Quote:
Originally Posted by krichter33
I don't know what Hartmann's real character was like. Of course I'm sure it was much more complex than portrayed in "The Blond Knight of Germany." However his reputation has not been discredited by any hard facts; only rumors, speculation, suspicions, and faulty research (Khazanov). I, for one, welcome any new proven evidence, from a historical perspective, to better understand who these pilots were. Whomever the "true" Hartmann was, until speculations and rumors can be backed by actual facts, calling him, or any other historical figure, a fraudster or questioning his character is intellectually and morally dishonest.
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Hartmann is a contradictory person. From one side it is evident that he overclaimed to a certain extent. The reason for that is unclear for the moment, was it personal ambitions or he simply did not care to observe the results of his attacks, due to speed disengagement. I saw some of the reports from our side of clashes with what was supposed to be Hartmann's Me-109. Everywhere reports say: immediate attack from above at high speed and immediate disengage without starting combat. This is a common tactics for almost all German aces and in this case real success is in marksmanship. Many of the attacked planes were not shot down but shot up, hit by one or several bullets without serious damage inflicted. Many were not hit at all. The majority of such claims were credited to Hartmann as confirmed, though the counterpart was not destoryed completely or in some cases not hit either. He prefered to attack only fighters, vulnerable to sudden interception, enjoying the superiority against ill-trained Soviet fighter pilots and inferior Soviet tactics. Thus, we have only 23 bombers and close-support planes on his account that is only 6,5 % of his score...
From another side his impeccable conduct in captivity. Many personalities were broken and somehow sided with Soviets. Hartmann never accepted any deals. I have not seen his POW dossier (It is closed for general access) but I spoke to the person, who works with POWs documents and he confirmed that almost all that written in "Blond Knight" regarding his experience in camps is more or less true, except strongly exaggerated images of the surrounding people.