I’m currently reading “The Blond Knight of Germany” the biography of Erich Hartmann, and so the air war on the Eastern Front and the achievements of the Luftwaffe aces have become my current passion. The book, by Raymond Toliver (ex-USAF fighter pilot) and Trevor Constable, was originally published in 1970 and revised in 1985; later details I’ve found on the web. Erich Hartmann, just 23 years old in 1945, was the all-time Ace of Aces, with 352 victories, and one of only fifteen holders of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. The number of 352 appears to have been accepted at the time by the Luftwaffe and subsequently by historians. It could be argued that numbers alone are not necessarily a guide to the relative merits of an ace. Was he a better air fighter than, say, Manfred von Richthofen, with 80 victories in WW1? But that is like arguing whether Schumacher is a greater racing driver than Fangio - how do you compare men using different machinery, under different rules, with different opportunities? In the end, its difficult to argue with 352. I feel that to be a true hero, a person has to prove their moral courage as well as their physical courage. Hartmann had this in spades. He was the most prominent of several thousand German troops imprisoned by the Russians after WW2. He was ordered by his superiors to escape from the advancing Russians, but chose to stay with his comrades from JG52. He was among the last to be released - in 1955. Think about it - what were we doing ten years ago; how do we feel about losing a chunk of our lives that long? There was no release date to be looked forward to - they had to face the possibility of never being released. Hartmann was offered release by the Russians - if he would go back to Germany and spread pro-Soviet views. Many, including at least one leading ace (Hermann Graf) and several Generals, cracked under the pressure and compromised and were released. But not Hartmann. He refused to compromise, and in an environment where rank was no longer recognised, and leadership was by force of personality, he became the prisoner’s leader. In the end, in the brief thaw after Stalin’s death, Adenauer secured their release. Hartmann’s wife Ursula (“Usch”) whom had married in 1944 when he was 22 and she 20, waited for him all that time. They had a son, who died at the age of three, never seeing his father. Many other wives divorced their prisoner husbands as the situation looked hopeless. But Erich and Usch were reunited and re-dedicated their marriage. Hartmann served in the West German Luftwaffe after his release “flying was all I knew”. He had hoped to train in Medicine after the war, but he was too old by the time of his release. But he was not a natural for a Military career; too outspoken - “a great pilot but not a good officer”, said fellow ace Gunther Rall. In particular he got into trouble for criticising the purchase by the Luftwaffe of the F-104 Starfighter - moral courage again - and was arguably proved right by its high accident rate. He retired in 1970 as a Colonel; whereas several other WW2 aces became Generals, and at least two - Rall and Steinhoff - commanded the post-war Luftwaffe. (Just a few, such as Gollob, and Stuka pilot Rudel, were too closely associated with the Nazis to be allowed to serve post-war). Hartman died in 1993 aged 71 from a heart condition, quite possibly exacerbated by his Soviet captivity. At least he lived long enough to see Germany re-united. As to the German aces generally: look at any list of WW2 aces. I’ve used the one on Wikipedia List of World War II air aces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which seems to be as good as any (I’ve seen a few omissions lower down the list). There over 100 German names with over 100 victories, (including fifteen with over 200) before the first non-German names - Ilmairi Jutilaanen of Finland (94) and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa of Japan (87 officially). The Allied ace of aces was Ivan Kozhedub with 62. So why were the Germans so good? I used to assume it was because the Russian planes and pilots were useless. In the first year of the war in the East there was some truth in this - the best Russian officers had been shot in Stalin’s purges; the tactics were out-dated and inflexible, the planes were obsolete, and the remaining officers were unimaginative and not prepared to question the procedures. But by 1943, it was very different. Russian tactics and training were greatly improved, their fighters such as the Lavochkin La5 and the Yak-3 were at least as good as the Me109G, and the Luftwaffe was heavily outnumbered. Even the FW190 had only a slight advantage if any - and in any case the top three German aces - Hartmann, Barkhorn and Rall - flew Me109s, as did many other aces. And Hartmann didn’t enter the war until late 1942, when the Soviets were starting to improve. And what about Hans-Joachim Marseille, who scored 158 victories against the British? (Some researchers have found that only just over 100 of his victories can be accounted for against British records - but still a high score given that he was dead by mid-‘42). Apart from concluding that these were simply very good individuals, I can only think of two explanations for the amazing scores. Firstly the German training was very thorough - Hartman spent two years in training, over a year of it in fighter school. The Luftwaffe appear to have had no sense of urgency in this until at least 1943 - but then it deteriorated and by 1944 Hartmann found 19 year-olds with only 100 flying hours posted to his unit. Secondly, the German (and Japanese) practice was to keep their top men flying in combat indefinitely, whereas the Allies, even the Russians, withdrew their top men to pass on their expertise in training and staff or propaganda work. This probably saved many of the Allies aces’ lives. But even then, perhaps because an ace has to learn to survive as well as score, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that so many of the top aces of all nations in fact survived the war. The top three German aces - Hartmann, Barkhorn and Rall - survived; Rall is still alive today aged about 90; Barkhorn died in a car crash with his wife in 1983. Possibly both owed their wartime survival to being hospitalised with injuries for substantial periods, allowing Hartmann to steam ahead in the scoring. The fourth and fifth, Kittel and Nowotny, were killed in action, but Batz (#6) and many of the other aces survived. The only thing about a book like this is that if you’re not careful you end up rooting for the Germans against the Russians! Adrian
Thank you. Adrian, for a most interesting summary. I have often wondered about the high number of claims that some Luftwaffe accrued, especially in comparison to the Allied aces. A very simplistic explanation seems to be one of opportunity. The Allied pilots had relatively short periods on the front before they and/or their units were rotated out of the frontline. And with the case of the RAF, the type and style of fighting was very different. During the Battle of Britain, the relative opportunities were limited by the weapons used - the focus was on the bombers, and it took a lot of .303 rounds to bring down a bomber (not at all like the films where a quick burst would see a plane tumble or explode). So ammo was limited and it was very rare for a pilot to get more than one aircraft per sortie. Once the fighter sweeps started across the Channel, and onto the Continent, again endurance and actually getting an opportunity to "mix it up" with the Luftwaffe was limited. By the time of the Bomber campaign most of the RAF activity, and thus the Luftwaffe's, was at night and the Luftwaffe had the upper hand in acquiring victories. On the other hand, on the Eastern front, the opportunities were greater because of sheer numbers of aircraft involved. As you point out, at the beginning Soviet tactics were hopeless - as evidenced in our previous conversations about how effective the Buffalo was in the hands of the Finns. However, even later in the war, I don't think the Soviet tactics did improve enough to keep in step with the Germans. The Germans always seemed to have the edge on learning through experience, and they seemed more adapt at passing on that knowledge and experience to the newer pilots. It is interesting to read the actual individual claims for Hartmann - it's be interesting to compare the relative merits of the aircraft flown by him against his individual opponents. Aces of the Luftwaffe - Erich Hartmann Hans-Joachim Marseille claims are also interesting as he does seem to have acquired most of his victories against inferior aircraft, especially in North Africa, with a fair number of older Hurricanes and P-40s: Hans-Joachim Marseille - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hi Kyt The list in the link you give for Hartmann's victories is more detailed as to his later victories than the list in the book (the authors were handicapped by the fact that the the second half of Hartmann's log had been confiscated by the Soviets on his capture, so they had to rely on JG52 records). But the book is more detailed as to the earlier victories. In particular, it makes a distinction between the Lagg3, which provided some of his early victories, and certainly was inferior to the 109G, and the La5, erroneously refered to as a Lagg in the link, which was a greatly improved aircraft with a performance superior to the Me109G. From July 43 onwards, his "Lagg" victories were in fact over the La5 (according to Toliver and Constable). The Yaks were not to be trifled with either. Just a few of his early victories were against seriously inferior types, including a couple of Polikarpov U2 (equivalent to the Tiger Moth) and a Polikarpov R5 (equivalent to the Hawker Hart) - but these were not typical. Many of his victories were against the P39 Airacobra. In the West we turn our noses up at these aircraft, but the Russians made good use of them. The Soviet ace Pokryshkin (who had an engineering background) scored most of his 59 victories on them and prefered them to Russian types - he was especially fond of the 37mm cannon! (I may do a thread on Pokryshkin soon). Certainly, as you say, the intensity of fighting over the Eastern Front gave much greater scope for victories than over SE England/ NW France. The situation was much more similar to the Western Front in WW1 - opposing fighter squadrons just a few minutes flying time from each other, so that they had the endurance to hang around and wait for combat. Hence, the top British (Empire) aces in WW1 had much higher scores than in WW2. As to Marseille's victories: they seem to have included over 100 P40s. Certainly these were inferior to the ME109G, but the thing here is to compare his record with other German pilots - not many came close. And when Spitfires were on the menu, he was able to deal with those too. And one other thing about Hartmann - the achievement which he was most proud of was that he never lost a wingman (except one, who survived). He saw it as his duty to break in inexperienced pilots safely. Some other aces attempted to increase their scores by plunging into the battle without regard for the fate of their wingman; Soviet leading ace Ivan Kozhedub seems to have been notorious for losing wingmen. But Hartmann pointed out that if you shoot down an enemy but lose a wingman, you've lost the battle - especially true as the Luftwaffe became outnumbered.
erich hartmann hi, i hope i am not too late to reply, but if there was ever a total hero, he is Erich Hartmann. not just for war scores but for withstanding hideous after war torture and ++++ you know what i mean. i am new to this but i love this man!! mary
Hi there. You must be interested in the German warfare like i am. Erich Hartmann,he was actually top ace of all time! He actually flew Bf 109's and shot down 352 planes on the Russian front,plus flew with JG 52 from late 1942 to end the war,Soviet POW for 10 years. Just imagine, if never been caught,he's record would have even been much higher. There is a another pilot you might be interested in,her name is Hanna Reinch. She was the ace in female pilots for the Germans first female test pilot for the Nazi's and she was very good at her job.
hi, why i am interested in Erich? because he was the best and fairest if there is such in war. a lovely young man who loved his wife and would have loved his son if given the chance. and of course very talented !!!!!!
hi, all Erich fans in melbourne!!! how about a gettogether on his birthday??? april 19th as you all know??!!!! would be nice. please email me mary
Hi Mary, I am intrigued by your interest in Hartmann. Certainly he was a remarkable pilot but you seem to have done an extensive study of his life. Firstly, what drew you to him and, secondly, how have you developed your knowledge? Has it been limited to books or have you immersed yourself beyond that? Melbourne is a long way from Germany!
