Ursula paetsch erich hartmann biography

When speaking of German fighter aces, one name immediately springs to mind: Manfred Von Richthofen, the ‘Red Baron’, who shot down 80 enemy planes during WWI. But his achievements, at least in terms of raw numbers, pale in comparison to the number of victories of today’s protagonist.

From 1942 to 1945 he flew 1,456 combat missions, always outnumbered and outgunned, during which he was credited with shooting down 352 Allied aircraft, 350 Soviet and two American.

He was forced to crash land 16 times. But, surprisingly, he was never shot down by his enemies. Instead, he suffered mechanical failures or was hit by flying debris.

Even more surprisingly, in his many missions he never lost a wingman.

And his adventures did not end after the war, as he survived imprisonment in a Soviet Gulag and later opposed the corruption of the industrial military complex.

This is the story of Erich Hartmann, known as ‘The Blonde Knight’ or ‘The Black Devil’: the deadliest fighter