to hospital in Bavaria for convalesce. In 1946, Rudel left the
Bavarian hospital and started working as a haulage contractor and in
1948, left for Argentina, where he worked for the State Airplane
Worksand organized with other escaped Nazis a NSDAP party-like
structure.
In 1951, Rudel published two booklets in Buenos Aires,
"Wir Frontsoldaten zur Wiederaufrüstung" (We Frontline Soldiers and
Our Opinion to Rearmament of Germany) and "Dolchstoß oder Legende"
(Daggerthrust or Legend). In the first book, Rudel claims to speak for
all frontline soldiers stating that they would fight again against the
Bolsheviks and that Germany's "Lebensraum" (Living Space) is in the
East.In his second book, Rudel condemns notonly all the soldiers who
tried to kill Hitler as traitors, but also the staff officers of the
Wehrmacht stating that both groups were directly responsible for the
defeat. Rudel condemns soldiers because the turmoil caused by the
assassination allowed the Allied forces to succeed with the Invasion of
Europe, while he condemns the staff officers of the Wehrmacht because
they could not see Hitler's genius in warfare and worked silently
against him. Those two booklets were followed by some more of similar
nature.Hans-Ulrich Rudel eventually returned to Germany in early 1950s
and in 1953, published his war diary entitled "Trotzdem" (Nevertheless).
There was a discussion in Germany if it should be allowed that his
diary was published, because he was known as a Nazi, but in 1953, it was
no longer that bad to be a Nazi. Most people wanted to forget, mostly
their own part of the story, while some Nazis became politicians and
businessmen and the Witschaftswunder (The rise of the industry and
economy) made the Germans interested in other things. Rudel continued
his sporting activities and became a candidate for the Deutsche
Reichspartei (DRP) an ultraconservative party but was unsuccessful. The
"Stuka Ace" died in Germany in 1982. In 1984, his diary was published
again and two of the greatest Allied fighter pilots, Douglas Bader and
Pierre Clostermann wrote a warm and praising foreword to this edition,
surely being unaware of Rudel's political activities.
Junkers 87 R-1 Stuka of 2nd Staffel of Stukageschwader 3, over Trapani, Sicily in 1941.
During
his career, Rudel flew over 2530 (around 400 of his sorties were flown
in a Focke-Wulf 190 fighter plane during whichhe was credit with 11 air
victories) missions and destroyed around 150 various artillery pieces,
519 tanks, around 1000 various vehicles, 70 landing crafts, 2 Lavochkin
La-3 fighters, Il-2 Stormovik and sunk Battleship "Marat", 2 Cruisers
and a Destroyer. Rudel was responsible for such huge damages to the Red
Army that Joseph Stalin himself put a price of 100.000 rubles on his
head.He flew more than 600.000km and used more than 5.000.000 liters of
fuel. Hans Rudel dropped over 1.000.000kg of bombs, fired over
1.000.000 of machine gun rounds, over 150.000 20mm rounds and over 5000
37mm rounds.
Rudel thought that the Lend-Lease American tanks were easier to kill
than the Soviet T-34s, but he hated their
machine guns, because once he was shotdown by one.
Rudel was an outstanding pilot with experience,who loved to fly and
destroy.He hated to take homeleave or sickleave and even when he got his
leg amputatedhe was not depressed since he couldstill do what he loved -
fly and destroy.During his career, Hans Rudel showed remarkable power,
toughness, fearlessness, unparalleled determination and arrogance but
none of his photos show any impact of the hardship of war on his face.
His personal bravery was beyond belief and his place in the annals of
military history thoroughly deserved, although it is important to
remember the words of an American Protocol-Officer, who absolutely
correctly named Rudel "the typical Nazi Officer".
Rudel's famous quotation was "Verloren ist nur, wer sich selbst aufgibt"
("Lost are only those, who abandon themselves").
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